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01/19/2012 - Melbourne, Australia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Last year's champ Novak Djokovic and fifth-seeded Spaniard David Ferrer were both winners on Thursday, advancing to the third round of the Australian Open.
Djokovic, the tournament's top seed, rolled past Colombia's Santiago Giraldo 6-3, 6-2, 6-1. The world No. 1 player has now won 34 of his last 36 Grand Slam matches and is seeking a third straight Grand Slam title and a third Aussie crown.
Ferrer had a little more trouble in his match, dropping a hard-fought first set before outlasting American Ryan Sweeting 6-7 (4-7), 6-2, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3. Sweeting recorded nine double faults and hit 73 unforced errors in the loss.
Also on Thursday, France's Jo-Wilfred Tsonga, the tournament's sixth seed, defeated Ricardo Mello of Brazil 7-5, 6-4, 6-4 in straight sets, and ninth- seeded Serb Janko Tipsarevic took down Australia's own James Duckworth 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4.
A pair of seeded players were ousted in the tournament's fourth day as 32- seeded Russian Alex Bogolomov dropped the first two sets of his match before taking the next two, but faltered in the fifth set to take a marathon 6-1, 6-3, 4-6, 5-7, 6-4 defeat at the hands of France's Michael Llodra. Spain's Marcel Granollers, the 26th seed, was defeated by Portugal's Frederico Gil 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.
In other matches Thursday, 23rd-seeded Canadian Milos Raonic downed Germany's Philipp Petzschner 6-4, 5-7, 6-2, 7-5, Argentina's Juan Ignacio Chela, the 27th seed, rolled to a 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 decision over Spain's Pablo Andujar and Nicolas Mahut of France earned a 1-6, 7-6 (8-6), 6-2, 6-2 decision over Japan's Tatsuma Ito.
<< UNLV dominates TCU
Las Vegas, NV (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Anthony Marshall scored a career-high 27 and
handed out nine assists, leading No. 14 UNLV to a 101-78 throttling of TCU on
Wednesday.
Chace Stanback added 21 points while Mike Moser had 16 and 15 reboun
<< Billups' late trey lifts Clippers over Mavs
Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chauncey Billups hit his first "Big Shot"
for the Clippers, draining a go-ahead three-pointer with one second left in
regulation to give Los Angeles a 91-89 victory over the Mavericks, its first
over Da
<< Kings rally in 4th to down Pacers
Sacramento, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Francisco Garcia scored 10 of his 16 points
in the fourth quarter as the Sacramento Kings mounted a huge comeback to down
the Indiana Pacers, 92-88.
Marcus Thornton added 17 points and DeMarcus Cousins h
<< Ducks thump Coyotes
Anaheim, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Francois Beauchemin led a balanced Anaheim
attack with a pair of goals and an assist as the Ducks came away with an
emphatic 6-2 victory over the Phoenix Coyotes at Honda Center on Wednesday.
Jason
Djokovic, Murray, Hewitt move on in Melbourne >>
Melbourne, Australia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Last year's champion Novak Djokovic
and runner-up Andy Murray were among Thursday's second-round winners, as was
home favorite Lleyton Hewitt, who beat an injured Andy Roddick at the
Australian Open.
No shortage of storylines for this Super Bowl >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Sibling rivalries have always made for
great tales. Think Cain versus Abel. Romulus and Remus. Marcia and Jan.
So the prospect of brotherly warfare as the backdrop for Super Bowl XLVI should
bring some add
Kvitova, Sharapova, Serena reach 3rd round in Oz >>
Melbourne, Australia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Second-seeded Petra Kvitova and
former Australian Open champions and former world No. 1s Maria Sharapova and
Serena Williams posted second-round wins Thursday at the Australian Open.
The Wimb
Colsaerts starts strong at Volvo Golf Champions >>
George, South Africa (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Nicolas Colsaerts fired a nine-under
64 on Thursday to take the opening-round lead of the Volvo Golf Champions
event.
He owns a four-stroke cushion after round one at the par-73 Links at Fancour
My fellow Americans, as tempting as it may be to don the coat and HD-ready tie in order to deliver this State of the Game address before the cameras, I know better. As Brad Paisley sings on his latest album, "I'm so much cooler online."
The ideas for this annual essay to kick off the MySportsbook.com college football betting preview flowed like frat-house beer, which is to say they were cheap and spilled all over the floor. The 2007 season will be better than 2007, if only because there will be more of it. A year ago, the NCAA Football Rules Committee made two rule changes in the interest of speeding up the game. These changes went over like Kobe burgers at a vegan banquet.
To its credit, the rules committee rectified its mistakes. This season the clock once again will start when a kickoff is received, rather than when it is kicked, and the clock will not start so quickly on a change of possession.
