Sports Betting News: NFL Team History | NFL Football Betting | College Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | College Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting
02/15/2012 - Doha, Qatar (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - World No. 1 Belarusian stalwart Victoria Azarenka was an easy second-round winner, while former top-ranked star Caroline Wozniacki was among Wednesday's second-round losers at the $2.168 million Qatar Open.
The Australian Open champion Azarenka saw her first action as the world No. 1 star and looked very bit the part on Day 3 as she pummeled rising German Mona Barthel 6-1, 6-0 in one hour on the hardcourts at Khalifa International Tennis Complex. The 21-year-old Barthel captured her first-ever WTA title in Hobart last month.
A second-seeded Wozniacki, meanwhile, played her first match since losing the top ranking to Azarenka last month and succumbed to Czech Lucie Safarova 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-3) in the round of 32. The Danish Wozniacki was last year's Doha runner-up to Russian Vera Zvonareva, who also exited the draw here on Wednesday.
Romanian Monica Niculescu was beating a sixth-seeded Zvonareva 7-5, 3-2 when the former Wimbledon and U.S. Open runner-up retired, citing a hip injury.
Zvonareva was also a Doha runner-up in 2008.
Two other top-five seeds reached the third round, as No. 4 Pole Agnieszka Radwanska drubbed British qualifier Anne Keothavong 6-1, 6-2 and No. 5 French slugger Marion Bartoli dismantled Spaniard Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-2, 6-0. The former Wimbledon runner-up Bartoli was a runner-up in Paris last week.
Two more top-eight seeds suffered upsets, as Belgian Yanina Wickmayer doused No. 7 Italian Francesca Schiavone 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 and Israeli Shahar Peer erased No. 8 Serb Jelena Jankovic 7-6 (7-3), 6-2. Schiavone was last year's French Open runner-up and the 2010 Roland Garros titlist. Jankovic is a former No. 1.
In other second-round action involving seeds, rising American Christina McHale overcame No. 12 Chinese Peng Shuai 5-7, 6-3, 6-2; Czech Petra Cetkovska topped No. 13 and former top-ranked Serbian star Ana Ivanovic 6-4, 6-4; No. 14 Svetlana Kuznetsova handled fellow Russian Maria Kirilenko 6-4, 6-4; and American qualifier Varvara Lepchenko upended No. 16 German Julia Goerges 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-5). Kirilenko was a runner-up in Pattaya City last week. The two-time Grand Slam champion Kuznetsova was the Doha runner-up in 2004 and 2007.
Additional second-round wins came for Romanian Simona Halep, Russian Ksenia Pervak, Ukrainian qualifier Kateryna Bondarenko and Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova, who cooled off last week's maiden WTA titlist Angelique Kerber 6-4, 6-1. The German Kerber was the champion in Paris last weekend, as she downed the aforementioned Bartoli in the finale.
The 2012 Doha champion will earn a first prize of $385,000.
<< Champion mare Havre de Grace works on Wednesday
New Orleans, LA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Horse of the Year Havre de Grace took to
the Fair Grounds track Wednesday morning for her second workout of the year.
The five-year-old mare is wintering at Fair Grounds Race Course with the rest
of trai
<< Billups has successful surgery on torn Achilles
Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Los Angeles Clippers guard Chauncey
Billups underwent successful surgery to repair a torn Achilles tendon on
Wednesday.
The procedure occurred a little more than a week after he was pronounc
<< Everton signs Junior
Liverpool, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Everton made a swoop on Wednesday for
out-of-contract midfielder Francisco Junior, who joins the Toffees on a two-
and-a-half-year deal.
The 20-year-old Portuguese youngster began his career at Ben
<< Four football players arrested in TCU drug bust
Fort Worth, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Police made a drug bust at Texas Christian
University on Wednesday morning, a sting which included the arrest of four
football players.
The six-month investigation by Fort Worth and TCU Campus Police r
U.S. men head to Florida for key matches >>
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The United States Men's National Team will be
heading to Florida for two crucial matches in the coming months, it was
announced Wednesday.
The U.S. Soccer Federation revealed that Jurgen Klinsmann'
Sam Houston State hires Ruse as offensive coordinator >>
Frisco, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Doug Ruse helped Western Illinois to a seven-win
improvement and a berth in the FCS playoffs in his first season as its
offensive coordinator in 2010.
It would seem hard to improve much upon Sam Houston State's
The Sixth Man: Pacers fail big test >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A moral victory in professional sports
borders on being a contradiction, at least until you actually see one.
There are no participation trophies when the big boys play, only the cold,
hard reality of wins
Argonauts ink WR Barnes >>
Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Toronto Argonauts inked wideout Jason
Barnes, signing the fleet receiver through 2013.
Barnes, who was plucked from the Edmonton Eskimos, will be reunited with
former Esks quarterback and curren
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.
Sports Betting News: NFL Team History | NFL Football Betting | College Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | College Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting