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03/18/2009 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Fresh off a historic night at home, the New Jersey Devils will head out on the road to visit the Carolina Hurricanes in tonight's clash at RBC Center.
The Devils hosted Chicago on Tuesday night and Martin Brodeur earned the victory for New Jersey to become the all-time winningest goaltender in NHL history.
Brodeur made 30 saves to help the Devils defeat the Blackhawks, 3-2, at Prudential Center. The 36-year-old Brodeur notched the 552nd win of his illustrious career to surpass Patrick Roy for the most victories in league history.
Lost in Brodeur's historic night was Patrik Elias becoming New Jersey's all- time leading scorer with an assist on a short-handed goal by Brian Gionta. The helper gave the slick playmaker, who has played his entire career with New Jersey, 702 points, breaking the mark of current Devils assistant coach John MacLean.
Jamie Langenbrunner and Travis Zajac also tallied for New Jersey, which has won four in a row and eight of its last nine overall. The Devils are leading the Atlantic Division with 95 points and are just four points in back of Boston for the conference lead.
A four-time Vezina Trophy winner, Brodeur, who tied the record in his hometown of Montreal on Saturday, backstopped the Devils to a franchise-record 10th straight win at home.
Brodeur is expected to get the night off tonight and Kevin Weekes will get the start instead.
The Devils, who are 21-10-2 as the guest this year, are playing four of their next five games on the road. New Jersey will return to Newark for Friday's test against Minnesota.
Meanwhile, the Hurricanes will try to get back on track tonight after suffering defeats in each of their past three contests. Prior to the current skid, Carolina had tied a season high with victories in its previous four outings.
Carolina is currently holding onto the eighth and final postseason berth in the East with 79 points, but Florida is just one point behind in ninth place.
The Hurricanes have picked up a point in two of their last three losses, going 0-1-2 in that span.
Carolina was able to salvage a point its last time out when it dropped Saturday's shootout decision at Washington. Alexander Semin and Alex Ovechkin scored in the shootout to lead the Capitals to the 5-4 decision at Verizon Center.
Semin flipped a forehand shot above Cam Ward's glove for the first goal for Washington, and Ovechkin sealed the win with a wrister through the goaltender's legs.
Eric Staal had a goal and two assists for Carolina. Ray Whitney and Erik Cole both notched a goal and an assist, while Niclas Wallin also scored in the loss. Ward stopped 27-of-31 shots in a losing effort.
Carolina, which is beginning a three-game homestand tonight, has won its last five games as the host. The Hurricanes are 19-13-1 at RBC this season.
The 'Canes beat the Devils in Raleigh on January 6 to earn their second straight victory overall against Jersey and their second in a row at home in the series as well. However, the Devils have still taken eight of the last 11 tests in this series overall and seven of the last 10 meetings at Carolina.
<< Clippers, Wizards to play for nothing but pride
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Two of the NBA's worst teams hook up in Hollywood
Wednesday, when the Los Angeles Clippers play host to the Washington Wizards
at Staples Center.
The Clippers lost for the eighth time in nine tries Tuesday in Oakland, wher
<< Surging Sixers try to remain hot in Phoenix
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Philadelphia 76ers hope to build on one of their
biggest wins of the season when they resume a key five-game road trip
Wednesday against the Phoenix Suns.
The Sixers won a thriller in Hollywood on Tuesday, when Andre I
<< Nuggets invade FedEx Forum in Memphis
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Denver Nuggets will be attempting to extend a pair of
winning streaks when the Northwest Division leaders invade FedEx Forum tonight
for a matchup with the Memphis Grizzlies.
Denver not only enters this evening's ba
<< Rockets to host injury-plagued Pistons
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Houston Rockets continue their push to the playoffs
Wednesday, when they welcome the reeling Detroit Pistons to the Toyota Center.
The Rockets, who are currently the third seed in the Western Conference
playoff race an
Blue Jackets host Blackhawks in Central showdown >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Columbus Blue Jackets will try to get back in the win
column tonight when they welcome the struggling Chicago Blackhawks for a
Central Division battle at Nationwide Arena.
