Basketball Betting
 

Basketball Betting


NFL Football
NCAA Football
NCAA Basketball
MLB Baseball
NHL Hockey
Soccer
Auto
Horse Racing
Golf
Tennis
 

NBA Basketball Betting

Franchitti quickest in Indy Carb Day

Autoracing Betting Lines

05/28/2010 - Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Defending IZOD IndyCar Series champion Dario Franchitti topped the speed charts in Friday's Carb Day -- the final practice session for the Indianapolis 500.

Helio Castroneves, the pole sitter, led the way early in the one-hour session before Franchitti turned a lap of 225.574 m.p.h. Franchitti will start third in this year's Indy 500, the same position he started from when he won this race in 2007.

Castroneves, who finished fifth in practice, has an opportunity to make history at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. If the Team Penske driver wins on Sunday, not only would it be his record-tying fourth Indy 500 victory, but he would become the first driver to win back-to-back 500s twice as well.

He would join A.J. Foyt, Rick Mears and Al Unser as the race's only four-time winners.

"As far as I'm concerned, Helio can wait until I retire to join that elite group," Franchitti jokingly said. "We just don't want to beat one car and one team. We want to beat everybody, but in order to win this thing, we're going to have to go past the Penske team at some point."

Franchitti's Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammate and 2008 Indy 500 winner Scott Dixon was second quickest in practice with a lap of 225.159 m.p.h. Dixon was followed by current points leader Will Power, who was the quickest among the three Penske teams.

Dixon and Franchitti combined for 123 laps led in last year's Indy 500, but pit road mishaps for each one of the Ganassi drivers cost them an opportunity to win. Castroneves took the lead from Dixon with 59 laps remaining and held it for his third Indy 500 victory.

"Last year, both Target cars, in my opinion, were the class of the field," Franchitti said. "We did have those bad pit stops with Scott and myself, and that just goes to show you, it's a team sport. It takes every single member of the crew of any of the teams out there to have a perfect day, to have a chance at winning this thing. It's very unusual for Team Target to make a mistake like that, but it didn't take us out of contention. We would like to remind them this Sunday and try to finish the job."

Bruno Junqueira from FAZZT Race Team looked impressive in practice with the fourth fastest lap.

E.J. Viso, Dan Wheldon, Mario Moraes, Raphael Matos and Alex Tagliani completed the top-10.

Danica Patrick continued to struggle at Indianapolis with a 21st-place finish in practice. Last Saturday, Patrick endured her worst Indy 500 qualifying performance with a 23rd starting position. She had qualified no worse than 10th in her first five Indy 500 starts.

<< Lahm named Germany's captain for World Cup
Berlin, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Defender Philipp Lahm was named captain of Germany's World Cup team by coach Joachim Loew on Friday. Lahm, 26, becomes the youngest captain in German national team history. He is taking over the role from

<< Hurricanes agree to terms with D Harrison
Raleigh, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Carolina Hurricanes announced Friday an agreement with defenseman Jay Harrison on a one-year, $500,000 contract. In 2009-10, Harrison set career highs with 38 games played, one goal and five assists f

<< Astros place Norris on DL
Cincinnati, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - One day after announcing that Bud Norris will miss his next scheduled start, the Houston Astros placed the right-hander on the 15-day disabled list with bursitis and biceps tendinitis in his right arm.

<< AL Central: Cleveland a target for jokesters
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - When your team has the second-worst record in the American League and boasts the lowest attendance totals in all of baseball, you're bound to be the butt of a few jokes. That seems be the case for the Cleveland Indians, wh

<< Four comprise 2010 Hall of Fame class
Saratoga Springs, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former Horses of the Year Point Given and Azeri, along with Best Pal and retired jockey Randy Romero, have been elected to the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame. The four will be inducte

Grizzlies should move on from Randolph >>
Philadelphia, PA - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - There aren't a lot of NBA players with the ability to put up double-doubles on a consistent basis. Memphis power forward Zach Randolph is a member of that exclusive club, but it hasn't stopped him from m

Smith: Boyd is leaving Rangers >>
Glasgow, Scotland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Rangers manager Walter Smith has confirmed that star striker Kris Boyd will leave Ibrox this summer after rejecting the offer of a new contract from the SPL champions. The 26-year-old Scot

Brewers place Gerut on DL >>
Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Milwaukee Brewers have placed outfielder Jody Gerut on the 15-day disabled list with a bruised left heel. The move is retroactive to May 23. Gerut, over 32 games in mostly a reserve role, is batting

National League finally comes out ahead >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - It wasn't a monumental three days for the National League but for the first time since 2006, the Senior Circuit got the best of the American League in the first weekend of Interleague play. The 22-20 final

Mourinho to be unveiled as Real Madrid coach >>
Madrid, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Real Madrid have revealed that they will hold a press conference on Monday when Jose Mourinho will be confirmed as their new manager. The Spanish giants have agreed to a compensation package with Inter Milan

What Is the Point Spread?

What are Sports Betting Point Spreads?

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.

How to Read Point Spreads

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:

  • Philly wins the actual game by any amount of points
    OR
  • Philly loses the game by less than 7 points.

  • 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.

    For Those Who Like to Consider Things Mathematically

    Not a must, but for some a mathematical approach is insightful. You can determine the ATS winner by either:

  • Subtracting the point spread from the favorite’s score (thus the minus sign before the number) and then compare to the underdog’s score
    OR
  • Adding the point spread to the underdog’s score (thus the plus sign before the number) and then compare to the favorite’s score

    Who Really “Won” the Super Bowl odds ?

    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.