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07/24/2010 - Oakland, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Oakland Athletics placed starting pitcher Ben Sheets on the 15-day disabled list with a strained right elbow.
The move is retroactive to July 20, and the team recalled pitcher Cedrick Bowers from Triple-A Sacramento to take Sheets' place on the roster.
Sheets is 4-9 with a 4.53 earned run average in 20 starts for the A's in his first season with the club. The 32-year-old signed with Oakland in the offseason after missing all of 2009 with an injury and pitching for Milwaukee from 2001-08.
This is Sheets' seventh career stint on the disabled list, and he had made 30 starts in only half of his eight seasons prior to joining the A's.
Bowers will join the major league club for the third time this season and is 0-1 with a 4.85 ERA in 13 appearances in 2010.
<< Montoya grabs pole for Brickyard 400
Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Juan Pablo Montoya captured the pole for
the Brickyard 400 after posting the quickest lap in Saturday's qualifying at
Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Montoya edged defending race winner Jimmie Johnson fo
<< Melzer to face Golubev for Hamburg crown
Hamburg, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jurgen Melzer of Austria and Kazakhstan's
Andrey Golubev will square off for the title at the German Open after both won
semifinal matches on Saturday.
The third-seeded Melzer blitzed Italy's Andreas Se
<< Yankees activate Mitre; Gardner hospitalized
Bronx, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New York Yankees have activated pitcher
Sergio Mitre off the 15-day disabled list to start Saturday's game against the
Kansas City Royals.
Mitre had been sidelined since early June with a strained
<< Buchholz returns for Rockies
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Colorado Rockies have activated
pitcher Taylor Buchholz off the 60-day disabled list.
Buchholz has not pitched in the majors since September 9, 2008. He sat out all
of last season because of e
Brazil names Menezes new coach >>
Sao Paulo, Brazil (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Brazil named Mano Menezes the new coach
of its national team Saturday, and signed him to a contract through the 2014
FIFA World Cup in Brazil.
Muricy Ramalho was the first choice to replace Dunga, w
Manchester City signs Serbia defender Kolarov >>
Manchester, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Manchester City added its fourth new
player of the offseason Saturday, signing Serbia defender Aleksandar Kolarov
from Lazio for $25 million.
Kolarov, 24, played two games for Serbia at the recent
Colvin, Castro hit HRs as Cubs nip Cards >>
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tyler Colvin and Starlin Castro homered to
support six solid innings from Tom Gorzelanny as Chicago turned away St.
Louis, 6-5, in the middle meeting of a three-game set.
Castro finished with three h
Royals spoil Mitre's return to rotation in win over Yankees >>
Bronx, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Scott Podsednik went 3-for-4, scored once and
drove a run in, leading the Kansas City Royals to a 7-4 win over the New York
Yankees in the third installment of a four-game set.
Jose Guillen added his 16th
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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