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08/31/2010 - Izmir, Turkey (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Nicolas Batum scored 24 points to power France to a 68-63 win over Canada at the 2010 FIBA World Championship.
Batum, who plays for the Portland Trail Blazers, made 8-of-14 shots and grabbed seven rebounds. He was the only French player to reach double figures, helping his team improve to 3-0 in Group D.
Canada fell to 0-3 in preliminary play. Levon Kendall scored 15 points for the Canadians, while Kelly Olynyk added 13.
The game was tied at 28 at halftime and Canada opened a slim 48-46 edge after three periods. The Canadians led by as many as six early in the fourth, but France quickly tied it at 52-52 on a Batum bucket with just over seven minutes remaining.
It remained close from there and two free throws from Jermaine Anderson pulled Canada within 64-63 with 19 seconds left. Mickael Gelabale followed with a pair from the stripe at the other end and Canada's Denham Brown had a shot blocked before Batum secured the rebound and drilled two from the line in the closing seconds for the final margin.
Earlier on Wednesday, Russia beat the Ivory Coast, 72-66, and Puerto Rico topped China, 84-76, in Group C. The earlier Group D game saw New Zealand rout Lebanon, 108-76.
<< PGA Tour suspends rule that led to Furyk DQ
Ponte Vedra Beach, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The PGA Tour has suspended the rule
that led to Jim Furyk's disqualification from The Barclays last week.
Furyk was kept from the first playoffs event in New Jersey because he
overslept Wed
<< Bent joins Wolverhampton on loan
Wolverhampton, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Wolverhampton signed striker Marcus
Bent from Birmingham on Tuesday on a four-month loan deal.
Bent, 32, spent parts of last season on loan at Middlesbrough and Queens Park
Rangers. Wolverhampton a
<< What's eating the slumping Cardinals?
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tony La Russa hasn't managed many poor teams during his
tenure with the St. Louis Cardinals.
In fact, the Cardinals have missed the playoffs only six times since La Russa
took over the ballclub back in 1996, a pretty solid
<< Birmingham signs Beausejour, Hleb, Jiranek
Birmingham, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Birmingham signed three players on the
final day of the transfer window on Tuesday, adding Jean Beausejour, Alexander
Hleb and Martin Jiranek.
Chile international Beausejour was acquired from Club Amer
Sunderland shells out record fee for Gyan >>
Sunderland, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Sunderland signed Ghana striker Asamoah
Gyan for a club-record transfer fee of nearly $20 million on Tuesday and gave
him a four-year contract.
Sunderland acquired the 24-year-old Gyan from French clu
Jankovic advances in New York >>
Flushing Meadows, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic
was among Tuesday's opening-round winners at the 2010 U.S. Open.
The fourth-seeded Jankovic went the distance to sneak past Romanian Simona
Halep 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 at
Calgary's Rambo highlights CFL weekly awards >>
Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Calgary Stampeders wide receiver Ken-Yon Rambo,
Saskatchewan Roughriders safety James Patrick, Edmonton Eskimos kicker Noel
Prefontaine and Calgary running back Jon Cornish were selected as the CFL's
top per
AC Milan acquires Robinho from City >>
Milan, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - AC Milan acquired Brazilian striker Robinho on
Tuesday from Manchester City for an undisclosed fee, just two years after City
signed him for a British record transfer fee of $50 million from Real Madrid.
Robin
The most popular sports to bet on are NFL and college football along with NBA and NCAA basketball. There are multiple betting opportunities within those sports, beginning with the basic wager on a game’s outcome (also called betting the side). College Football Point spreads are used in both football and basketball in an attempt to even the attractiveness of each team in a match-up. ( See our article detailing how and why point spreads are made)
But you could also simply bet on the money line, or straight-up winner of the game. Oddsmakers use the money line so that more money must be risked on the favorite or expected winner and less money on the underdog to balance the action on both sides. While money line gambling is an attractive option for football and basketball bettors who only care about picking a winner, it is the primary option for those bettors who enjoy wagering on MLB baseball and individual sports like boxing, tennis, golf and racing events such as NASCAR. ( More details on playing the Money Line)
Another bet across all major team sports including football, basketball, baseball, and hockey involves wagering on the amount of scoring in a game, called an Over/Under total. For example, the Over/Under total on Super Bowl XXXIX was 48, which means a bettor could wager whether there would be more or less than 48 points scored by both teams combined in the game.
The final score of Super Bowl XXXIX was 24-21; the scoring of both teams added up to 45, which means the game went Under . So Under bettors won, and Over bettors lost.
