05/25/2007 - Mansfield, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mike Skinner won the pole for Saturday afternoon's Ohio 250 Craftsman Truck Series race at the Mansfield Motorsports Speedway. The No.5 Toyota Tundra circled the 0.500-mile short track in 16.382 seconds (109.877 m.p.h.). He just missed the qualifying record of 16.277 seconds set by Ron Hornaday Jr. in May 2005.
The pole victory was Skinner's fifth in a row, fifth of seven this season and record 37th of his truck career. Skinner's five consecutive poles are still well behind his own record of eight straight poles which he accomplished in 1995.
Starting next to Skinner on the front row will be Rick Crawford who posted a second-best time of 16.463 seconds.
Defending series champion Todd Bodine (16.538) and Johnny Benson (16.565) will make up row two.
Skinner leads the series in points (1,052), winnings ($242,950), laps led (444), wins (3), poles (4), top-5 finishes (5) and races led (6). Its no wonder that he holds a commanding 85-point lead over defending series champion Bodine and 106 points over Hornaday Jr.
Hornaday Jr. (starting 9th) is the defending champion. He edged Jack Sprague by 0.961 seconds in a caution-filled event (18 flags for 85 laps). Hornaday Jr. also won last week's race at Lowe's and is the series record holder with 30 wins all-time.
The race is set to drop the green flag on Saturday at 1 p.m. (et).
<< Braves' Gonzalez needs Tommy John surgery; season over
Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Atlanta Braves general manager John Schuerholz
announced on Friday that reliever Mike Gonzalez needs to undergo Tommy John
surgery to repair a slight ligament tear in the lower part of his left elbow.
An M
<< U.S. men to play Catalonia, Switzerland in Europe
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The United States men's national team will
play two more friendlies in Europe this year, announcing games vs. Catalonia
and Switzerland on Friday.
The U.S. plays Catalonia, a autonomous community within
<< Mariners place Ramirez on DL
Kansas City, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Seattle Mariners placed starting
pitcher Horacio Ramirez on the 15-day disabled list with tendinitis in his
left shoulder.
Ramirez felt stiffness in his left shoulder in his start Thursd
<< Duquesne freshman Grote to transfer
Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Duquesne University basketball coach Ron
Everhart announced on Friday that freshman guard/forward Scott Grote has
received his release from the school.
"Scott informed me that he decided it woul
Three share lead in Maryland >>
Mitchellville, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jaco Van Zyl fired a seven-under 65
Friday to move into a share of the lead after two rounds of the inaugural
Melwood Prince George's County Open.
He was joined atop the leaderboard at The C
Romero still leads Senior PGA >>
Kiawah Island, SC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Eduardo Romero shot a two-under 70 in the
second round of the Senior PGA Championship on Friday, increasing his lead to
two shots as the first major of the Champions Tour season heads to the
weekend
Clemens to pitch at Triple-A level Monday >>
Bronx, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Yankees announced Friday that seven-time Cy
Young Award winner Roger Clemens will start for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre
Monday in a game against the visiting Toledo Mud Hens.
Assuming that will be Cleme
Cubs/Cardinals reschedule postponed game to September 14 >>
St. Louis, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The St. Louis Cardinals announced Friday that
the game against the Chicago Cubs that was postponed April 29 following the
death of pitcher Josh Hancock, will be made up as part of a day-night
doubleh
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 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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