Sports Betting News: NFL Team History | NFL Football Betting | College Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | College Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting
07/24/2010 - Edmonton, Canada (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Will Power won the pole for Sunday's Honda Indy Edmonton, while his teammate, Helio Castroneves, qualified on the outside pole to give Team Penske another front row start in the IZOD IndyCar Series this season.
Power rounded the 1.96-mile, 14-turn Edmonton City Centre Airport course in one minute, 0.7126 seconds for his sixth pole of the season and the eighth of his IndyCar career. He started on the pole and won his first IndyCar race one year ago at Edmonton.
"It's awesome to get the car on the pole again," Power said. "All the points count, and I know here it's important to be at the front, because it is tough to pass. If all the strategy goes well, like it did last year, it makes it easier to win. It's a long day tomorrow. We have a good starting spot, and we have to keep going to win this championship."
Castroneves came up short of winning the pole by qualifying 0.0765 seconds behind Power.
"We had a very good lap out there, and I just made a little mistake, and this place is about not making mistakes," Castroneves said.
Team Penske has dominated qualifying in the series this season by winning the pole for nine of the last 10 races. Last weekend at Toronto, Justin Wilson ended Penske's streak of eighth consecutive poles.
Scott Dixon, who won the inaugural 2008 IndyCar race at Edmonton, qualified third, while his Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammate and defending series champion, Dario Franchitti, took the fourth spot.
Power will attempt to win a series record-tying third consecutive race. He won on the street/road courses at Toronto and Watkins Glen, NY earlier this month. The Australian driver currently holds a 43-point lead over Franchitti.
Ryan Briscoe from Penske and KV Racing's E.J. Viso will share the third row.
Rookie Simona de Silvestro, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Wilson and Raphael Matos completed the top-10.
Danica Patrick did not make it out of the first of three qualifying sessions and will start 21st in the 25-car field.
Canadians Paul Tracy and Alex Tagliani qualified 15th and 19th, respectively.
<< Suzuki, Cust power A's past White Sox
Oakland, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kurt Suzuki had three hits, including a home
run, to lead the Oakland Athletics in a 10-2 rout of the Chicago White Sox in
the second of three games at Oakland Coliseum.
Suzuki, who signed a contract extens
<< Bayne claims Nationwide pole at ORP
Clermont, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Trevor Bayne won his second consecutive pole
in the Nationwide Series by posting the fastest lap in Saturday's qualifying
for the Kroger 200 at O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis.
Bayne turned a lap of
<< Giants place Affeldt on disabled list
Phoenix, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The San Francisco Giants have placed pitcher
Jeremy Affeldt on the 15-day disabled list with a left oblique strain.
The veteran left-hander has appeared in 37 games in relief this season and has
posted a rec
<< New York's Barajas leaves game
Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mets catcher Rod Barajas left Saturday's
game against Los Angeles in the sixth inning with a strained right oblique.
The veteran receiver had singled in a run to cut the Dodgers' lead to 2-1 and
was re
Loney's HR in 13th gets Dodgers past reeling Mets >>
Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - James Loney hit the game-winning home run
in the bottom of the 13th to lift Los Angeles to a 3-2 win over New York in
the third meeting of a four-game set.
George Sherrill (1-1) tossed a scoreless
Isner, Fish reach final in Atlanta >>
Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Second-seeded American John Isner advanced to
the final of the Atlanta Tennis Championships after defeating Kevin Anderson
in three sets.
Isner will have an opportunity for his second career title agai
Giants' Velez hit by foul ball >>
Phoenix, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - San Francisco Giants outfielder Eugenio Velez
left Saturday's game against Arizona after being hit in the head by a foul
ball.
During the top of the fourth inning, the Giants' Pat Burrell fouled a bal
Houston's struggles continue at Columbus >>
Columbus, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Columbus Crew extended their lead atop
Major League Soccer's Eastern table with a 3-0 win over the Houston Dynamo on
Saturday night at Crew Stadium.
Edgar Renteria scored in the first half, and An
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.
Sports Betting News: NFL Team History | NFL Football Betting | College Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | College Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting