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12/13/2008 - Bologna, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Marco Di Vaio scored a hat trick in Bologna's five-goal second half, helping his club move out of the relegation zone with a 5-2 win over Torino on Saturday in Italy's Serie A.
Bologna entered the match next-to-last in the league, but vaulted Leece, Torino and Reggina and moved three points clear of the drop zone.
Di Vaio scored his first goal in the 55th minute, driving a left-footed shot to the middle of the goal from six yards out. He added his second goal in the 63rd to put Bologna up for good, scoring off another left-footed shot.
He completed his hat trick - and the scoring - in the 79th with a penalty kick into the bottom left corner.
Bologna extended its unbeaten streak to six matches but picked up its first win during the stretch. Bologna beat AC Milan in its first game this season but was just 2-8 in its first eight matches, which had the team cemented in the bottom three.
Torino slipped into the bottom three with loss, its third straight and fourth during a five-game winless streak.
Also Saturday, Marek Hamsik, Michele Pazienza and German Denis scored as Napoli beat Lecce 3-0 to move past idle AC Milan and into third place. Napoli is level on points with fourth-place AC Milan and second-place Juventus.
On Sunday, Inter Milan hosts Chievo, Udinese hosts Lazio, Genoa hosts Atalanta, Reggina hosts Sampdoria, Roma hosts Cagliari, Palermo hosts Siena, Fiorentina hosts Catania and Juventus hosts AC Milan.
<< Hummel leads Boilermakers past Indiana State
West Lafayette, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Robbie Hummel had 25 points and eight
rebounds as 14th-ranked Purdue pummeled Indiana State, 76-62, at Mackey Arena.
JaJuan Johnson had 12 points and five rebounds while Lewis Jackson added 11
poin
<< 49ers place WR Battle on IR; sign RB Clayton from practice squad
Santa Clara, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - San Francisco placed wide receiver Arnaz
Battle on injured reserve with a foot injury and signed running back Thomas
Clayton to the 53-man roster on Saturday.
Clayton was signed because of an ankle
<< Bruins place Sturm on IR
Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Boston Bruins placed forward Marco Sturm
on long-term injured reserve Saturday. The move is retroactive to November 17.
Sturm has been out of action for the Bruins' last 11 games due to an
undi
<< No. 13 Syracuse easily handles Long Beach State
Syracuse, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Arinze Onuaku led all scorers with 17 points
and Eric Devendorf added 13, as 13th-ranked Syracuse cruised to a 79-55
victory over Long Beach State.
"Well, we want to get him the ball if we can," sa
Sessegnon's double lifts PSG over Auxerre >>
Auxerre, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Stephane Sessegnon scored two goals and PSG
defeated Auxerre 2-1 on Saturday at Stade Abbe-Deschamps in France's Ligue 1 to
equal its win total from all of last season.
PSG narrowly avoided being relegate
Hoyas beat Memphis in OT >>
Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - DaJuan Summers tallied 21 points and Austin
Freeman added 18, as No. 19 Georgetown upended 17th-ranked Memphis, 79-70, in
overtime of an early-season marquee tilt between two national powers.
Chris Wright
Newcastle fears Owen will leave >>
Newcastle, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Newcastle United manager Joe Kinnear has
admitted that he has serious doubts over whether England striker Michael Owen
will sign a new contract with the Magpies.
Owen's current deal runs out at the
UMass edges Jayhawks >>
Kansas City, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ricky Harris scored a team-high 18 points
and Chris Lowe added 12 as Massachusetts upended 25th-ranked Kansas, 61-60, at
the Sprint Center.
Harris was 6-of-16 from the field, including 2-of-8 fro
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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