However, kickoffs have been moved back five yards, to the 30, which will force more returns. (Thus forcing the clock to run. Clever, huh?) Special teams might decide a lot of games, because coaching strategy will come straight out of another new Paisley lyric (almost), I'd like to check you for kicks.
Paisley sings with a twang, which is why he's appropriate for this college football season. The sun coming up over the 2007 college football betting lines season rises from the south. It's a Southern football world. As the Southeastern Conference begins its 75th year, the power shift is noticeable.
Eight-figure budgets, glamorous settings -- and that's just for the head coaches. The SEC has four coaches who have won national championships -- the greatest aggregation of coaching know-how since Eddie Robinson dined alone.
Steve Spurrier, Phil Fulmer, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer have given lie to the idea that a conference championship game is too daunting a hurdle on the road to No. 1. In six of the past 10 seasons, the national champions played and won a conference championship game -- three of the six (Tennessee, 1998; LSU, 2003; Florida, 2007) from the SEC.
There will be more of the same this season, if the preseason prognostications are correct. Six SEC teams are in the preseason coaches' poll, more than from any other conference. Only one conference has talent so deep that a team with 15 returning starters, including the best quarterback in the league, from an eight-win season is considered an afterthought. That may speak more to Kentucky's losing legacy than to the wisdom of the predictions, but there you have it. And seriously, keep an eye on Wildcats QB Andre' Woodson.
The reach of the South extends all the way to No. 1. Take a look at the team that is a consensus pick to win the national championship. The quarterback is from Shreveport. The best wide receiver is from Nashville. The top recruit is from New Orleans.
So what's the campus doing in Los Angeles? Hey, it is the University of Southern California.
USC lost two Pacific-10 Conference games a year ago, the first time that had happened in five seasons, and university officials withstood the urge to form blue-ribbon panels to unearth the cause of such a disaster. Instead, the Trojans gathered themselves and routed Michigan, 32-18, in the Rose Bowl.
USC's losses at Oregon State and at UCLA last year should have given pause to those who question the Pac-10's football prowess (such as, without naming names, L.M. from Baton Rouge). The league only got deeper this season; Dennis Erickson is taking over an Arizona State team that never quite got out of its own way under his predecessor, Dirk Koetter.
Erickson will resume his quest to become the first coach to win a national championship at two schools. Both he and Spurrier, now in his third season at South Carolina, returned to college football at schools with lower profiles than where they won their titles.
That isn't the case for the third coach looking for the national championship double. You may have missed this, but NASA reported the astronauts on the space shuttle last spring made contact with what can only be described as beings from another galaxy.
The leader of the aliens said, "We come in peace," followed by, "So how do you think Nick Saban will do at Alabama?"
The public is reacting to the new Crimson Tide coach as if he is the Barry Bonds of college football -- beloved at home for what his fans believe he is going to do, hated on the road for his intimidating attitude and for what his detractors believe he did (bend NCAA recruiting rules). I made this comparison from the dais at a charity dinner in Mobile, Ala., last month, and the chill that washed over me didn't come from the air conditioning.
Saban will attempt to prove that he can remake in Tuscaloosa what he built in Baton Rouge, much like another member of the national championship fraternity. Bobby Bowden is attempting to remake at Florida State what he built at, um, Florida State. Bowden rebuilt his offensive staff, bringing in four new coaches led by Saban's former offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, to jump-start an offense that has been dead for a couple of years.
The Atlantic Coast Conference is expected to show new signs of life, too. That is said with no disrespect toward last season's champion, Wake Forest, which provided one of the best story lines of 2007. The Demon Deacons begin this season in their customary position, overshadowed by the Virginia Techs, Miamis and Florida States.
It's not that Wake will find it difficult to duplicate its success in 2007 as much as the feeling that success engendered. Surprising success is the narcotic of sport. It never feels quite so euphoric the next time. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has figured this out. He refers to 2007, when a league looked down upon by fans and foes alike took three undefeated teams into November, as "Cinderella."
The fairy tale may be over, but the Big East has four genuine Heisman Trophy candidates in Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm, West Virginia tailback Steve Slaton and quarterback Pat White, and Rutgers tailback Ray Rice. Rutgers, as did Wake Forest and, of course, Boise State, proved last season that the have-nots in college football occasionally have quite a lot.
The Broncos' rousing 43-42 overtime victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl has raised the profile of all schools in conferences that don't get automatic BCS bids. This season, TCU and Hawaii are the preseason favorites to burst through the BCS doors and earn an at-large bid. The Warriors return 14 starters from an 11-3 team, including quarterback Colt Brennan.
Brennan not only broke the single-season record with 58 touchdown passes in 2007, but he also led Division I-A in passing efficiency (186.0). The senior is expected to contend for the Heisman Trophy, and neither his success nor the rise of his team should come as any surprise in the 2007 season.
After all, Hawaii is the southernmost team in the country.
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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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