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02/10/2012 - Oviedo, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Reigning champion Spain began defense of its Davis Cup title with a pair of singles wins Friday in an opening-round Davis Cup matchup with visiting Kazakhstan.
The Spaniards grabbed their quick 2-0 lead when former world No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero outlasted Mikhail Kukushkin 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (7-2), 4-6, 6-4 in 4 hours, 28 minutes and Nicolas Almagro doused Andrey Golubev 6-3, 4-6, 6-1, 6-1.
The best-of-five tie is being staged on red clay in Oviedo, where the Spaniards are playing without their top-two stars -- Australian Open runner-up Rafael Nadal and David Ferrer. As a matter of fact, Spain is missing four of its top-five players overall at Palacio Municipal de los Deportes.
Spain can clinch a victory here on Saturday when its doubles team of Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez takes on a Kazakhstani pairing of Evgeny Korolev and Yuri Schukin.
Sunday's reverse singles currently pit Almagro against Kukushkin and the former French Open champion Ferrero versus Golubev.
The mighty Spaniards, who have won five of the last 12 Davis Cup championships, are led by first-year captain Alex Corretja, while team Kazakhstan is piloted by Yegor Shaldunov.
Spain, which beat Argentina in last year's Davis Cup finale in Seville, and Kazakhstan had never met in Davis Cup play prior to this week.
The winner here will face the Austria-Russia victor in the quarterfinals in April.
<< Indians re-sign SS Cabrera
Cleveland, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Cleveland Indians avoided arbitration
with shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera, signing him to a one-year contract on Friday.
No financial terms were released, but the Plain Dealer reported it is worth
$4.5
<< Western Illinois makes change in football schedule
Macomb, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Western Illinois's football program will host
the University of Indianapolis instead of Hampton on Sept. 8, director of
athletics Dr. Tim Van Alstine said Friday.
The game against Hampton was rescheduled to Aug.
<< Spurs' Ginobili to return Saturday
San Antonio, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Guard Manu Ginobili will return to San
Antonio's lineup when the visiting Spurs play New Jersey on Saturday.
Head coach Gregg Popovich said Ginobili, who has missed more than a month with
a broken lef
<< Isner shocks Federer, U.S. leads Swiss 2-0 in Davis Cup
Fribourg, Switzerland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - In one of the biggest Davis Cup
upsets ever, John Isner shocked the great Roger Federer in four sets to give
the United States a commanding 2-0 lead over host Switzerland in their best-
of-five openi
CFL extends Cohon through 2015 >>
Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Canadian Football League announced that
commissioner Mark Cohon has signed a contract extension that will keep him in
charge through the 2015 season.
"Our Board of Governors is unanimously pleased to
Blues place Arnott on IR >>
St. Louis, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The St. Louis Blues have placed forward
Jason Arnott on injured reserve, the team announced Friday.
Arnott has not played since suffering a shoulder injury against Los Angeles on
February 3.
The 37-
Dunfermline out to end dry spell against Rangers >>
Dunfermline, Scotland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Dunfermline will try to snap a pair
of negative streaks on Saturday when the club hosts second-place Rangers.
In the last 30 meetings between the two teams, Dunfermline has managed just
one win,
Lyon warms up for Champions League against Caen >>
Lyon, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Lyon slipped 10 points behind Ligue 1 leader
PSG last weekend, so a visit by Caen on Saturday - ahead of Tuesday's last 16
Champions League match against APOEL - has turned into a must-win match.
Since win
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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