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10/26/2007 - Oceanport, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Steady rain continues to fall at Monmouth Park early Friday afternoon as the first race of the day began. The main track was listed as muddy for the two-year-olds in the six-furlong sprint.
The turf course is listed as good. The time for the first race was 1:09 3/5 on the muddy surface.
Forefathers has been scratched from today's Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile, but not because of the weather. Trainer Bill Mott scratched the three-year-old colt from the race in order to have him go in Saturday's Breeders' Cup Sprint.
<< Blackhawks' Koci on IR after fight
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Chicago Blackhawks placed forward David
Koci and defenseman Andrei Zyuzin on the injured reserve list on Friday. They
also recalled center Dave Bolland from Rockford (AHL).
Koci, 26, left the Blackha
<< Red Wings sign C Draper to three-year extension
Detroit, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Red Wings re-signed center Kris Draper to a
three-year contract extension Friday. Financial terms of the deal were not
disclosed.
Draper, who has five goals in 10 games this season, has helped the Red
<< City out to prove itself against Chelsea
London, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Manchester City manager Sven-Goran
Eriksson has made quite a splash in his first year as manager at the club,
leading the team to seven wins in their first 10 games and a third-place
positio
<< Nets decline option on Wright
East Rutherford, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New Jersey Nets have declined to
exercise their fourth-year option on the contract of swingman Antoine Wright.
Wright will remain under contract with the Nets through the 2007-08 season,
howev
McDonald should help Celtic rebound against former club >>
Glasgow, Scotland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Scott McDonald has scored five times
in six games for Celtic, but he was not in the lineup for the team's Champions
League loss to Benfica on Wednesday.
Celtic manager Gordan Strachan said that he ne
Panthers sign D Cullimore >>
Sunrise, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Florida Panthers signed defenseman Jassen
Cullimore on a one year deal Friday and assigned him to their AHL affiliate
in Rochester on a two week conditioning stint.
The 34-year-old Cullimore has pla
Testaverde will start for Panthers vs. Colts >>
Charlotte, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Quarterback Vinny Testaverde will start
for the Carolina Panthers in Sunday's game against Indianapolis.
Head coach John Fox announced the news at Friday's practice, clearing up
whether the team
Derksen, Lucquin share lead in Mallorca >>
Mallorca, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Robert-Jan Derksen and Jean-Francois
Lucquin both fired rounds of five-under 65 Friday to move into a share of the
lead during the second round of the Mallorca Classic.
Derksen and Lucquin share t
“You play to win the game!”
Those are the words of notoriously intense head coach Herman Edwards. Unfortunately, from a bettors’ perspective, most coaches don’t feel that way about the NFL preseason. August is a time to evaluate young players, finalize the depth chart and pray your star players stay healthy.
The trick to making money during the exhibition schedule is identifying coaches – like Edwards – who can’t stand losing even when there's nothing on the line.
The New York Jets betting won 15 of 21 preseason games and went 14-7 against the spread (ATS) during Edwards’s five-year tenure with the club. In his first season as the Kansas City Chiefs field boss, the team improved from 0-4 to 2-2.
Identifying win-a-holics like Edwards is a good start if you plan betting the preseason – even though most say you shouldn’t ... but what the hell do they know anyway?
Here’s a brief rundown of two teams that have a habit of winning during the second-stringers’ season, and another club that has a good chance of exceeding this year.
Playing in the media hub of North America can be stressful but the press can’t write anything negative about the way Tom Coughlin’s boys play in the preseason. The Giants won and covered all four games last summer, improving their record to 7-1 both straight up (SU) and against the spread over the last two years.
Coughlin has shown he’s not afraid to give his starters more time in the second preseason game than most of his colleagues, no doubt one of the reasons his team has been so dominant.
Bettors can count on America’s team early on. The Cowboys are 14-6 both SU and ATS since 2002 in warm-up contests. Former coach Bill Parcells, the coach of the team the last four years, has an intimidating, in-your-face presence – surely a reason Dallas has had so much early success.
The Big Tuna won’t be strolling the sidelines with looks of disgust, but new coach Wade Phillips will be anxious to make a good first impression for owner Jerry Jones.
Dallas plays the Indianapolis Colts and the Denver Broncos before things get serious. They then face the Houston Texans in their third contest (the game starters see most game time) and finish off with the Minnesota Vikings.
Expect a Dallas team able to walk away with another 3-1 preseason record.
This team scored a league-worst 12 offensive touchdowns last season, so the rookies and veterans each have something to prove. There’s a bounty of first-unit jobs up for grabs and plenty of bodies competing for those slots.
First-time head coach Lane Kiffin will be eager to impress an owner who employs the philosophy, “Just win, baby!”
The 32-year-old Kiffin has to command respect from a locker room full of players older than him. All of these factors should lead to purpose in preseason.
Don’t forget: before playing like a team that belonged in NFL Europe, Oakland went 4-1 (both SU and ATS) in exhibition games.
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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.
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