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
07/21/2007 - Detroit, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Billy Butler went 4-for-5 with four RBI as the Kansas City Royals pounded the Detroit Tigers, 10-2, in the opener of a three- game series at Comerica Park.
Mark Grudzielanek also had four hits and scored four times for the Royals, who have won 13 of their last 20 games.
Gil Meche (7-6) tossed seven strong innings, yielding two runs on five hits with five strikeouts and no walks.
Kenny Rogers (3-2), meanwhile, was tagged for six runs -- five earned -- over 6 1/3 frames for Detroit, which had a four-game winning streak halted. Gary Sheffield homered in defeat.
Butler put the Royals ahead in the first with an RBI groundout before Sheffield tied it up in the home-half of the inning with his 23rd home run of the year.
The Royals put up a three-spot in the third, though, to reclaim the lead. With the bases loaded and one out, Butler came through with a single to center that brought in both Grudzielanek and Esteban German. Curtis Granderson committed a throwing error on the play, allowing Mark Teahen to come home as well.
The scoring went quiet until the sixth, when Magglio Ordonez knocked in Granderson with a single to slice the Kansas City lead to 4-2.
Kansas City again provided an answer in the seventh. German and Grudzielanek started things with back-to-back doubles to push the first run of the frame across, and Butler added an RBI base hit later in the inning for a 6-2 advantage.
Four more Royals runs in the ninth turned it into a rout. David DeJesus drove in a pair with a single, and a throwing error during the sequence let a third run cross. Brown stepped in next and capped the scoring with an RBI groundout.
Game Notes
Butler has driven in 19 runs in his last 11 games. This was his first-ever four-hit game...Meche has not lost since June 9, spanning seven starts...Detroit entered off a sweep of the Minnesota Twins...Detroit has dominated this series since the start of last season, winning 21 of the 28 matchups. However, six of Kansas City's wins in that time have come in the Motor City.
<< Rockets bring back Francis
Houston, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Steve Francis, who played his first five NBA
seasons in Houston, officially returned Friday when he agreed to a deal with
the Rockets.
Francis was sent to Portland from the New York Knicks along with Chann
<< Bucks sign Voskuhl
Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Milwaukee Bucks signed center Jake
Voskuhl to a one-year contract Friday.
A seven-year NBA veteran, Voskuhl, 29, played the last two seasons with the
Charlotte Bobcats, averaging 4.8 points a
<< Sorenstam, Ochoa fall in Match Play
New Rochelle, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Annika Sorenstam and Lorena Ochoa both
lost in Friday's second round matches at the HSBC Women's World Match Play
Championship at Wykagyl Country Club as the top seeds continue to struggle at
this ev
<< Bourdais wins provisional pole in Edmonton
Edmonton, AB Canada (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Three-time Champ Car Series champion
Sebastien Bourdais won Friday's provisional qualifying session for the Rexall
Grand Prix Edmonton on the Rexall Speedway. The No.1 Newman/Haas/Lanigan
driver
Dolphins' Porter fined by NFL >>
Davie, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Miami Dolphins linebacker Joey Porter was fined
three game checks by the NFL for his part in a Las Vegas scuffle with
Cincinnati Bengals offensive lineman Levi Jones.
Porter punched Jones on March 1
Mets' Valentin breaks tibia >>
Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - New York Mets second baseman Jose Valentin
suffered a fractured right tibia when he fouled a ball off his leg in the
fourth inning of Friday's game against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
This is the secon
Oswalt leaves early in Houston's win at Pittsburgh >>
Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Carlos Lee's first-inning, two-run home run
proved enough for Houston to edge Pittsburgh, 2-1, and prevent the struggling
Pirates from getting their seventh straight win versus the Astros this year.
Chris
Scherrer leads suspended Nationwide event >>
Springfield, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Forty players had still not teed off when
the second round of the Nationwide Tour's Price Cutter Charity Championship
was suspended Friday due to inclement weather.
Tom Scherrer had a hole-in-one and
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