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02/03/2012 - Biella, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Italy, which has won three of the last six Fed Cup titles, will host Ukraine this weekend in a best-of-five World Group quarterfinal.
First up on Saturday in Biella, Italian Sara Errani will face Kateryna Bondarenko, while the second opening singles rubber will pit the hosts' Francesca Schiavone against Lesia Turenko on the indoor red clay at Lauretana Forum. Schiavone was last year's French Open runner-up and titled at Roland Garros in 2010.
Sunday's reverse singles have Schiavone taking on Bondarenko and Errani facing Turenko, while the Day-2 doubles will pit an Italian duo of Errani and Roberta Vinci against a Ukrainian tandem of Olga Savchuk and Yuliya Beygelzimer.
Team Italy is captained by Corrado Barazzutti, who also has veteran Flavia Pennetta at his disposal, while the Ukrainians are piloted by Igor Dernovskyi.
The winner in Biella will meet the Czech Republic-Germany victor in April's semifinals.
Italy is 3-0 all-time versus Ukraine in Fed Cup play.
<< Kvitova ready for Fed Cup action against Germany
Stuttgart, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Petra Kvitova will play in Saturday's
second opening singles rubber in the Fed Cup quarterfinal between her reigning
champion Czech Republic team and a host German squad.
Saturday's first singles bo
<< Irsay: Manning not yet cleared by Colts
Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay said
early Friday morning that quarterback Peyton Manning has not yet been cleared
to play by the team.
Reports on Thursday indicated that Manning has been cleared by
<< Play called for wind in Qatar; tourney reduced to 54 holes
Doha, Qatar (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The heavy wind that sent scores soaring in
round one, became too much in round two.
The second round of the Qatar Masters was suspended on Friday due to high
winds and unplayable conditions at Doha
<< Blazers lose in Sacramento
Sacramento, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Marcus Thornton returned from a four-game
absence and scored eight of his 20 points in the fourth quarter, lifting the
Sacramento Kings past the Portland Trail Blazers, 95-92.
Raymond Felton and Jamal
Cubs avoid arbitration with Garza >>
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Chicago Cubs avoided arbitration with Matt
Garza on Friday, signing the starter to a one-year contract.
Financial terms were not disclosed, but the Chicago Tribune reported the
settlement to be for
U.S. men to face Canada in June friendly >>
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The U.S. men's national team will be renewing
its rivalry with Canada on June 3 when the two sides meet up at BMO Field in
Toronto for a friendly.
The game will be part of the Centenary celebrations fo
Wizards visit ACC to take on Raptors >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Toronto Raptors try to avoid a third straight loss
this evening when they welcome the woeful Washington Wizards north of the
border to the Air Canada Centre.
With star forward Andrea Bargnani sidelined with a calf inj
Nuggets entertain Lakers at Pepsi Center >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Denver Nuggets shoot for a two-day sweep of Los Angeles
when they welcome a Lakers team that has struggled on the road this season to
the Rocky Mountains.
The Nuggets were in the City of Angels on Thursday and summari
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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