Sports Betting News: NFL Team History | NFL Football Betting | College Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | College Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting
04/26/2009 - Barcelona, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Rafael Nadal continued his domination on clay with a straight-set victory over fellow Spaniard David Ferrer in a rematch of last year's title bout.
The top-seeded Nadal claimed his fifth consecutive Barcelona Open title with a 6-2, 7-5 victory over the fourth-seeded Ferrer, who was appearing in his second final of 2009, having previously lost to Novak Djokovic at Dubai in February.
Nadal, who pocketed a first-place prize of $370,000, improved to 25-1 all-time in the tournament, falling only to countryman Alex Corretja in the second round of the 2003 event, when his was making his tournament debut at age 16.
In addition, he is now riding a 25-match winning streak on clay and improved his record to an astounding 142-4 on the surface since 2005.
Already a three-time ATP Tour winner this year with crowns at the Australian Open, Indian Wells and a title last week at the Monte Carlo Masters, Nadal is 35-9 all-time in finals, with 24 of those victories coming on clay.
A year ago, Ferrer battled Nadal to three sets, with Nadal earning a 6-1, 4-6, 6-1 win to take home the Barcelona crown. Nadal owns a 7-3 lifetime mark against Ferrer.
<< Tigers send C Treanor to DL
Kansas City, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Detroit Tigers placed catcher Matt
Treanor on the 15-day disabled list Sunday with a right hip strain.
Treanor has no hits in 13 at-bats over four games for Detroit this season.
To fill the ros
<< No relegation relief for Den Haag
The Hague, Netherlands (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Den Haag's relegation worries grew
on Sunday as Roy Makaay scored with eight minutes to play, handing Feyenoord a
3-2 win over Den Haag at Het Zuiderpark.
The loss leaves the home side above the
<< Dodgers target sweep in set with Rockies
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers are on a roll and
will try for their fourth straight win and a three-game sweep of the division-
rival Colorado Rockies today at Coors Field.
Los Angeles has posted back-to-back 6-5
<< Eveland, Sonnanstine square off at Coliseum
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Dana Eveland hopes to find the win column this afternoon
when the Oakland Athletics play the rubber match of their three-game series
with the Tampa Bay Rays at Oakland Coliseum.
Eveland has been awful in his three starts
Wolfsburg falls to Energie >>
Cottbus, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Wolfsburg wasted a glorious opportunity to
take charge of the Bundesliga title race as they suffered a 2-0 defeat to
relegation-battling Energie at Stadion der Freundschaft on Sunday.
A win would hav
Italy dethrones Russia, advances to Fed Cup final >>
Castellaneta Marina, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Francesca Schiavone posted a
triumph in the second reverse singles rubber on Sunday, as Italy deposed of
two-time defending champion Russia in the semifinals of the Fed Cup.
Trailing 2-0 i
Swiss top Germans at World Championship >>
Bern, Switzerland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Host nation Switzerland thrilled a
capacity crowd with a 3-2 victory over Germany in Group B play at the 2009
World Championships.
Mark Streit, a member of the New York Islanders, notched the
Quality Road shows blood from quarter-crack >>
Elmont, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Florida Derby winner Quality Road came back
from a Sunday morning gallop at Belmont Park's training track with a small
amount of blood from a quarter-crack of the right front foot. The colt was
sent o
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.
Mayweather picked to beat De La Hoya
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA -- Golden Boy Oscar De La Hoya and his rival Floyd Mayweather Jr. arrived at the MGM Grand here Wednesday amid the pomp and pandemonium befitting two of the biggest stars in the sport who are about to duke it out for the WBC super welterweight crown this Saturday (Sunday in Manila).
As of Wednesday, MySportsbook.com closed its book with Mayweather a favorite to defeat De La Hoya at -170 (a $100 bet wins $70), while De La Hoya is a +140 underdog (a $100 bet wins $140).
Mayweather arrived at about 11:30 a.m. on a big truck with his face and a big "World's Best Pound-for-Pound" sign scribbled across the vehicle. He was accompanied by his entourage made up of rappers and his training team.
A crowd of close to 3,000 eager fans packed the MGM Grand lobby, with their cameras in tow, all trying to vie for position to get a good angle at Mayweather, who is acknowledged as the world's best fighter pound-for-pound.
Eric Gomez, Golden Boy Promotions vice-president, described the fan turnout as "amazing" and swore he had never seen anything quite like this event.
"The crowd was fantastic. Everybody was just too eager to see the two fighters," said ALA manager Michael Aldeguer, who was among those who waited at the lobby together with his ward Rey "Boom Boom" Bautista and AJ Banal.
De La Hoya made his own grand entrance at the hotel lobby at around 12:30 p.m. accompanied by GBP chief executive officer Richard Schaefer and trainer Freddie Roach.
The same group of fans who trooped to see Mayweather also lingered around to get a close look at De La Hoya, who has been secretly working out at a Las Vegas gym for days after arriving from his main training camp in Puerto Rico.
The golden boy then took part in a closed-door afternoon workout with Bautista and Banal. The two, along with Aldeguer and wife Christine, as well as an HBO crew were the only ones allowed inside the gym.
De La Hoya and Mayweather take part in today's final press conference before the official weigh-in this Friday.
Ring Magazine, the acknowledged bible of boxing, reported in its June 2007 issue that 12 out of 20 boxing experts it interviewed have favored Mayweather to defeat De la Hoya, with only 8 favoring the latter.
But Filipino ring icon Manny Pacquiao said in a recent interview with The Freeman's Emmanuel Villaruel that De La Hoya will win by unanimous decision over Mayweather.
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your bet on boxing needs.
Sports Betting News: NFL Team History | NFL Football Betting | College Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | College Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting