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08/19/2007 - Hamburg, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Rafael van der Vaart converted a penalty kick in the second half to help Hamburg to a 1-0 defeat of Bayer Leverkusen while Tommy Bechmann scored a pair of goals to lead Bochum to a 2-1 victory over Energie.
Van der Vaart's goal in the 64th minute broke a scoreless deadlock to allow Hamburg to join Bayern Munich as the only two teams to have won their first two Bundesliga contests.
Hamburg is looking to rebound from a disappointing campaign last season and now sits in second place in the standings after a 1-0 win against Hannover in the opening week and Sunday's win against Bayer Leverkusen.
Bechmann, meanwhile, has given Bochum four points from its first two games as he has tallied a league-leading three goals in his first two contests this season.
He scored once in Bochum's 2-2 draw with Werder Bremen last week, and has now taken over the lead in goals with two more Sunday. Bechmann got Bochum off to a good start with a goal in the 14th minute, and he put the club ahead by two goals before halftime with a strike in the 42nd minute. Ervin Skela pulled Energie to within a goal early in the second half but Bochum held off the home side to keep Energie from taking any points away from the contest.
<< Ilonen claims second win of '07
Stockholm, Sweden (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mikko Ilonen birdied the par-three 18th
Sunday, then watched as Martin Kaymer closed with a double-bogey.
Kaymer's closing double handed Ilonen his second win of the season. Ilonen
completed the eve
<< Miller's double allows Celtic to slip past Aberdeen
Aberdeen, Scotland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kenny Miller scored two goals in the
game's final five minutes to give Celtic a 3-1 win against Aberdeen at
Pittodrie Stadium on Sunday.
The two teams were deadlocked at 1-1 heading into the
<< Zambrano, Cubs resume critical series with Cards at Wrigley
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Fresh off a new contract extension, Chicago Cubs ace
Carlos Zambrano will take the ball tonight in the third test of a four-game
series against the St. Louis Cardinals at Wrigley Field.
Zambrano agreed to a five-year cont
<< Tribe goes with C.C. against Devil Rays
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Lefty C.C. Sabathia faces one of his all-time favorite foes
today when the Cleveland Indians visit the Tampa Bay Devil Rays for the finale
of a three-game series at Tropicana Field.
A 27-year-old Californian, Sabathia is
Rain postpones Cup race >>
Brooklyn, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Sunday's NASCAR Nextel Cup race at the
Michigan International Speedway was postponed due to rain. The 3M Performance
400 has been pushed back until Monday and the green flag is scheduled to drop,
weather
Blue Jays down O's on Hill's sac fly in 10th >>
Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Aaron Hill hit a sacrifice fly in the bottom
of the 10th to lift the Toronto Blue Jays past the Baltimore Orioles, 3-2, in
the finale of a three-game series at Rogers Centre.
Vernon Wells scored the game-
Teixeira homers twice in Braves win over Arizona >>
Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mark Teixeira blasted two home runs and
drove in four runs, and John Smoltz hurled eight solid innings as Atlanta
downed Arizona, 6-2, in the finale of a three-game set at Turner Field.
Smoltz (11
Mets swat Nats to complete sweep >>
Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Carlos Beltran went deep twice and knocked
in four runs as the New York Mets pulled away late to down the Washington
Nationals, 8-2, and complete a three-game sweep at RFK Stadium.
Shawn Green and Ma
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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