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01/31/2012 - Montreal, QC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Montreal Alouettes wide receiver Kerry Watkins announced his retirement on Tuesday.
During his eight-year career, Watkins caught 515 passes for 7,431 yards and 48 touchdowns.
"We congratulate Kerry for a fantastic career and thank him for helping us build such a successful football team," said general manager Jim Popp of Watkins, who was a key contributor to the back-to-back Grey Cups won by the Alouettes in 2009 and 2010.
Watkins eclipsed the 1,000-yard receiving mark for five consecutive seasons from 2005-2009.
Last season, Watkins caught his 500th career pass, surpassing Red O'Quinn for the No. 2 spot on Montreal's all-time receptions list behind Ben Cahoon.
<< United signs defender Veseli from City
Manchester, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Manchester United acquired 19-year-old
defender Frederic Veseli from rival Manchester City on Tuesday.
Veseli, a center back, plays for Switzerland's Under-20 side and captained the
Swiss to the U-17 W
<< Barca signs forward Cuenca to extension
Barcelona, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Barcelona signed forward Isaac Cuenca to a
contract extension Tuesday that will keep the 20-year-old with the club until
the summer of 2015.
Cuenca has made 12 appearances for Barcelona this season and sc
<< Everton acquires Jelavic from Rangers
Liverpool, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Everton acquired Croatian striker Nikica
Jelavic from Scottish side Rangers on Tuesday, and signed him to a 4 1/2-year
deal.
Jelavic, 26, scored 36 goals in just 55 games for Rangers. Capped 17 times fo
<< Southern Illinois' Boemer wins Rimington Award
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Southern Illinois senior Bryan Boemer was
named on Tuesday as the 2011 recipient of the Rimington Award, given to the
top center in the FCS.
Boemer earned All-Missouri Valley Football Conference honors for the
Missouri's Tiguinho named MISL Player of Week >>
Tampa, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Missouri Comets forward Tiguinho was named the
Major Indoor Soccer League's Player of the Week on Tuesday for Week 13.
Tiguinho had two goals and five assists as Missouri rolled to a 33-12 win over
the Syracus
Indians acquire Canzler from Rays >>
Cleveland, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Cleveland Indians acquired INF/OF Russ
Canzler from the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for cash considerations Tuesday.
The 25-year-old Canzler was named the MVP of the International League last
seas
City acquires Pizarro on loan from Roma >>
Manchester, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Manchester City acquired Chilean David
Pizarro on loan for the rest of the season Tuesday from Italian side Roma.
Pizarro, 32, played under City manager Roberto Mancini at Inter Milan, but has
played j
Los Angeles Angeles >>
Suspended minor league pitcher Daniel Reynolds 50 games for a second violation of MLB drug policy.
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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