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Portland, OR (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Portland Timbers named Cameron Knowles as an assistant coach Thursday. Knowles, 29, played for seven seasons, including four with the Timbers. During his time with Portland, Knowles was a three-time USL First Division all-league selection. This will be his first season as an assistant.
Knowles was originally drafted by Real Salt Lake in 2005 and spent his final season in the NASL with the Montreal Impact, who will join MLS in 2012.
Lecce, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Inter Milan will attempt to get back to winning ways on Sunday at Lecce after the club saw its eight-match winning streak halted in the Coppa Italia by Napoli in midweek. The 2-0 setback prevented Inter from reaching the semifinals of the competition for the first time in nine years, but Claudio Ranieri's men will turn their attentions back to the league in an effort to continue their climb up the Serie A table.
Juve secured a place in the last four of the Coppa Italia by handing Roma a 3-0 defeat on Tuesday, and the club enters the weekend one point clear of second-place AC Milan.
Lazio slipped to fifth with its 2-1 loss to Inter last weekend and the club will try to reverse its fortunes at Chievo on Sunday with the Biancoceleste having won only one of its last five games in the league.
Palermo snapped a six-game winless streak with a 5-3 win over Genoa and will look to pick up a second victory in a row at home against last-place Novara.
Fiorentina has won one of its last six matches and hosts a Siena side that sits four points clear of the drop zone and Cesena hosts Atalanta with the home side having lost four of its last five.
Junuzovic made 19 appearances in the first half of the Austrian Bundesliga season, tallying six goals and eight assists. He has also amassed 16 caps for Austria, netting just once.
Paris, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - PSG signed Brazil defender Alex from Chelsea on Friday on a 2 1/2-year deal. Alex, 29, left Brazilian club Santos in 2004 for Chelsea, and remained at the English Premier League club - with the exception of a loan to PSV Eindhoven - until the switch to France.
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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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