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07/13/2010 - Prague, Czech Republic (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Top-seeded Czech favorite Lucie Safarova and No. 2 seed Alexandra Dulgheru were among Tuesday's first-round winners at the $220,000 Prague Open tennis event.
Safarova handled Latvia's Anastasija Sevastova 6-4, 7-5, while the Romanian Dulgheru held off Italian veteran Tathiana Garbin 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 on the red clay at Stvanice.
Fifth-seeded Spaniard Anabel Medina Garrigues whipped Czech wild card Kristyna Pliskova 6-1, 6-3, while last week's Budapest titlist, Agnes Szavay, stayed hot with a 6-4, 6-3 beating of Romanian qualifier Liana Ungur, and eighth- seeded Czech Barbora Zahlavova Strycova stifled compatriot Andrea Hlavackova 6-2, 6-4. The Hungarian Szavay is seeded seventh this week.
Unseeded Swiss veteran Patty Schnyder, who succumbed to Szavay in the Budapest finale for a second straight year this past weekend, moved on here Tuesday with a 6-7 (2-7), 6-4, 6-1 come-from-behind victory over Kazakhstan's Zarina Diyas.
A Day-2 upset occurred when Romanian Monica Niculescu dismissed third-seeded Swiss Timea Bacsinszky 6-3, 7-5.
Fourth-seeded Czech favorite Klara Zakopalova pulled out of the draw and was replaced by Austrian lucky-loser Tamira Paszek, who fell to France's Alize Cornet 7-6 (7-4), 6-7 (3-7), 6-4, while long-time Czech favorite Iveta Benesova moved on with a 6-4, 6-7 (4-7), 6-2 decision against Bosnian qualifier Mervana Jugic-Salkic.
Other opening-round wins came for Czechs Lucie Hradecka and lucky-loser Eva Hrdinova, Colombian qualifier Catalina Castano, and qualifier Ksenia Pervak, who bested former top-10 fellow Russian Anna Chakvetadze 6-2, 6-3.
<< Trucks join Nationwide at Gateway
Madison, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Series: NASCAR Camping World Truck. Date:
Friday, July 16. Race: CampingWorld.com 200. Site: Gateway International
Raceway. Track: 1.25-mile oval. Start time: 9:00 p.m. (et). Laps: 162. Miles:
200. 2009 winner: Mi
<< Nationwide Series begins second-half of season at Gateway
Madison, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Series: NASCAR Nationwide. Date: Saturday, July
17. Race: Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers 250. Site: Gateway International
Raceway. Track: 1.25-mile oval. Start time: 8:00 p.m. (et). Laps: 200. Miles:
250. 2009 wi
<< Columbus hosts struggling K.C. in mid-week MLS fixture
Columbus, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Columbus Crew return home when they host
the Kansas City Wizards in Major League Soccer action at Crew Stadium on
Wednesday.
The Eastern Conference leading Crew (8-2-4) are coming off a scoreless d
<< Agent: Ilgauskas to sign with Miami Heat
MIAMI (AP) -Zydrunas Ilgauskas is following LeBron James to the Miami Heat.Agent Herb Rudoy says the veteran center expects to sign a two-year contract later this week. The terms have not been finalized, but Rudoy says ``we've agreed to agree.''Rudo
Dundee signs Swanson to extension >>
Dundee, Scotland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Dundee United midfielder Danny Swanson
has penned a contract extension to keep him at Tannadice until the summer of
2012.
The 23-year-old has scored seven times in 87 appearances for the Terrors t
Gosling set to join promoted Newcastle >>
Newcastle, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Newcastle United appears to have won the
race to sign Dan Gosling, who left Everton last week in controversial
circumstances.
However, United boss Chris Hughton will not be able to unveil the $
Ilgauskas follows LeBron to Miami >>
Cleveland, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Center Zydrunas Ilgauskas has apparently
decided to join former Cavaliers teammate LeBron James in Miami.
The Plain Dealer of Cleveland reported Tuesday afternoon that Ilgauskas will
sign with the Hea
Tottenham's Bentley suffers injury setback >>
London, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Midfielder David Bentley will miss
Tottenham Hotspur's preseason tour to the United States with ankle ligament
damage.
Bentley limped out of Saturday's friendly against Bournemouth after land
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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