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QUESTIONS - British Open edition
I think he might be my favorite golfer in the world right now. When nobody ever makes a move at Tiger, DiMarco does. He went through his fair share of tragedy leading up to the British with his mom suddenly dying July 4th. It makes me giddy that he will almost certainly make the Ryder Cup team and if he's not one of the top 10, Tom Lehman would single-handedly redefine the word "stupid."
3.) Did you catch something Peter Alliss said on the air?
Alliss was talking about why Woods is so good and at one point referenced his "Oriental" background. Oops. I don't think it's too much for a guy with his experience to use the proper word to describe an entire race. I don't think Alliss made the statement to be derogatory, but this is 2006, you can't say anything. Everyone knows that.
In the minority here as far as I've heard, but I really liked it. Two par- fives in the last three holes? That's awesome. Sure it was browner than a chocolate Easter bunny, but I thought it was fair and much trickier than the scores indicated. With no wind, any course in the United Kingdom is defenseless.
RANKINGS
1. Tiger Woods - two odd stats - never won a major coming from behind and hasn't won the PGA since 2000. Better get on that. 2. Phil Mickelson - will never win a British Open. 3. Vijay Singh 4. Retief Goosen 5. Jim Furyk 6. Ernie Els - he's back. Everyone calm down. 7. Geoff Ogilvy 8. Adam Scott 9. Chris DiMarco 10. Luke Donald
RANDOM THOUGHTS
Ok, here's the change that's coming with regards to the column. Beginning either this week or next, I am going to start doing a blog. This is something that I've carefully thought about and am really excited about doing. Not sure how it will impact this column yet, but look out for the blog either later this week or the middle of next week.
Kraft Nabisco champion Karrie Webb is alone in fourth place at minus-five. Se Ri Pak, who defeated Webb to win the LPGA Championship, shares fifth with two- time Evian Masters winner Laura Davies and Maria Hjorth at four-under-par 68.
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Pga Championship Against Championship Career
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Pga Championship With Mickelson Sunday
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Four Holes Leads Round Of Barnes
Birdie Putt Boosts Birdie With Wilkinson >>
Romero Over Course Milwaukee >>
Pavin Beats Par-five Into No. >>
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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