 |
 Basketball Betting |
 |
||||
|
 |
||||
|
||||
This Week in Golf -- February 16th through February 19thGolf Betting Lines02/13/2012 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - PGA TOUR - NORTHERN TRUST OPEN - Riviera Country Club, Pacific Palisades, California - A week after crushing the field in the final round at Pebble Beach, Phil Mickelson heads to Hogan's Alley to see if he can keep the momentum going. Mickelson fired an eight-under 64, while paired alongside Tiger Woods, to win the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am by two strokes. The victory was his 40th on PGA Tour and two of those have come at the Northern Trust Open. Mickelson beat Jeff Quinney by two strokes in 2008 and fended off Steve Stricker by a shot the following year. Stricker came back to win the title in 2010, but neither he nor Mickelson contended last year. Aaron Baddeley was one of five players to break par in every round last year, but was the only one to card all four rounds in the 60s en route to a two- stroke win over Vijay Singh. For Baddeley, it was his third PGA Tour victory, but by far his biggest. The win came four years after his previous tour title. Baddeley is coming off a fourth place finish at Pebble Beach, and has three top-30 finishes in four starts this year. He'll have plenty of competition this week in his title defense. World No. 1 Luke Donald will make his first PGA Tour start of the season, and just his second start worldwide. Along with Mickelson and Donald, two-time winner Fred Couples will be making his 30th appearance at this event and is one of eight former champions playing this week. Six of the last seven winners are competing this week, including a pair of Australians -- Rory Sabbatini and Adam Scott, who is making his season-debut at Riviera. Also in the field this week are a pair of college standouts - Jordan Spieth of Texas and Patrick Cantlay of UCLA. Spieth is currently the second-ranked collegiate player, while Cantlay is the top-ranked amateur golfer in the world. Golf Channel and CBS will split the broadcast this week. There are a pair of PGA Tour events next week. Donald will be in Arizona to defend his title at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, while the remainder of the tour will be in Mexico for the Mayakoba Golf Classic. Johnson Wagner won that title last year. EUROPEAN TOUR AVANTHA MASTERS - DLF Golf & Country Club, New Delhi, India - India native S.S.P. Chowrasia closed with back-to-back 67s last year to earn his second European Tour title. Chowrasia, whose other tour win was at the 2008 Indian Masters, was in his third campaign on tour and the win was one of just four cuts he made last year. He missed the cut in 16 events and withdrew from two others. The 33-year-old is off to a better start this season as he has made the cut in three of his four starts. However, his best finish was a share of 24th at the Volvo Golf Champions. Robert Coles handed Chowrasia the title in regulation last year, as Coles bogeyed the final hole to fall one back. Chowrasia's countryman Jeev Milkha Singh, who was the first Indian to qualify for the European Tour, will also be in the field. There will be a trio of Americans in the field as well - former major winners Todd Hamilton and John Daly along with Peter Uihlein, who was the top-ranked amateur in the world before turning pro. Golf Channel will have tape-delayed coverage of all four rounds. The European Tour will be in the United States for its next two events. First up is the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, where world No. 1 Luke Donald will defend his title. After a week off, Nick Watney will defend his crown at the WGC-Cadillac Championship. LPGA TOUR HONDA LPGA THAILAND - Siam Country Club (Pattaya Old Course), Chonburi, Thailand - Women's world No. 1 Yani Tseng ran away with this crown last year as she kicked off a run of four top-five finishes in her first five events. Tseng went on to win six more times, including two more major championships in 2011. She opened and closed the event with 66s en route to an easy five-stroke win over Michelle Wie. Tseng had four birdies on the back nine to pull away. The 23-year-old from Taiwan entered the event as the new world No. 1 after a pair of wins on the Ladies European Tour. Golf Channel will have tape-delayed coverage of all four rounds. The LPGA will wrap up its three-event Asian swing next week with the HSBC Women's Champions, Karrie Webb won by two strokes over Chie Arimura last year, while Tseng took third. CHAMPIONS TOUR ACE GROUP CLASSIC - TwinEagles Golf Club (Talon Course) Naples, Florida - Bernhard Langer cruised to victory at this event last year, but it was one of just three top-10 finishes on the season. Langer injured his thumb a couple weeks after this win and missed significant time. He played the following week at the Toshiba Classic, then didn't return to the tour until the U.S. Senior Open, which was the last weekend in July. The German opened with a 64, then carded consecutive 66s on the weekend to win by four strokes over Fred Funk. Langer has finished in the top four in all three of his starts at this tournament. The field includes 10 of the last 14 champions, including two-time winners Loren Roberts and Hale Irwin. Golf Channel has tape-delayed coverage all week. After a three-week break, the Champions Tour will return to action in California for the Toshiba Classic. Nick Price held off Mark Wiebe to win by a single stroke last year. NATIONWIDE TOUR PACIFIC RUBIALES COLOMBIA - Country Club de Bogota, Bogota, Colombia - The Nationwide Tour opens its 2012 season in Colombia this week and the event has a big name helping the cause. Former President Bill Clinton will be at the event on Tuesday and Wednesday and will play in the Pro-Am to boost the stature of the tournament. The Tuesday evening charity gala will support Clinton's foundation. The weather was the real winner last year. With bad weather the first couple days, the first round was not completed until Saturday morning. Brendan Pappas took the lead after round two and the third round started Sunday afternoon. More than two hours into the third round, more inclement weather moved in and the tournament was shortened to 36 holes. Pappas was declared the winner. It was his second tour victory. He will be on hand to defend his title. There is no television this week. The tour heads to Panama next week for the Panama Claro Championship, where Mathew Goggin won by two shots last year.
<< Ivanovic, Kuznetsova among first-day winners in Doha
Doha, Qatar (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ana Ivanovic of Serbia and Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia were among the winners Monday on the first day of main draw action at the Qatar Open. The 13th-seeded Ivanovic was ahead 6-1, 4-1 when Spain's Carla
<< Van Basten to take charge of Heerenveen
<< Korda cracks top 100 in women's rankings
<< Sa Pinto replaces Paciencia at Sporting
<< Tretschok, Covic take charge of Hertha temporarily
The Sixth Man: Lin proving the skeptics wrong >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - If an unproven scriptwriter took Jeremy Lin's story to Hollywood a month ago, he would have probably been thrown out on his ear. "Too unrealistic, kid," a jaded Tinseltown exec likely would have told the
Smith, Malkin, Perron named NHL's 'Three Stars' >>
Baylor still women's No. 1, UConn second >>
Oilers ink Sutton to extension >>
Union adds MLS veteran Albright >>
Sportsbooks to bet on footballRecently 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. |
|
