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07/14/2010 - Stuttgart, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - French Open semifinalist Jurgen Melzer was a second-round victor Wednesday at the Mercedes Cup tennis event.
The second-seeded Melzer got past Germany's own Mischa Zverev, a wild card this week, 7-5, 7-5 on the red clay at TC Weissenhof.
The Austrian lefthander Melzer will face fifth-seeded Spaniard Albert Montanes in Friday's quarterfinals. Montanes fought his way past Argentine veteran Juan Ignacio Chela 7-5, 3-6, 6-2 on Day 3.
The German faithful were treated to a victory on Day 3 when Simon Greul upended seventh-seeded Frenchman Gilles Simon 6-4, 7-5.
Unseeded Argentine Horacio Zeballos was leading fourth-seeded former world No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero, of Spain, 7-6 (7-1), 6-6 when play was suspended because of darkness. The bout will resume here on Thursday.
Also on Thursday, top-seeded Russian star Nikolay Davydenko will open his stay in Stuttgart against Spain's Daniel Gimeno-Traver.
This week's top-four seeds all enjoyed opening-round byes.
<< Johnson retires as Vandy football coach
Nashville, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Vanderbilt head football coach Bobby
Johnson announced his abrupt retirement Wednesday after eight years guiding
the program.
A press conference was called for Wednesday afternoon at which time
<< Sportswriter headlines Meadowlands Pace
East Rutherford, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Sportswriter, winner of the North
America Cup, will take on nine rivals in Saturday's $1 million Meadowlands
Pace at The Meadowlands. The field of 10 three-year-old pacers will leave the
startin
<< "Birdman" has second surgery of offseason
Denver, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Denver Nuggets announced forward-center
Chris Andersen underwent surgery on Wednesday to repair a torn ligament in
his left ring finger.
A release from the team indicated Andersen broke the fin
<< Del 'Cap features six top females
Stanton, DE (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Saturday's $750,000 Delaware Handicap has
attracted six of the leading female thoroughbreds in the nation. The winner of
the 1 1/4-mile race gains automatic entry into this year's Breeders' Cup
Ladies'
Schiavone will skip Slovenian event >>
Portoroz, Slovenia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - French Open champion Francesca Schiavone
will miss next week's WTA Tour event in Slovenia, citing a left wrist injury.
The world No. 8 was slated to be the second seed at the $220,000 Slovenia
Open.
Caps bring in Willsie >>
Arlington, VA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Washington Capitals signed right wing
Brian Willsie to a one-year contract on Wednesday. Financial terms of the deal
were not disclosed.
Willsie, 32, appeared in just four games with Colorado last sea
Sixers sign top pick Turner >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Philadelphia 76ers have signed guard
Evan Turner, the second overall selection in the 2010 NBA Draft.
No terms of the deal were released.
As a junior last season, Turner scored 20.4 points per g
Jermaine O'Neal officially headed to Boston >>
Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Boston Celtics have signed center/forward
Jermaine O'Neal.
As per team policy, no terms of the deal were announced.
However, according to a report in last week's Boston Globe, O'Neal agreed to
the mi
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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