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01/29/2007 - New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Florida and Wisconsin kept the top two spots in the Associated Press men's college basketball poll for the third straight week.
Florida (19-2) received 45 first-place votes, three more than last week, and a total of 1,773 points from a national media panel to remain the top-ranked team in the country. The defending national champs beat Mississippi State and Auburn last week to run their winning streak to 12 straight games.
Wisconsin (21-1) has the nation's longest winning streak at 17 games after beating Michigan and Iowa last week. The Badgers, off to the best start in school history, earned 24 first-place votes and 1,734 points.
UCLA's surprising loss to Stanford on Sunday dropped the Bruins two spots to fifth and allowed North Carolina and Ohio State to each move up a spot.
North Carolina (19-2) picked up the remaining three first-place votes to take the third spot this week, while Ohio State (18-3) slid into the fourth slot.
Kansas, Pittsburgh, Duke, Oregon and Texas A&M rounded out the top 10. A&M dropped four spots after last Wednesday's loss at Texas Tech.
Memphis started the second 10 and was followed by Oklahoma State, Butler, Marquette, Nevada, Virginia Tech, Air Force, Washington State, Alabama and Arizona.
Virginia Tech had the biggest jump in the poll, vaulting eight spots from 24th after road wins at Miami-Florida and Georgia Tech, while Alabama had the biggest fall, dropping seven spots from 12th after losing to Auburn and Arkansas.
The last five teams ranked were Notre Dame, Texas, Stanford, Vanderbilt and Clemson. The Tigers, who started the season 17-0, have lost four of their last five and dropped six spots after losses last week to Duke and Virginia.
Texas returned to the poll for the third different time this season, while Stanford and Vanderbilt earned ranking spots for the first time this year.
Stanford won home games against Southern California and UCLA this past weekend to earn its spot, while Vanderbilt has won four straight, including victories last week against LSU and Ole Miss. Vandy will get its first test as a ranked team on Wednesday with a visit to Gainesville against the top-ranked Gators.
LSU followed up last Wednesday's 63-54 setback against Vandy with a 57-54 loss at Georgia on Sunday. It was the third straight loss for the Tigers, who started the year ranked fifth after their Final Four appearance last year and dropped out of the poll for the first time this season.
Indiana and Southern California also fell out of the poll after one-week stays. The Hoosiers lost their first game as a ranked team last Tuesday with a 51-43 setback at Illinois, then followed it up with a win against Michigan. The Trojans also lost their first game as a ranked team with a 65-50 setback at Stanford, then squeezed out a 76-73 win at California on Saturday.
The Pac-10 features a pair of games on Thursday with ranked teams facing each other, as Washington State visits Arizona and UCLA hosts Oregon. The Ducks handed the Bruins their first loss of the season on January 6 with a 68-66 triumph at McArthur Court.
Saturday's schedule includes a Big 12 battle between top-10 teams Texas A&M and Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse.
<< Record-seeking Woods solidifies No. 1 ranking
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tiger Woods' win at the Buick Invitational
on Sunday increased his overall lead in the Official World Golf Ranking.
The victory was Woods' fifth at Torrey Pines and his seventh straight title in
PGA Tour s
<< This Week in Golf - February 1st through February 4th
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - PGA TOUR -
FBR OPEN, TPC Scottsdale, Scottsdale, Arizona - Every fall, the Florida Gators
and Georgia Bulldogs get together for a college football game. In some
circles, that game is referred to as
<< Gordon, Nash awarded NBA weekly honors
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chicago Bulls guard Ben Gordon and Phoenix
Suns guard Steve Nash were named the Eastern and Western Conference
Players of the Week, respectively, for the week ending January 28.
Gordon averaged
<< For Bears Players, It's a Labor of Lovie
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Either the Chicago Bears or Indianapolis Colts is destined
to be saddled with a disappointing defeat on Feb. 4th, a fact with which there
can be no argument.
The bigger loser, however, might just be NFL Films.
Splicing
Baghdatis wins opener in Zagreb >>
Zagreb, Croatia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Seeing his first action since losing in the
second round at the Australian Open two weeks ago, second-seeded Cypriot
Marcos Baghdatis was among the Day-1 winners at the Zagreb Indoors.
The 2006 Aussi
Super Bowl XLI: Proposition Wagering >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Last week, I detailed some reasons why the
Bears have a decent shot at upsetting the Colts in Super Bowl XLI. This week,
I'll delve into the fun part of the big game: Prop betting.
Las Vegas and most offsh
Mayer wins round-robin match at Delray Beach >>
Delray Beach, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Fifth-seeded German Florian Mayer was
among Monday's round-robin winners at the Delray Beach International Tennis
Championships.
Mayer mauled Russian Igor Kunitsyn 6-1, 6-3 at the Delray Beach Tennis Cente
Guga loses in his return >>
Vina del Mar, Chile (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former three-time French Open champion
Gustavo Kuerten was among Monday's round-robin losers at the clay-court
Movistar Open.
Spaniard Oscar Hernandez topped the former top-ranked Kuerten 7-6 (7-2), 7-6
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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.
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