The Blue Jackets, who are trying to make the p
Tourney '09: Breaking Down the Brackets >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The best three weeks in sports get
underway this week, with the NCAA Tournament set to start in earnest with
first-round action beginning on Thursday. The big winner coming into the event
has to be the Big Ea
Number One Seeds in Peril? >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The top teams are usually seeded high
for a reason. Six number one seeds, along with a pair of seconds, made up the
past two Final Fours, with a pair of ones ending up in each championship game.
Three of
Louisville: More than a basketball town >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - If you believe much of the pro-Cardinals
hype, the city of Louisville will witness history on the night of April 6.
Nevertheless, May 2 is still the most important day on the city's calendar.
The 135th Kent
Rule No. 1 in the gamblers' handbook states, "Avoid sports betting on meaningless games."
When you're drowning in a sea of baseball monotony, however, things change. Even a hint of pro football betting can persuade the most disciplined bettor to break a few rules.
The NFL preseason is around the corner, with a tempting Hall of Fame match kicking off on Sunday. But bettors must stay vigilant. Wagering on NFL exhibition games is an entirely different beast than the regular season. Most fans don't recognize the players on the field because starters get as much action in August as Warcraft fans get on Prom night.
The only certainty about the NFL this time of year is uncertainty – and yet there are some who say betting in August can be a gold mine.
“I actually feel the NFL preseason presents solid profit opportunities for sharp bettors and handicappers,” Sports Expert Steve Merril explains. “My experience has been that the sportsbooks fear the preseason, which is evident by lower limits and massive moves.”
The line moves are attributed to the limited knowledge available regarding playing-time distribution. One team’s top unit out on the field for one more series has an impact on the pointspread. Setting lines in the preseason often is a shot in the dark.
“We base the betting lines mostly on public perception,” Pete Korner, founder of the Sports Club in Las Vegas, says. “It’s very tough to predict, almost a guessing game.”
The preseason is all about figuring out who’s in and for how long.
“It becomes a race between bettors and oddsmakers to find out how long the quarterbacks are going to stay in,” Korner admits. “If a sharp gets the information first, he could exploit an early line. I’m a full believer in moving the line in the preseason if the books find out something late in the week.”
Determining what each team’s motive is can help bettors handicap. To do this you must pay close attention to the philosophies head coaches employ in exhibition play.
“You need to know what a coach is trying to accomplish,” says Covers Expert Bryan Leonard. “Sometimes a new coach will want to instill a winning attitude. Others just want to make sure their starters don’t get hurt."
So how do you distinguish who’s playing scared and who’s playing for keeps?
“Head coaches on the hot seat or new coaches trying to implement a winning attitude usually try harder to win in the preseason,” Merril says.
Cleveland Browns head coach Romeo Crennel fits this criteria. He’s entering his third season as the sideline boss and has yet to lead the Browns to more than six wins.
Cleveland is an enticing bet as well because of the unresolved quarterback situation. General manager Phil Savage sacrificed the Browns’ first-round pick in next year’s draft for Brady Quinn, but the former Notre Dame quarterback hasn’t signed or reported to training camp yet.
Charlie Frye and Derek Anderson split time at QB last season and it looks like either player (or even Quinn) could be the opening-day starter.
“If a team has quarterback depth and the pecking order hasn’t been decided, it’s a big advantage,” Leonard says.
Even in the third week of the preseason when starters generally play the most, the final outcome of the game is in the hands of fringe players. A team's talent, all the way down to the last man on the roster, is something to consider.
The New England Patriots have long been considered one of the deeper teams in the NFL and coach Bill Belichick has said in the past he’s unafraid of stars getting hurt in games with nothing on the line. He shocked his colleagues in 2003 by playing some of his starters on special teams in the preseason.
“We want to have the team ready to play a tough, physical game and preparation has to go into that and I imagine a certain amount of injuries go with it,” Belichick told the Providence Journal in August 2003.
Bettors can only hope to find more teams that share the Pats' business-like approach to the preseason (New England is 17-9-3 against the spread since 2000) and take advantage of teams who detest the exhibition schedule.
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your bet on football needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.
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.
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