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06/11/2007 - New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez and Detroit Tigers slugger Gary Sheffield were selected as the American League's top players for the week ending June 10.
Rodriguez notched his second Player of the Week honor this year after posting a batting average of .400 with a .960 slugging percentage and a .515 on-base percentage. He belted four home runs, drove in 16 runs and scored seven times in seven games last week.
The two-time AL MVP, who registered five multi-RBI performances last week, also shared the honor in the first week of the season with Angels outfielder Vladimir Guerrero.
Sheffield also connected for four homers with 11 runs batted in last week, while batting .417 with a 1.000 slugging percentage. He put together three multi-RBI efforts in six games last week.
Others considered for the award included Yankees outfielder Bobby Abreu, who batted .500 with a homer and nine runs batted in; Boston pitcher Curt Schilling, who came within an out of his first career no-hitter; and Cleveland ace C.C. Sabathia, who was 1-0 with 14 strikeouts in 18 innings.
<< Legendary Vols coach Ray Mears passes away
Knoxville, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The winningest coach in University of
Tennessee history, Ray Mears, died Monday at NHC Health Care Center in
Knoxville. He was 80 years old.
The Dover, Ohio native led the Vols to a 278
<< Austin up to No. 81 in world rankings
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Woody Austin jumped 92 places to No. 81 in
the latest Official World Golf Ranking following his win Sunday at the
Stanford St. Jude Championship.
In Europe, Richard Green's victory at the BA-CA Ope
<< Schiavone, Shaughnessy reach second round in Spain
Barcelona, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Top-seeded Italian Francesca Schiavone
and sixth-seeded American Meghann Shaughnessy highlighted Monday's first-round
winners at the inaugural $145,000 Barcelona KIA tennis event.
Schiavone was leadin
<< Montana State tabs Ash to lead football program
Bozeman, MT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Montana State has named Rob Ash as its new head
football coach.
Ash spent the past 18 seasons at Drake University and also coached at Division
III Juniata College for nine years. He has an overall coaching
Cubs place Ramirez on DL >>
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Chicago Cubs placed infielder Aramis
Ramirez on the 15-day disabled list on Monday with left patellar tendinitis,
retroactive to June 7. Also, the club reinstated outfielder Cliff Floyd from
the ber
Bonds falls out of top three in OF voting for All-Star Game >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - San Francisco slugger Barry Bonds has fallen
out of the top three in the voting for the National League All-Star Game,
putting him in danger of not starting and possibly not even being selected to
play in
Phillies' Eaton shuts down White Sox >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Adam Eaton tossed seven shutout innings
to lead the Philadelphia Phillies to a 3-0 blanking of the Chicago White Sox
in the opener of a three-game interleague series at Citizens Bank Park.
Pat Burrel
Ibanez lifts Mariners over Indians >>
Cleveland, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Raul Ibanez capped a huge offensive night by
driving in the go-ahead run in the top of the ninth as the Seattle Mariners
defeated the Cleveland Indians, 8-7, at Jacobs Field.
Ibanez went 4-for-5 with two
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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