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07/19/2010 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Louis Oosthuizen parlayed his first major championship victory into a huge jump in the world rankings.
Oosthuizen cruised to a seven-stroke win at the British Open this past weekend and jumped 39 places from 54th to 15th in the world.
The top six remained the same, but there was plenty of movement behind them.
Tiger Woods held on to the top spot and was again followed by Phil Mickelson, Lee Westwood, Steve Stricker, Jim Furyk and Ernie Els.
Rory McIlroy and Paul Casey shared third behind Oosthuizen at St. Andrews and that gave both of them a two-spot bump to Nos. 7 and 8. To make room for their moves, Luke Donald and Ian Poulter both fell two places to ninth and 10th.
U.S. Open champion Graeme McDowell remained 11th and he was followed by Martin Kaymer and Anthony Kim, who exchanged places from last week. Robert Allenby held steady in 14th and he was trailed by Oosthuizen.
Retief Goosen climbed four places to 16th, while Padraig Harrington and Justin Rose fell two spots each to 17 and 18.
Sean O'Hair moved up five places to 19th, while Zach Johnson was down a pair to 20th. Camilo Villegas and Edoardo Molinari both tumbled four places out of the top 20 to 21st and 23rd, respectively.
<< Indians hope to continue to play spoiler in Minnesota
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Cleveland Indians may have little hope of finishing
in first place in the American League Central, but they've done a fine job of
hurting the postseason chances of some of the division's top teams as of late.
Riding
<< Red Sox limp into Oakland
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - While the Boston Red Sox continue to lose ground in the
American League playoff chase, the Oakland Athletics are doing their best to
stay in the hunt.
The resurgent Athletics try to extend their season-best winning streak
<< AL Central-leading White Sox continue trip in Seattle
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Chicago White Sox ended the season's first half as
the hottest team in baseball, but things haven't gotten so smoothly since the
club returned from the All-Star break.
The American League Central leaders will try to
<< Kennison retires as a Chief
Kansas City, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Long-time Kansas City wide receiver Eddie
Kennison signed a contract Monday to announce his retirement as a member of
the Chiefs.
Kennison spent seven of his 13 NFL seasons with the Chiefs, catch
Phillies aiming to get on track against first-place Cardinals >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Philadelphia Phillies have handled the St. Louis
Cardinals pretty conveniently the past few years. That may change when the
struggling Phils pay a visit to Busch Stadium Monday for the first of four
consecutive matchups w
Jimenez goes for win No. 16 in south Florida >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Both the Rockies and Marlins have struggled on offense in
the second half. Given Tuesday's pitching matchup, neither team is likely to
break out at the plate on Monday night.
National League All-Star starter Ubaldo Ji
Dodgers head home to face Giants >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - After getting swept in four games at St. Louis over the
weekend, the Los Angeles Dodgers are back at home and will try to regroup in
tonight's opener of a three-game set versus the NL West-rival San Francisco
Giants at Chavez
Mets' Pelfrey seeks turnaround against Diamondbacks >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - After winning 10 of his first 15 starts of the season, New
York Mets right-hander Mike Pelfrey has fallen on hard times. Pelfrey will try
to bounce back when he takes the mound Monday in the opener of a three-game
series agai
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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