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05/11/2010 - Moon Township, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Robert Morris University has named Andrew Toole as the school's new head basketball coach.
Toole, an assistant with the Colonials for the last three seasons, takes over for Mike Rice, who left to become the head coach at Rutgers last week.
The 29-year-old Toole began his collegiate coaching career at Lafayette in the 2006-07 season and joined the Robert Morris staff the following year. Toole was promoted to associate head coach for the 2008-09 season.
He played for two years at Elon and then transferred to Penn, where he helped the Quakers reach the NCAA tournament in 2002 and 2003, and was a co-captain of the 2002-03 squad.
Robert Morris finished this past season at 23-12 and fell in overtime to Villanova in the first round of the NCAA tournament after nearly pulling off a stunning upset of the second-seeded Wildcats.
<< Sunderland completes Riveros signing
Sunderland, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Sunderland boss Steve Bruce has made
Paraguay international Cristian Riveros his first signing of the summer.
The 27-year-old, who has been included in his country's World Cup squad, moves
to Wearsid
<< U.S. leaves Davies off preliminary Cup roster
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - United States coach Bob Bradley left injured
striker Charlie Davies off the preliminary 30-man World Cup roster, which was
announced Tuesday.
Davies emerged as a likely starter for the World Cup during the
<< AL West: Rangers' bullpen getting the job done
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Texas Rangers have taken over the top spot in the
American League West standings, and they have their bullpen to thank.
Overall, the Rangers (18-14) have won 10 of their last 13 games. They
leapfrogged Oakland into fi
<< MacMullan, Tait named Gowdy recipients
Springfield, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Reporter Jackie MacMullan and broadcaster
Joe Tait have been selected as the 2010 recipients of the Curt Gowdy Media
Award from the Basketball Hall of Fame.
The Gowdy Media Award is named in honor
Pletcher to have two for the Preakness >>
Baltimore, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Eclipse Award winning trainer Todd Pletcher
will have two starters, including Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver, in
Saturday's $1 million Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course.
The middle jewel o
Fulham's Hodgson handed LMA honor >>
London, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Fulham's Roy Hodgson has been named as the
League Managers' Association's manager of the year.
Hodgson took the honors at the LMA's annual dinner, having guided Fulham to
12th place in the Premier Le
Hornets interview Frank, Williams >>
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -The New Orleans Hornets continue to interview candidates for their vacant coaching job; former NBA head coach Lawrence Frank and current Portland assistant Monty Williams are the latest.Team spokesman Harold Kaufman confirms that F
Game 7, again: Canadiens take Pens to last game >>
PITTSBURGH (AP) -The Penguins' record in home Game 7s isn't very good. The Canadiens' Game 7 record this spring couldn't be any better.For the second successive playoff series, the Canadiens have forced a Game 7. After upsetting NHL regular season c
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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