Sports gambling doesn’t end there. Betting sides and totals are the most common wagers available everywhere, but many sportsbooks also offer future bets on big upcoming events like who will win next year’s Super Bowl and what movie will win Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
The main advantage of futures is that you can get appealing odds by betting far in advance. For example, with NFL futures you often can get much higher odds on a team by betting before the season even starts. A NFL future bet on a team to win the Super Bowl odds might be 20/1 in the preseason; but by midseason, their odds might decrease to 10/1 if they turn out to be legitimate championship contenders.
Involves one individual wager, whether it be on your team to cover the point spread, to win the game straight-up on the money line, or to go over/under the total.
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs.
Recently I had an email debate with an angry reader who said I did not understand "the science of oddsmaking", as he called it.
He said I was wrong for suggesting oddsmakers care about who wins or loses games.
"Oddsmakers only care about splitting the betting public 50/50 on both sides of the line and keeping the commission (a.k.a. juice)," he wrote.
He might have been right about not understanding "the science of oddsmaking". After all, I'm not an oddsmaker. That said, I stick to my assertion that oddsmakers (a.k.a. sportbooks) often do care about who wins games.
Granted, as a general rule, sportsbooks try to balance their action so that they're not exposed to big losses. However, there are times when this is difficult to pull off, regardless of how much a line has moved. There are also times when that general rule is ignored and a book pursues risk.
Generally speaking, it's safe to say the books in Vegas are risk-adverse. Unlike in the past when the wise guys ruled the town, Vegas is now corporate and the goal of most casinos is to make as much money as possible with as little risk as possible.
Thus, Vegas sportsbooks try everything in their power to balance the action. They're satisfied simply collecting the juice. But these profits are small, especially compared to the take from other casino games, namely slot machines.
Because the profits at Vegas sportsbooks are so small, you could argue that many casinos operate sportsbooks simply as a novelty to keep the tourists happy.
With a growing aversion to risk, it should come as no surprise that Vegas bookmakers have been panicking this NFL season.
Despite huge pointspreads, a disproportionate percentage of bettors are still laying their money on favorites like the Eagles, Colts, Pats and Vikings rather than the dogs (a common trend for the largely recreational bettors that visit Vegas).
And much to the dismay of the books, those favorites are finding ways to cover the thick chalk. In fact, prior to Week 7, the four teams listed above are a combined 16-2-2 (88 percent) against the spread. (The tables turned dramatically in Week 7, but more on that later.)
The result has been an early-season beating for the books, and a bonanza for bettors.
While Vegas increasingly hates risk, it's no longer a major player in the sports betting world. Most of the betting action now takes place offshore where sportsbooks are not as obsessed about balance. In fact, some books encourage exposure to risk because the rewards can be so much bigger.
Consider MySportsbook.com. On its website, the book has odds pages which actually display the amount of action it's getting on games. In other words, you can see how much action the book is taking on both sides of a pointspread, moneyline or over/under.
One look at these numbers and it's obvious MySportsbook.com does not balance every game. In fact, far from it.
Take last weekend's matchup between St. Louis and Miami. By game time on Sunday, 83 percent of the betting action at MySportsbook.com was on the Rams; only 17 percent was on Miami.
What's interesting is that MySportsbook.com opened the pointspread with Miami at +6 1/2. By game time, the spread had lowered to +5.
That goes contrary to the balancing theory. If MySportsbook.com had wanted to balance the action, it would have given Miami more points; instead, it took away 1 1/2. World Series odds are now up as well.
MySportsbook.com exposed itself to even more to risk, and rolled the dice on the underdog Dolphins. Why? I contacted a representative with the book to find out. His answer was simple.
"The line moved early based on 'smart money' from sharp players," said Jeff Gilroy, a spokesperson for the book. "We also knew from early in the week that we would need Miami, therefore (we dropped) the spread to encourage Rams money.
"At the end of the day, we liked the home team."
So the conclusion is this: MySportsbook.com respected the sharp action, and gambled that the sharp bettors had a better take on the game than the recreational bettors, who were hammering the visiting Rams.
In the end, the gamble paid off. Miami, desperate for a win in front of its home fans, pounded the overrated Rams, who are terrible on the road and even worse on grass. Final score: 31-14 Fish.
MySportsbook.com was also heavily exposed on numerous favorites in Week 7, including Philadelphia, Seattle and Denver. All three failed to cover.
The fact that sportsbooks are exposed to risk on certain games is really nothing new. The fact, that Sportsbook.com is willing to show the public where it's exposed is intriguing.
Armed with this type of information, bettors can make more educated wagers. They can get an idea where the sharp money is going and conversely where the public money is headed.
MySportsbook.com is opening up its cashbox, letting bettors look inside and challenging them to take their best shot at grabbing the cash.
To visit this online football betting got to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting odds needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.
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