Sports Betting News: NFL Team History | NFL Football Betting | College Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | College Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Philadelphia Flyers are now literally on the road to the Winter Classic. The Flyers look to recover from a blowout loss on Saturday with their first victory at Colorado in seven years as they take on the Avalanche, who try to win a sixth straight home game this evening.
Ilya Bryzgalov allowed five goals on 20 shots before getting lifted in favor of Sergei Bobrovsky, who ended with 16 saves.
The game featured a scary moment in the first period when Flyers rookie Sean Couturier was hit in the head by the puck off a shot from teammate Kimmo Timonen. Couturier was taken to the hospital for observations and was not expected to travel to Denver.
The Flyers, of course, learned last week that captain Chris Pronger will miss the rest of the season due to severe post-concussion syndrome, while leading scorer Claude Giroux and Brayden Schenn are also out with concussions.
Colorado started up a four-game homestand with its fifth straight victory at the Pepsi Center on Saturday, a 2-1 triumph over Washington. Erik Johnson scored his first goal of the season and also assisted on Cody McLeod's first score of 2011-12.
Jean-Sebastien Giguere made 25 saves as the Avalanche won for only the second time in six games.
Sutter, who signed a multi-year contract, is still working on immigration issues, but is expected to be behind the bench when the Kings play their next home game Thursday against Anaheim. Sutter has been an NHL head coach for 11 seasons in Chicago, San Jose and Calgary, leading his clubs to 10 playoff appearances, including a Stanley Cup Final berth in 2004 with the Flames.
The Kings fell behind 3-0 before the midway point of the first period on Saturday and were never a factor after that. Jonathan Quick started in net for Los Angeles but was pulled in the first period after allowing three goals on seven shots. Jonathan Bernier relieved Quick and stopped 15-of-20 shots.
The Kings are making the final stop on a four-game road trip tonight and are 6-5-3 as the guest this season.
LA defenseman Willie Mitchell could return tonight after missing the last three games with a groin injury. Forward Mike Richards (head) has joined the team on its trip, but he is still out indefinitely.
Boston Adds Subban Into Jets >>
Houston State Leads JR. Against East >>
25 Points Helps Percent On State >>
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.
Sports Betting News: NFL Team History | NFL Football Betting | College Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | College Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting