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06/06/2010 - Fort Worth, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Six days after crashing in the Indianapolis 500, Ryan Briscoe from Team Penske bounced back in the IZOD IndyCar Series with an impressive win in Saturday's Firestone 550k at Texas Motor Speedway.
Briscoe, the pole sitter, led 102 of 228 laps, but had to hold off a hard- charging Danica Patrick in the closing laps. The Aussie finished 1.46 seconds ahead of Patrick for his first victory of the season and the sixth of his IndyCar career. He also gave team owner Roger Penske his fourth win in the last five races at Texas.
Patrick's second-place finish followed her sixth-place run in the Indy 500. Her Andretti Autosport teammate, Marco Andretti, finished third, while Target Chip Ganassi Racing drivers Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti, the reigning Indy 500 champion, completed the top-five.
Franchitti appeared to be on his way to a second-straight victory after leading 86 laps, but he fell back in the field after a late-race round of pit stops. He took over the points lead after Penske's Will Power finished 14th. Power had led in the championship standings since the start of the season.
Rookie Simona de Silvestro suffered a minor burn on her right hand after she made hard contact with the wall and then her No.78 car caught on fire. Track safety crews quickly assisted in getting her out of the heavily damaged car.
Helio Castroneves, the defending race winner, was involved in a crash with Mario Moraes during the mid-stages and ended up finishing 20th.
<< Tolbert's single in ninth sends Twins over A's
Oakland, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Matt Tolbert drove in the game-winning run in
the ninth to help the Minnesota Twins take a 4-3 victory over the Oakland
Athletics in the second of a three-game set.
Delmon Young finished the game with th
<< Moor goal propels Rapids to win over Crew
Commerce City, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Colorado Rapids earned a hard-fought
1-0 win over the Columbus Crew at Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Major League
Soccer action on Saturday night.
Drew Moor scored the game's only goal in the 85th
<< Keselowski kicks off double-duty weekend with Nashville win
Lebanon, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Brad Keselowski outraced fellow Sprint Cup
Series competitor Carl Edwards to win Saturday's Federated Auto Parts 300 at
Nashville Superspeedway.
Keselowski led 97 laps after starting from the 24th s
<< Fire edge Union at Toyota Park
Bridgeview, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Chicago Fire earned a 2-1 win over the
Philadelphia Union in Major League Soccer action at Toyota Park on Saturday
night.
Goals by Baggio Husidic and Marco Pappa on each side of the half were enou
Milledge saves Pirates in win over Giants >>
Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Andrew McCutchen went 4-for-5 with a home
run, two doubles and three runs scored, and Lastings Milledge made a diving
catch on the final play to preserve Pittsburgh's 6-3 decision over the San
Francisco
Braves use big seventh inning to beat Dodgers >>
Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Troy Glaus' two-run homer and a two-run
double by Brian McCann keyed a seven-run seventh inning, as the Braves came
away with a 9-3 win over the Dodgers in the third of four games from Chavez
Ravine.
Katsumasa Miyamoto wins Japan's Tour Championship >>
Kasama, Japan (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Japan's Katsumasa Miyamoto closed with a
four-over 75 Sunday, but it was enough for him to win the Japan Golf Tour
Championship by three strokes.
Miyamoto finished his eighth Japan Tour victory at f
Yankees try to stave off sweep attempt from Blue Jays >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - In a pivotal American League East battle, the Toronto Blue
Jays will try to complete a sweep of the New York Yankees in today's final
matchup of a three-game set at the Rogers Centre.
If the Blue Jays are going to finish o
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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