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12/22/2006 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Just when the Boston Celtics were heating up, their leading scorer goes down with an injury.
Celtics forward Paul Pierce is expected to miss two to three weeks with a stress reaction in his left foot. Pierce has been solid in Boston's recent winning streak and first injured his foot last Friday against Denver.
Pierce, who earlier this season passed Bill Russell for seventh all-time in Celtics history in points, is averaging 26.6 points, 7.4 rebounds and 4.3 assists this season.
The Kansas product started all 24 games this season and has made 79 starts or more over the past six years. The durable Pierce will miss Friday's game against the Atlantic Division-rival Philadelphia 76ers followed by a five-game road trip out west against Denver, the Los Angeles Clippers, Golden State, Seattle and Portland.
Speaking of the Sixers, Boston lost out on the Allen Iverson sweepstakes when Philly traded the superstar and former MVP to the Denver Nuggets this week. The Celtics were interested but very unwilling to give away young talent.
Boston will look to center Al Jefferson to step up in Pierce's absence. He has averaged double figures in rebounds the last six games and will need to score the ball more often for the Celtics, who are a half game behind New Jersey for the top spot in the Atlantic Division.
<< KC bolsters staff; Henderson hangs up boots
Kansas City, MO. (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Kansas City Wizards made some moves in
the offseason to help bolster its staff on Friday with the addition of
assistant coach Kris Kelderman and goalkeeping, strength and conditioning
coach D
<< Timberwolves try to halt three-game losing streak against Bucks
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Minnesota Timberwolves will try to rebound from a
bitter ending to their most recent game when the struggling club hosts the
Milwaukee Bucks tonight at the Target Center.
Minnesota dropped a 111-94 decision to the Lo
<< Rockets visit Southwest Division-rival San Antonio
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Houston Rockets hope to end a lengthy recent lack of
success against the San Antonio Spurs when the two in-state rivals face one
another tonight at the AT&T Center.
San Antonio has thoroughly dominated this series as o
<< Hornets, Grizzlies battle at the Ford Center
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The injury-riddled New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets will
try to stop a four-game losing streak when they welcome the equally-struggling
Memphis Grizzlies to the Ford Center this evening.
The Hornets, who are without thre
Griffey breaks hand >>
Cincinnati, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Cincinnati Reds center fielder Ken Griffey
Jr. suffered a broken left hand due to an undisclosed accident at his home,
the team announced Friday.
Griffey, an 18-year veteran and 12-time All-Star, will
U.S. WNT to open 2007 against Germany >>
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The United States Women's National Team will
open the 2007 season by participating in the Four Nations Tournament from Jan.
26-30 in China.
The tourney will pit the U.S. versus some of the world's stronge
Pistons get 'Sheed back >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Detroit Pistons got one of their key players back this
week when Rasheed Wallace returned from a two-game absence to help beat the
division-rival Cleveland Cavaliers.
Wallace, who had missed the previous two wins
Aberdeen, Rangers battle for second place >>
Aberdeen, Scotland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - With league-leaders Celtic a whopping
14 points clear of the rest of the pack, it is time to start playing for
second place for the rest of the Scottish Premier League.
On Saturday, second-pla
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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