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01/27/2012 - La Jolla, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kyle Stanley posted a four-under 68 Friday to take sole possession of the lead after the second round of the Farmers Insurance Open.
Stanley, a first-round co-leader, finished 36 holes at 14-under 130 and missed the tournament record by a stroke. He leads by one shot over Brandt Snedeker, who fired an eight-under 64 on Friday.
Stanley played on the South Course at Torrey Pines, while Snedeker played the much easier North Course. Golfers played both courses over the first two days, but the South Course will host the weekend rounds.
Sang-Moon Bae and Martin Flores both shot rounds of five-under 67 on Friday at the South Course and share third at 12-under 132.
Reigning FedEx Cup champion Bill Haas carded a one-under 71 at the South Course and is tied for fifth with Hunter Mahan, who fired a seven-under 65 at the North Course. The pair is knotted at minus-10.
First-round co-leader Spencer Levin struggled to a four-over 76 at the South Course and fell into a tie for 20th at six-under par.
Phil Mickelson, a three-time champion who opened with a five-over 77 on Thursday, missed the cut despite shooting a four-under 68 on Friday. Mickelson finished at one-over par, which was three shots off the cut line.
MORE TO FOLLOW.
<< Wade back after 6-game absence
Miami, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade will make his return
to the lineup on Friday night against the New York Knicks.
Wade has missed the last six games with a right ankle/leg injury suffered in a
January 13 loss at Denve
<< Browns hire Childress as OC
Berea, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Cleveland Browns named former Minnesota
Vikings head coach Brad Childress offensive coordinator on Friday.
Childress becomes the first offensive coordinator under Browns head coach Pat
Shurmer.
Amon
<< Dolphins hire new offensive and defensive coordinators
Miami, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Miami Dolphins new head coach Joe Philbin chose
his coaching staff on Friday, naming Mike Sherman as offensive coordinator and
Kevin Coyle as defensive coordinator.
Sherman has spent the last four years as the
<< PSG resumes Ligue 1 play without Pastore
Brest, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - PSG has continued its spending spree with the
signings of Brazilian defenders Alex and Maxwell, but will be without its most
expensive addition, Javier Pastore, on Saturday at Brest.
Pastore, acquired for app
Rockets G Martin out against Washington >>
Houston, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Houston Rockets leading scorer Kevin Martin
has been ruled out of Friday's game against the Washington Wizards with
plantar fasciitis in his right foot.
In 18 games so far this season, Martin is ave
Blackhawks acquire Morrison from Flames >>
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Chicago Blackhawks gained a veteran center
on Friday by acquiring Brendan Morrison from the Calgary Flames in exchange
for defenseman Brian Connelly.
The 36-year-old Morrison had spent the past 1 1/2 s
Magic's Nelson leaves game >>
New Orleans, LA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Orlando Magic guard Jameer Nelson left
Friday's game against the New Orleans Hornets with a sore jaw.
Nelson took a charge late in the second quarter and fell to the floor. He
stayed down for a minute befor
Sixers hand Bobcats 7th straight loss >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Bobcats coach Paul Silas wasn't on the
court Friday night to see his team lose a season-high seventh straight game.
Ejected during a timeout, he missed the last 2 1/2 quarters of another bleak
loss.
In any football or basketball game (the main sports that use point spreads) there are two teams playing against each other.
Those teams, though, are rarely exactly evenly matched – meaning that typically one team has a better chance than the other to win the game. If bettors were allowed to bet on who was simply going to win the game, smart ones would obviously bet on the better team (likely winning more than 50% of the time in the process).
If winning were that easy the Las Vegas and online sportsbooks would stop taking any bets! This is where the point spread comes in: the basic function of the point spread is to balance the likelihood of each team “winning” by adjusting the final score by the point spread. After this adjustment is made you get the Against The Spread result (ATS result for short).
Let’s look at Super Bowl XXXIX, New England Patriots vs. Philadelphia Eagles. Most people believed the defending champ Patriots to be the better team – so if betting were simply based upon which team would win the game, an uneven majority of people would have wagered on New England. But, by using the point spread, the bookmakers adjusted the terms of the bet, evening the proposition so about half the people believed the Pats to be the smart bet, while the other half considered Philly to be the smart bet.
New England Patriots -7 vs. Philadelphia Eagles
The better team, called the Favorite, is expected to win the game and must “give” or “lay” points to the weaker team. The favorite is listed with a minus sign and the number of points they are favored by (e.g., New England -7)
In the case of our example, New England must not only win the game, but they must win by more than 7 points for Pats bettors to have a winning ATS result. An Eagles bettor wins his bet either if:
There was also the possibility that the final score could land exactly on the spread number (for example, the Pats winning 28-21 when -7), which is called a “push” or “no action” and a refund is then issued to bettors of both teams.
The same game with the same point spread can be considered from the weaker team’s perspective: The Underdog (Philly in the case of our example) is not expected to win the game and online football betting thus receives or “gets” points given by the stronger team. When a game is stated from the underdog’s perspective the team is listed with a plus sign and the number of points they are underdogs by:
Philadelphia Eagles +7 vs. New England Patriots
Keep in mind that Philadelphia +7 and New England -7 is the same point spread on the same game, simply stated differently. The first is from the underdog’s perspective; the later is from the favorite’s.
Not a must, but for some a mathematical approach is insightful. You can determine the ATS winner by either:
Let’s look at the actual result of Super Bowl XXXIX: New England 24 Philadelphia 21
The favorite, New England, won the game but not by more than the point spread they were favored by (7), so the ATS result was a LOSS for Pats bettors.
Looking at it from the underdog’s perspective, Philly did not win the game, but they lost by less than the point spread (7), so the ATS result was a WIN for Eagle bettors.
Mathematically considered, 24 for the favorite Pats minus 7 equals 17, which is less than the 20 the Eagles scored, so the underdog Eagles win the ATS result (or you could figure 20 plus 7 equals 27 for the Eagles, which is more than 24 for the Pats).
Emily’s boyfriend understood the point spread and wagered $100 on the Eagles at +7. The Eagles may not have gotten a Super Bowl ring, but since they won the ATS result Emily’s boyfriend cashed his bet – giving him money to take her out to a nice dinner.
And now hopefully you understand how to read point spreads, putting you one step closer to joining the fun of sports betting.
To visit this internet sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting and World Series odds.
Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"
A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."
Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.
In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.
"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."
Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.
But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"
Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.
This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.
Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.
In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.
No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.
And that's all any bettor can ask for.
To visit this sports book go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs.
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