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02/05/2012 - Montpellier, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former Wimbledon runner-up Tomas Berdych outlasted French crowd favorite Gael Monfils in Sunday's title match at the Open Sud de France tennis tournament.
The top-seeded world No. 7 Berdych snuck past a third-seeded 13th-ranked Monfils 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 in just over two hours on the indoor hardcourt at Montpellier's Arena. The Czech Berdych tallied 11 aces and three service breaks in the big victory, while Monfils settled for 11 aces and only one break in defeat.
Berdych is now 2-0 lifetime against Monfils, who captured this French event the last time it was contested, in 2010.
The 2010 Wimbledon finalist Berdych is now 7-6 in his career ATP finals, while Monfils, who is now a dismal 4-13 in his career finals, dropped to 0-2 in a pair of 2012 title tilts, as he lost to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in an all-French championship match in Doha last month.
The 26-year-old Berdych's first-place check is worth $95,000.
<< Hurricanes blow into Durham seeking upset of Blue Devils
Durham, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The seventh-ranked Blue Devils will look to keep
up the race for first place in the Atlantic Coast Conference as they host the
Miami-Florida Hurricanes for a bout at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
This will be the 18th
<< Celtics start local events early vs. Memphis
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Boston Celtics own an amazing 17 championships, the
most by an NBA franchise.
Their neighbors across the way, the NFL's New England Patriots, can capture
their fourth Super Bowl title Sunday night against th
<< Heat host Raptors in matinee affair
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Miami Heat forward Chris Bosh said a few days ago it's
important for this team to make the essential adjustments following a loss.
"If we lose one or two, we need to make the necessary adjustments, get it done
and cut
<< Kvitova sends Czechs into Fed Cup semis
Stuttgart, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova won
her singles match on Sunday and sent the reigning champion Czech Republic into
the Fed Cup semifinals for a second straight year.
The Czechs entered Sunday's actio
Youzhny whips Lacko for Zagreb title >>
Zagreb, Croatia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Russian Mikhail Youzhny cruised past
Slovakian Lukas Lacko in straight sets in Sunday's final at the Zagreb Indoors
tennis event.
The third-seeded world No. 39 Youzhny doused the unseeded Lacko 6-2,
Penny signs with Japanese club >>
Fukuoka, Japan (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Veteran pitcher Brad Penny has signed a
contract to play with the SoftBank Hawks of Japan's Pacific League, the team
announced on its website.
Penny spent last season with the Detroit Tigers, pitchi
United rallies to claim draw at Chelsea >>
London, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Manchester United fell two points back of
Manchester City on Sunday, but Sir Alex Ferguson's side did well to claim a
point at Stamford Bridge as the club rallied from three goals down to snatch a
3-3 dra
Borini's brace powers Roma past Inter >>
Rome, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A goal in each half from Fabio Borini helped
Roma to a comfortable 4-0 win over Inter Milan at the Stadio Olimpico on
Sunday.
Juan put Roma in front after 13 minutes when he headed home Francesco Tott
Michael Vick is back, Brett Favre isn't and the NFC East remains the best division in the NFC, maybe in all of football.
As players start to gather for the start of another season, some things change and some stay the same in the world of the NFL.
The NFC East has been the dominant division in the National Conference for a while, despite limited playoff success, save for the New York Giants surprise Super Bowl win two seasons ago.
Hell, there's a generation of kids in Texas who have never seen the Cowboys win a playoff game (last win was in 1996).
But collectively, the Giants, Eagles, Cowboys and Redskins (well, maybe not so much the Redskins) are as good as a division gets in an NFC conference that has struggled to stay competitive with the AFC side.
Sports bettors have both acknowledged the NFC East's dominance, as one glance at the NFL future odds menu will show.
Looking over the NFL betting odds at online sports book MySportsbook.com we see the top three teams listed to win the NFC Championship are all from the NFC East:
Dallas Cowboys - 7 - 1
Philadelphia Eagles - 13 - 2
New York Giants - 9 - 2
Slotting in behind these three are two teams from the NFC North: the Minnesota Vikings (15-2) and the Chicago Bears (10-1).
Again, despite the lack of recent playoff success, the Dallas Cowboys are popular with the sports betting community, as they hold 14% of all the money wagered on who will win the NFC Championship.
So far, the New York Giants are the bettors' favorite to represent their conference in the Super Bowl, as they have 24% of the overall NFC Championship betting volume.
And what about the Philadelphia Eagles? For the most part, the Eagles had a very productive offseason, the kind that could bring them back to the top.
They had a good draft adding the likes of WR Jeremy Maclin and RB LeSean McCoy.
Unfortunately, the team received a blow when long-time defensive coordinator Jim Johnson passed away on Tuesday.
But this team will make a real run at the division title this year. Going into the regular season, Philly is listed at +240 to win the division.
Last season the Eagles were 9-6-1 SU and 10-6 ATS.
Teams from the NFC East will play teams from the AFC West in the regular season and the Eagles haven't really been a good bet in the last 20 games against the likes of San Diego, Oakland, K.C. and Denver, only going 8-12 ATS.
Two seasons removed from that Super Bowl title, the New York Giants see themselves listed as the odds-on favorite in NFC East championship futures at +162.
Plaxico Burress is gone and with him all the bad publicity surrounding the gun in the sweatpants incident, but can they replace him in the offense?
Last season the Giants were a very reliable bet going 12-4 ATS.
In the Giants' last 20 games against fellow teams from the NFC East; they are 13-7 ATS.
Dallas is listed at +240 to win the division.
Dallas went 9-7 SU and 7-9 ATS last season and with the amount of talent the Cowboys have, a similar performance won't do.
The Cowboys have been atrocious against divisional rivals, going 6-14 ATS in their last 20.
The Washington Redskins are longshots to win the division at +550.
Visit MySportsbook.com for free sportsbook odds RSS feeds go to MySportsbook.com for all your betting football needs.
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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