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08/31/2010 - Liverpool, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Defender Paul Konchesky completed his transfer from Fulham to Liverpool on Tuesday.
Konchesky, 29, signed a four-year deal with Liverpool. Fulham acquired Dalla Valle and Alex Kacaniklic from Liverpool's reserve team as part of the deal.
Konchesky was a regular starter at Fulham since joining the club from West Ham in 2007, making nearly 100 appearances for the London club. He played two times for England earlier in his career, making his debut in 2003 and his last appearance in 2005.
<< Hoffenheim signs Icelandic midfielder Sigurdsson
Sinsheim, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Hoffenheim acquired Icelandic midfielder
Gylfi Sigurdsson from English Championship side Reading on Tuesday and signed
him to a four-year contract.
Sigurdsson, 20, scored 16 goals in 32 matches for Read
<< Chelios ends stellar career; joins Red Wings front office
Detroit, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Veteran defenseman Chris Chelios has officially
called it a career and will move into a front office role with the Detroit Red
Wings.
Chelios played in a record-tying 26th NHL season last year, a brief seven-ga
<< Alabama's Ingram to miss opener with knee injury
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) -Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram of Alabama will miss the season opener after injuring his left knee during practice.He was hurt Monday and coach Nick Saban said in a statement the star tailback had an arthroscopic procedure
<< Stuttgart signs Italian midfielder Camoranesi
Stuttgart, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Stuttgart acquired Italian midfielder
Mauro Camoranesi from Juventus on Tuesday and signed him to a one-year deal.
Camoranesi helped Italy win the 2006 World Cup and has played 54 times for his
countr
New York Giants 2010 Season Preview >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Memories are short in New York, and the city's sports
figures and teams are often judged more on present performance than on past
accomplishments. It's a train of thought Tom Coughlin can certainly relate to.
Despite havin
Tottenham acquires goalie Pletikosa on loan >>
London, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tottenham acquired Croatia goalkeeper Stipe
Pletikosa on a season-long loan from Spartak Moscow on Tuesday.
Pletikosa, 31, has played 80 matches for Croatia. He was on Croatia's 2002 and
2006 World Cup team
Jags place rookie D'Anthony Smith on IR >>
Jacksonville, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Jacksonville Jaguars placed rookie
defensive tackle D'Anthony Smith on injured reserve Tuesday.
Smith, a third-round pick out of Louisiana Tech, will miss the entire 2010
season because of an A
Quail Hollow gets 2017 PGA Championship >>
Charlotte, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte has been
awarded the 2017 PGA Championship.
The course, featuring one of the toughest three-hole finishes in golf, has
hosted a popular PGA Tour event since 2003.
I
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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