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02/18/2012 - Madrid, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Karim Benzema netted a goal in each half as Real Madrid coasted to a 4-0 win over Racing at the Santiago Bernabeu on Saturday.
The result stretches Madrid's lead to 13 points over second-place Barcelona, which hosts Valencia on Sunday, while Racing remains in the bottom three, two points from safety.
Cristiano Ronaldo got the hosts off to a quick start as he had the ball in the net after just six minutes when he nodded home a headed pass from Kaka a few yards from goal.
Racing was then reduced to 10 men in the 39th minute when Domingo Cisma picked up a second yellow card after he handled the ball just outside the penalty area.
Benzema scored on the stroke of halftime to double the lead after he was played into the area on the left and threw a shot at the net from a tight angle that found its way past goalkeeper Tono.
Angel Di Maria's goal in the 73rd minute made it 3-0 as he scored with a well- struck shot from outside the area, while Benzema tallied his 13th goal of the campaign in the 89th on a deflected shot that gave Tono no chance.
Getafe 1, Espanyol 1
Getafe, Spain - Getafe and Espanyol shared the points at the Alfonso Perez Coliseum on Saturday as each side netted a second-half goal in the 1-1 draw.
Getafe had the better of the play in the first half but fell behind in the 66th minute when Alvaro Vasquez beat the offside trap and fired his shot past goalkeeper Miguel Moya.
But the home side was back on level terms four minutes later when Miku was brought down inside the penalty area by Thievy Bifouma, allowing the Venezuelan to pick himself up and beat goalkeeper Francisco Casilla from the spot.
Espanyol remains in fourth with the result but can be passed by a handful of teams in Sunday's matches, while Getafe stays in the middle of the table.
Sevilla 2, Osasuna 0
Seville, Spain - Sevilla snapped an eight-game winless run on Saturday by handing Osasuna a 2-0 defeat at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan.
Gary Medel fired Sevilla in front with a shot from outside the penalty area following a pass from Alvaro Negredo in the 16th minute.
But despite having the better of the play the home side wasn't able to kill off the match until stoppage time with Jesus Navas finding Piotr Trochowski in the center of the penalty area and the striker placing the ball into the upper corner of the net.
Sevilla climbs into the top half of the league after the win, with Osasuna having won once in seven games to stay in eighth.
<< Feyenoord denied by late Braber goal
Rotterdam, Netherlands (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Feyenoord was denied three points on
Saturday in the 87th minute when RKC Waalwijk's Robert Braber scored the
equalizer in a 1-1 draw at De Kuip Stadion.
Feyenoord was in position to claim a f
<< Juve turns back Catania to go top
Turin, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Juventus returned to the Serie A summit on
Saturday after securing a 3-1 win over Catania at home.
Juve had played to a pair of 0-0 draws in its last two matches and fell behind
inside of four minutes as
<< Almagro to face Volandri for Brazil title
Sao Paulo, Brazil (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Top seed and defending champion Nicolas
Almagro and Italian veteran Filippo Volandri were semifinal winners Saturday
and will meet for the title at the $475,300 Brasil Open.
The Spanish Almagro beat
<< Federer survives Davydenko, will face del Potro in Rotterdam final
Rotterdam, Netherlands (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Roger Federer needed three sets
and two hours, 15 minutes, but the Swiss world No. 3 took down Russian Nikolay
Davydenko to advance to the final at the ABN AMRO World tournament.
Top-seeded Fed
Mickelson, Bradley share lead at Riviera >>
Pacific Palisades, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Phil Mickelson struggled a bit on the
back nine Saturday, but did enough to share the third-round lead with reigning
PGA Champion Keegan Bradley at the Northern Trust Open.
Mickelson's primary problem
Air Force upends No. 13 San Diego State >>
Colorado Springs, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Michael Lyons poured in a game-high 27
points to go with four steals as Air Force knocked off 13th-ranked San Diego
State, 58-56, on Saturday.
Max Yon finished with 10 points, while Mike Fitzgeral
Streaking Spurs top Clippers in OT >>
Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Gary Neal sank five three-pointers,
including the game-tying shot with 5.7 seconds left in the fourth quarter and
the go-ahead trey late in overtime, to lead the San Antonio Spurs to their
10th st
Nets top Bulls, stop skid >>
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - New Jersey was going to snap its eight-game
losing streak sometime. Why not against the team with the best record in the
NBA?
Deron Williams scored 29 points and dished out eight assists as the New Jersey
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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