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01/22/2007 - East Rutherford, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New York Giants named Steve Spagnuolo the team's new defensive coordinator on Monday.
Spagnuolo replaces Tim Lewis, who was dismissed from the team on January 11.
Under Lewis last season, the Giants ranked 25th in overall defense, allowing an average of 342.4 yards per game. New York also ranked 28th against the pass and 14th against the run.
The 47-year-old Spagnuolo has spent the last eight seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles, most recently serving as the team's linebackers coach the past three years.
Spagnuolo joined the Eagles' coaching staff in 1999 as a defensive assistant/quality control coach. He was then promoted to defensive backs coach two seasons later.
<< Gulbis returns to world top 20
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Despite not playing this past week,
Natalie Gulbis moved up one place to return to the top 20 in the Rolex World
Rankings.
The top 10 in the rankings remained unchanged from a week ago. A
<< Casey up to 13th in world rankings
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Paul Casey won for the fourth time in his
last 27 European Tour starts and that helped him move to a career-best ranking
of 13th in the Official World Golf Ranking.
Casey needed a closing 65 Sunday to fe
<< NHL: At the All-Star Break
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - There are just 11 weeks left in the NHL's
regular season and the fight for playoff slots in both conferences are heating
up. The Sabres were the dominant team the first couple months of the season,
but theyve
<< Florida remains atop hoops poll
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Florida remained at the top of the Associated
Press men's college basketball poll, marking the first time in four weeks a
team has kept the number one ranking.
Last week, the Gators became the third diffe
This Week in Golf - January 25th through January 28th >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - PGA TOUR -
BUICK INVITATIONAL, Torrey Pines Golf Course, La Jolla, California - He's
baaack.
Tiger Woods appears on the PGA Tour for the first time this season at an event
he has won three of the l
Legwand, Turco, Malkin earn NHL weekly honors >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Nashville Predators forward David Legwand,
Dallas Stars goaltender Marty Turco and Pittsburgh Penguins rookie center
Evgeni Malkin have been selected as the NHL's Three Stars of the Week for the
period
Butler, Nash awarded NBA weekly honors >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Washington Wizards guard Caron Butler and
Phoenix Suns guard Steve Nash were named the Eastern and Western Conference
Players of the Week, respectively, for the week ending January 21.
Butler averaged
Texas State chooses Wright >>
San Marcos, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Texas State named Brad Wright the 15th head
football coach in school history on Monday.
Wright joined the Texas State coaching staff in 2004 under David Baliff, who
left to take the head coaching job at
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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