Sports Betting News: NFL Team History | NFL Football Betting | College Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | College Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting
10/21/2007 - Carson, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - CD Chivas USA earned its first conference championship after battling to a scoreless draw with defending MLS Cup champions Houston on Saturday night at The Home Depot Center.
The improbable Western Conference crown was made even more improbable by the fact that Chivas had to play the final 50 minutes of Saturday night's game down a man after defender Lawson Vaughn received a red card from referee Baldomero Toledo for a dangerous tackle on Houston's Richard Mulrooney.
After the card, Chivas packed it in, limiting Houston to just one shot on goal the entire game.
The best scoring chance came a minute into second-half stoppage time when Chivas midfielder Sacha Kljestan took a pass from Nunez on the left side of the Houston penalty area and fired on goal, but Dynamo goalkeeper Pat Onstad did well to make the save.
With the loss, Houston (15-8-7) earns the second seed in the Western playoff bracket. It will play Texas rival Dallas in its Western Conference Semifinal Series next week.
Chivas (15-7-8) will play either Chicago, Los Angeles or Kansas City in its semifinal series, depending on the outcome on Sunday's match between the Galaxy and Fire.
<< Maltby, Zetterberg lead Detroit over Phoenix
Glendale, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Henrik Zetterberg scored a goal and assisted
on another as the Detroit Red Wings beat the Phoenix Coyotes, 5-2.
Zetterberg is leading the league with 17 points and has at least one point in
all nine games
<< LSU stuns Auburn with last-second touchdown
Baton Rouge, LA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - It was a call that took guts and kept LSU's
national title hopes alive.
Matt Flynn's 22-yard touchdown pass to Demetrius Byrd with one second left in
the game boosted fifth-ranked LSU to a 30-24 win o
<< Yale survives three OTs to beat Penn
Philadelphia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jack Siedlecki and his Yale Bulldogs didn't
care how they won on Saturday afternoon at historic Franklin Field. They were
just glad to leave town with a 26-20 triple-overtime victory over Penn in Ivy
League play.
<< Fenway Frenzy: Red Sox clobber Tribe to force Game 7
Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - J.D. Drew belted a grand slam in the opening
inning and Boston scored six times in the third to give Curt Schilling plenty
of support, as the Red Sox forced a deciding Game 7 in the American League
Champio
Nabokov, Sharks blank Predators >>
San Jose, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Evgeni Nabokov stopped all 22 shots he faced
to post his first shutout of the season as San Jose blanked Nashville, 3-0, at
HP Pavilion.
Jeremy Roenick, Patrick Marleau and Milan Michalek scored for the Sha
B.C. tops Edmonton, creeps closer to first place >>
Vancouver, BC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jarious Jackson threw for two touchdowns and
Ian Smart returned a punt 81 yards for another score as British Columbia beat
Edmonton, 37-26, damaging the playoff hopes of the Eskimos.
BC's Joe Smith scored
San Francisco49ers >>
Waived linebacker Hannibal Navies; signed fullback Zak Keasey from the practice squad.
Elway's son commits to Arizona State >>
Denver, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jack Elway, son of NFL Hall of Fame quarterback
John Elway, has committed to play football next year at Arizona State, the
Rocky Mountain News reported.
The younger Elway is currently the signal caller for Cherr
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.
Sports Betting News: NFL Team History | NFL Football Betting | College Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | College Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting