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Tampa, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Tampa Bay Buccaneers named Mike Sullivan as their new offensive coordinator on Friday. Sullivan has spent the last eight seasons as a member of the New York Giants coaching staff and the past two years as the quarterbacks coach.
Prior to coaching the quarterbacks, Sullivan spent six seasons as the Giants wide receivers coach. His other NFL coaching experience includes being a defensive quality control coach and an offensive assistant with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Fontenot has spent the past six seasons in various offensive roles with the Packers, serving as assistant offensive line coach from 2007-10 before taking over the running backs last season.
McAdoo had been the tight ends coach for the past six seasons, while Van Pelt -- a former quarterback for the Buffalo Bills from 1995-2003 -- had been the quarterbacks coach for Tampa Bay the past two seasons. He also spent four years with the Bills' staff, first as offensive quality control coach from 2006-07, then as quarterbacks coach in 2008 and offensive coordinator in 2009.
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Randy Moss is apparently planning a comeback. Moss decided to retire last August after 13 NFL seasons and told an audience on UStream.tv Monday about trying to return for 2012. He just turned 35 years old on Monday.
Moss had a troubled 2010 season. It began with the New England Patriots, but bitterness over his contract situation -- he was in the final year of his deal -- led to an October 6 trade to the Minnesota Vikings, the team for which he started his career. Less than a month later, Moss was claimed off waivers by the Tennessee Titans.
Following his first stint with the Vikings, Moss played two years with the Oakland Raiders before joining the Patriots, who acquired the wide receiver for a fourth-round pick in the 2007 draft.
Jacksonville, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Jacksonville Jaguars have named Mark Lamping team president, new owner Shahid Khan announced Monday. Lamping, who has served as president and CEO of MetLife Stadium since 2008, will oversee all non-football operations.
Winnipeg, MB (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Winnipeg Blue Bombers re-signed quarterback Alex Brink to a new contract on Monday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. In eight games last season, including two starts, Brink threw for 1,023 yards and five touchdowns against four interceptions. Brink also rushed for 148 yards and six touchdowns.
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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