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08/20/2010 - Celadna, Czech Republic (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Swedes Peter Hanson and Fredrik Widmark are tied atop the leaderboard after Friday's second round of the Czech Open.
Hanson shot a two-under 70 in round two, while Widmark fired a five-under 67. The pair is knotted at seven-under 137 at Prosper Golf Resort.
Peter Lawrie (68), Clodomiro Carranza (69), Fredrik Andersson Hed (68) and Nicolas Colsaerts (65) are tied for third place at six-under 138.
With this week and next week left in qualifying for the European Ryder Cup team, Hanson is in contention for one of the nine automatic spots on Colin Montgomerie's squad.
Hanson has three European Tour victories, including this year's Iberdrola Open Mallorca.
Widmark has never won on the European Tour, but has three Challenge Tour titles.
Scott Hend (70), Kenneth Ferrie (68), Anthony Wall (69), Simon Dyson (69), Shane Lowry (64), Richard Bland (71) and Tano Goya (72) share seventh place at five-under 139.
First-round leader Shiv Kapur struggled to a two-over 74 and fell into a tie for 14th at minus-four.
Defending champion Oskar Henningsson posted a three-under 69 and moved into a tie for 26th at two-under 142.
MORE TO FOLLOW.
<< Hibs ready to take on defending champions
Edinburgh, Scotland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Two-time defending champions Rangers
will visit Easter Road Stadium on Sunday to face Hibernian, with both teams
coming off of successful opening weekend matches.
Rangers held off Kilmarnock, 2-
<< San Francisco 49ers 2010 Season Preview
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The San Francisco 49ers have a new strategy in their
attempt to end a seven-year playoff drought.
The plan?
Try nothing new at all.
San Francisco finished strong under head coach Mike Singletary in 2008 after
he repl
<< Bills TE Nelson suspended
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The National Football League has suspended
Buffalo Bills tight end Shawn Nelson four games without pay for violating the
league's substance-abuse policy.
The second-year pro out of Southern Mississippi
<< Columbus ready to rebound against Colorado
Columbus, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Columbus slumped to a 2-0 defeat at Real Salt
Lake last weekend in a clash of the last two Major League Soccer Cup winners,
but a midweek win over Guatemala's Municipal in the CONCACAF Champions League
has the
Vikings' Harvin out of hospital >>
Eden Prairie, MN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Minnesota Vikings wideout Percy Harvin was
reportedly on the practice field in street clothes on Friday after an
overnight stay in the hospital following a sideline collapse Thursday.
According t
New England wants points in Kansas City >>
Kansas City, KS (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - New England's eight-game unbeaten streak in
all competitions was snapped Wednesday, when the Revolution blew an early lead
against the Chicago Fire in Major League Soccer.
The Revolution also slipped behind
Jaguars place LB Keiaho on IR >>
Jacksonville, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Jacksonville Jaguars on Friday
placed linebacker Freddy Keiaho on injured reserve.
Keiaho, who signed with Jacksonville in late April, had spent his entire four-
year career with Indianapolis a
Vidic completes new United deal >>
Manchester, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Manchester United confirmed on Friday
that defender Nemanja Vidic has signed a four-year contract extension.
The deal means that the Serbian will remain at Old Trafford through June 2014,
while it al
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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