11/15/2008 - Homestead, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Carl Edwards won Saturday's Ford 300 at the Homestead Miami Speedway, but came up 21 points short of defending his Nationwide Series championship as Clint Bowyer clinched his first title in one of NASCAR's three national touring series with a fifth-place finish.
Edwards held off Kyle Busch in a four-lap shootout to the finish to capture his seventh Nationwide victory of the season and the 20th of his career.
Busch finished second. Brad Keselowski came in third, and Jason Leffler was fourth.
More details to follow.
<< Terps topple Tar Heels on late field goal
College Park, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Obi Egekeze booted the game-winning field
goal with 1:42 to play and the Maryland Terrapins downed the 17th-ranked North
Carolina Tar Heels, 17-15, at Byrd Stadium.
Maryland was trailing by a point when t
<< Ducks D Beauchemin out six months
Anaheim, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Anaheim Ducks defenseman Francois Beauchemin
will be out the next six months due to a torn anterior cruciate ligament in
his left knee.
Beauchemin suffered the injury during the third period of Fri
<< Harvin, Gators rout Spurrier and the Gamecocks
Gainesville, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Percy Harvin rushed for 167 yards and two
touchdowns on a mere eight carries, as No. 3 Florida further solidified itself
as a national title contender with a 56-6 thumping of Steve Spurrier's 24th-
ranked
<< The Penn isn't mightier; UNC wins
Chapel Hill, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Deon Thompson scored 17 points and grabbed
seven rebounds, and top-ranked North Carolina survived Penn 86-71 in the
season-opener for the wounded Tar Heels.
Tyler Zeller scored 18 points, and Way
Hall, Unga lead BYU past Air Force >>
Colorado Springs, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Max Hall threw a pair of touchdowns to
Austin Collie, and Harvey Unga added two scores on the ground, as 16th-ranked
BYU defeated Air Force, 38-24.
Hall completed 28-of-37 passes for 354 yards and
Burris leads Calgary to Grey Cup berth >>
Calgary, AB (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Henry Burris threw for 236 yards and a
touchdown, and rushed for 32 yards and the go-ahead touchdown as the Calgary
Stampeders held off the B.C. Lions 22-18 to win the West Division final and
advance
Bruins D Ference out 6-to-8 weeks >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Boston Bruins defenseman Andrew Ference will
miss the next 6-to-8 weeks after suffering a broken tibia in the team's
6-1 victory over the Montreal Canadiens Thursday night.
Ference was injured after b
Still unbeaten: Boise State bombards Idaho >>
Moscow, ID (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jeremy Avery rushed for a career-high 156 yards
and a pair of touchdowns on 11 carries, as the ninth-ranked Boise State
Broncos routed the Idaho Vandals, 45-10, to keep their BCS hopes alive.
Kellen Moo
MySportsbook.com favors Bears, Bengals, Chargers and Colts to remain perfect
LAS VEGAS , Sept. 28 - Two big match-ups of undefeated teams have fans salivating at the Week Four schedule in the NFL. The Chicago Bears stifling defense looks to provide a less than hospitable welcome to the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday night in a battle of two 3-0 teams in the NFC conference. In the AFC, the San Diego Chargers (2-0) head to Maryland to face the surprising Baltimore Ravens (3-0) as both try to keep pace atop the conference standings. Betting Lines makers at MySportsbook.com, online sportsbook and casino, have set the Bears as 3.5 point favorites while the Chargers are a 2.5 point bet.
Of the three remaining undefeated teams, only one, New Orleans, enters this week's game as an underdog. Despite an emotional and resounding win over Atlanta on Monday night, the Saints are a 7.5 point underdog against the struggling Carolina Panthers. Indianapolis looks to stay perfect when they face the New York Jets as a 9 point road favorite while the Cincinnati Bengals are a 6 point favorite at home to the New England Patriots.
Six teams enter the week still looking for their first win, with a seventh, Tampa Bay, on a bye week. The prospect of dropping another game would not bode well for a potential playoff run. Since 1990, just three teams -- the 1992 Chargers, 1995 Detroit Lions and 1998 Buffalo Bills -- have overcome losing their first three games of the season to earn a postseason berth. And only the Chargers managed to accomplish the feat after starting 0-4.
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your NFL football betting needs.
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 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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