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Bobcats welcome hapless Nets to CharlotteBasketball Betting Lines02/16/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Charlotte Bobcats will try to keep up their outstanding home play this season at Time Warner Cable Arena tonight versus a New Jersey Nets club that hasn't won on the road in over two months. The Bobcats come out of the All-Star break having won 10 of their last 12 at home, helping them post a 19-6 mark as the host this season. They bested the Wizards in their most recent game in Charlotte last Tuesday, then secured a thrilling 93-92 victory at Minnesota on Wednesday. Nazr Mohammed clinched the victory on a dunk with 5.3 seconds left after securing the rebound off a Boris Diaw missed jumper. Mohammed posted a double- double with 21 points and a season-high 20 rebounds, while Diaw ended with 15 points and five assists. "We came out really aggressive at the beginning of the game," Tyson Chandler told NBA.com. "But in the second half we got a little lax, had a few turnovers and they were able to build confidence. And when you give a young team confidence, they were able to stay in the game. They made it close." Stephen Jackson led the club with 33 points, while D.J. Augustin made his first start of the season and posted 12 points and seven assists. Augustin was playing in place of Raymond Felton, who sat out due to a sprained right ankle. He is questionable for tonight's game. Gerald Wallace shot just 1-for-9 versus the Timberwolves, ending with five points and nine rebounds for Charlotte, which is sixth in the Eastern Conference, 2 1/2 games back of Toronto. Wallace, the Bobcats' lone and first- ever All-Star representative, shot 1-for-3 in the East's 141-139 victory on Sunday, adding three boards in 15:32 of action. The 6-foot-7 Wallace has been a terror on the glass versus the Nets this year, as he has a career-best 20 rebounds in both meetings with New Jersey this year. He had 24 points and 20 boards in a 79-68 home win over the Nets on November 2, but he wasn't able to rebound his club to a victory in New Jersey on December 4. That 97-91 win by the Nets snapped their season-opening 18-game losing streak and the club will try to end another lengthy skid this season tonight versus Charlotte. New Jersey dropped a 97-77 decision to Milwaukee on Wednesday in its last game before the break, its eighth straight loss and 19th in its last 20 games. The Nets have won five of their last seven versus the Bobcats, as well as eight of the last 10 meetings at Charlotte. They hope that past success will help them halt a 15-game road skid tonight and give them their first victory as the visiting team since their only road win this year (1-27) on Dec. 8. Devin Harris had 27 points and nine assists versus the Bucks, but he also accounted for five of the Nets' 17 total turnovers. Yi Jianlian added nine points and 12 boards, as New Jersey played in front of just over 1,000 fans due to a snowstorm in the northeast. "I'm not sure exactly what happened, but this is the first time in I think eight or nine games where we didn't compete in the second half," interim coach Kiki Vandeweghe told NBA.com. "I'm not sure exactly what happened...people looked very tired to me." The Nets are just 4-48 on the season and their goal following the All-Star break will be to avoid breaking the NBA mark for the worst single-season record held by the 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers, who went 9-73 that year.
<< Spartans and Hoosiers do battle in Bloomington
Bloomington, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 11th-ranked Michigan State Spartans have made their way to Bloomington for this evening's Big Ten Conference clash with the Indiana Hoosiers. Michigan State reached the 20-win plateau on Saturday with a
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Iverson set to return for Sixers vs. All-Star MVP Wade and Heat >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - After helping lead the East to an All-Star Game victory on Sunday, Miami's Dwayne Wade will now try to guide his club back to the postseason. Leading his team to its first win at Philadelphia in over four years would be a goo
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Sportsbooks to bet on footballRecently I had an email debate with an angry reader who said I did not understand "the science of oddsmaking", as he called it. He said I was wrong for suggesting oddsmakers care about who wins or loses games. "Oddsmakers only care about splitting the betting public 50/50 on both sides of the line and keeping the commission (a.k.a. juice)," he wrote. He might have been right about not understanding "the science of oddsmaking". After all, I'm not an oddsmaker. That said, I stick to my assertion that oddsmakers (a.k.a. sportbooks) often do care about who wins games. Granted, as a general rule, sportsbooks try to balance their action so that they're not exposed to big losses. However, there are times when this is difficult to pull off, regardless of how much a line has moved. There are also times when that general rule is ignored and a book pursues risk. Generally speaking, it's safe to say the books in Vegas are risk-adverse. Unlike in the past when the wise guys ruled the town, Vegas is now corporate and the goal of most casinos is to make as much money as possible with as little risk as possible. Thus, Vegas sportsbooks try everything in their power to balance the action. They're satisfied simply collecting the juice. But these profits are small, especially compared to the take from other casino games, namely slot machines. Because the profits at Vegas sportsbooks are so small, you could argue that many casinos operate sportsbooks simply as a novelty to keep the tourists happy. With a growing aversion to risk, it should come as no surprise that Vegas bookmakers have been panicking this NFL season. Despite huge pointspreads, a disproportionate percentage of bettors are still laying their money on favorites like the Eagles, Colts, Pats and Vikings rather than the dogs (a common trend for the largely recreational bettors that visit Vegas). And much to the dismay of the books, those favorites are finding ways to cover the thick chalk. In fact, prior to Week 7, the four teams listed above are a combined 16-2-2 (88 percent) against the spread. (The tables turned dramatically in Week 7, but more on that later.) The result has been an early-season beating for the books, and a bonanza for bettors. While Vegas increasingly hates risk, it's no longer a major player in the sports betting world. Most of the betting action now takes place offshore where sportsbooks are not as obsessed about balance. In fact, some books encourage exposure to risk because the rewards can be so much bigger. Consider MySportsbook.com. On its website, the book has odds pages which actually display the amount of action it's getting on games. In other words, you can see how much action the book is taking on both sides of a pointspread, moneyline or over/under. One look at these numbers and it's obvious MySportsbook.com does not balance every game. In fact, far from it. Take last weekend's matchup between St. Louis and Miami. By game time on Sunday, 83 percent of the betting action at MySportsbook.com was on the Rams; only 17 percent was on Miami. What's interesting is that MySportsbook.com opened the pointspread with Miami at +6 1/2. By game time, the spread had lowered to +5. That goes contrary to the balancing theory. If MySportsbook.com had wanted to balance the action, it would have given Miami more points; instead, it took away 1 1/2. World Series odds are now up as well. MySportsbook.com exposed itself to even more to risk, and rolled the dice on the underdog Dolphins. Why? I contacted a representative with the book to find out. His answer was simple. "The line moved early based on 'smart money' from sharp players," said Jeff Gilroy, a spokesperson for the book. "We also knew from early in the week that we would need Miami, therefore (we dropped) the spread to encourage Rams money. "At the end of the day, we liked the home team." So the conclusion is this: MySportsbook.com respected the sharp action, and gambled that the sharp bettors had a better take on the game than the recreational bettors, who were hammering the visiting Rams. In the end, the gamble paid off. Miami, desperate for a win in front of its home fans, pounded the overrated Rams, who are terrible on the road and even worse on grass. Final score: 31-14 Fish. MySportsbook.com was also heavily exposed on numerous favorites in Week 7, including Philadelphia, Seattle and Denver. All three failed to cover. The fact that sportsbooks are exposed to risk on certain games is really nothing new. The fact, that Sportsbook.com is willing to show the public where it's exposed is intriguing. Armed with this type of information, bettors can make more educated wagers. They can get an idea where the sharp money is going and conversely where the public money is headed. MySportsbook.com is opening up its cashbox, letting bettors look inside and challenging them to take their best shot at grabbing the cash. To visit this online football betting got to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting odds needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards. |
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