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08/23/2010 - New Haven, CT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Two-time Grand Slam runner-up Elena Dementieva was among Monday's opening-round winners at the $600,000 Pilot Pen Tennis event, a final hardcourt U.S. Open tune-up.
The fourth-seeded Dementieva flew past Spaniard Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez 6-1, 6-2 at the Connecticut Tennis Center at Yale.
Rain washed away Sunday's schedule here and interrupted the start of play Monday.
Slovakian lucky-loser Dominika Cibulkova drove out last year's American U.S. Open darling Melanie Oudin 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 on Monday. Cibulkova is scheduled to meet two-time defending Pilot Pen champion Caroline Wozniacki in the second round.
Eighth-seeded Russian Nadia Petrova overcame American qualifier Varvara Lepchenko 1-6, 7-5, 6-1 on Day 2, while another American qualifier, Bethanie Mattek-Sands, stifled Romanian Alexandra Dulgheru 6-2, 6-1.
Additional first-round wins came for Italian Sara Errani and Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko. Errani will meet second-seeded French Open runner-up Samantha Stosur in the round of 16.
The Danish Wozniacki handled Russian Elena Vesnina in last year's New Haven finale to capture her second straight title here. Wozniacki, who titled in Montreal on Monday, is the top seed here.
The 2010 Pilot Pen champion will collect $98,500
The U.S. Open will commence next Monday in New York.
<< Braves' Infante earns NL weekly honors
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Atlanta Braves infielder Omar Infante was
named the National League Player of the Week for the period ending August 22.
Over seven games during the week, the 28-year-old batted .433, which was good
for
<< Longoria, Cano share AL weekly honors
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tampa Bay Rays third baseman Evan Longoria and
New York Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano were named the Co-Players of the
Week for the American League for the period ending August 22.
Longoria hit 11-for-
<< Collins signs with Bears at QB
LAKE FOREST, Ill. (AP) -The Chicago Bears have added a lot of experience at quarterback with one moveThe Bears have signed 38-year-old Todd Collins, who's played for Washington, Kansas City and Buffalo. He is expected to battle the injured Caleb Han
<< Cubs activate C Soto from DL among several moves
Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Chicago Cubs activated catcher Geovany
Soto from the 15-day disabled list among several roster moves on Monday.
The 27-year-old backstop was put on the DL on August 10 with a sprained right
shoulder
City dispatches Liverpool >>
Manchester, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Carlos Tevez scored two second-half
goals as Manchester City recorded a comfortable 3-0 win over Liverpool at
Eastlands on Monday.
Gareth Barry put City in front in the 13th minute, and Teve
Power conquered the courses, but can he survive the ovals? >>
Sonoma, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Will Power has undoubtedly established himself as
the king of the road/street courses in the IZOD IndyCar Series this year, but
can the Team Penske driver hang on to win the series championship with the last
four r
This Week in Golf - August 23rd through August 29th >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - THE BARCLAYS, Ridgewood Country Club,
Paramus, New Jersey - It's playoff golf.
The PGA Tour playoffs begin on Thursday with the first round of The Barclays.
The top 125 on the FedEx Cup regular-s
Nats' Strasburg headed to DL >>
Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Washington Nationals rookie phenom Stephen
Strasburg will be placed on the 15-day disabled list with a strained flexor
tendon in his right forearm.
According to the Mid-Atlantic Sportsbook Betting Lines, Strasbur
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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