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02/22/2012 - Hallandale Beach, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Champion filly Royal Delta is ready to make her 2012 debut in Saturday's $100,000 Sabin Stakes at Gulfstream Park. The four-year-old will face four challengers in the 1 1/6-mile race.
Royal Delta, winner of last year's Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic, will once again have Jose Lezcano in the saddle and the pair will break from post two. Eclipse Award winner Bill Mott trains for Besilu Stables.
The filly is using the Sabin as a prep race for the $10 million Dubai World Cup on March 31 versus males.
"This is what it's all about," said Mott. "I'd like to see a good, solid effort in this race so we can look forward to Dubai. "She's doing really well. She's had a bit of a rest but her recent works have been good. She's showed she is willing to go long, willing to work, and she looks good doing it."
In 2011, Royal Delta won the Black-Eyed Susan and Alabama Stakes and was second to Havre de Grace in the Beldame. She's earned $1,694,600 in eight career starts with five wins.
"I think we're at a slight disadvantage at a mile-and-a-sixteenth," Mott noted. "It's a short wire turning for home and I don't think it plays into our filly's style. I don't think that's her best race, she's a bit of a stretch runner. I don't think the conditions are the most ideal but we're running in the race that's available."
Joining last year's champion three-year-old filly is Awesome Maria, winner of last year's Sabin. The five-year-old mare, trained by Todd Pletcher, has drawn to the outside of Royal Delta and will be ridden by her regular jockey John Velazquez.
"She's training exceptionally well," said Pletcher. "We've been a little frustrated because she's been ready to run for a little while. We tried to get her in an allowance race about a month ago which we didn't get to go. We've kind of landed in a difficult situation running off a long layoff in a tough race, but she's trained very well, she likes this track, so we're optimistic. She's a top class filly at a mile-and-a-sixteenth and so we'll hope for the best."
Owned by Paul Robsham, Awesome Maria is making her first start since June of last year when she won the Ogden Phipps Handicap at Belmont Park. Before being sidelined with an injury, she was perfect in all four 2011 starts, including the Sabin. The gray mare has earned $842,375 with seven wins in 12 career starts.
Here is the complete field in post position order: Ghostly Darkness, Rajiv Maragh; Royal Delta, Jose Lezcano; Awesome Maria, John Velazquez; Groupie Doll, Calvin Borel and Canadian Mistress, Elvis Trujillo.
Post-time for the Sabin is set for 3:50 p.m. (et).
<< Ivy power Penn to play two CAA teams
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Penn will play a difficult non-conference
schedule to try to set up a run for the Ivy League football title this year.
Penn announced its 10-game schedule on Wednesday and will play five home games
and fiv
<< Tsonga wins Marseille opener
Marseille, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Top-seeded former champion Jo-Wilfried
Tsonga was an easy second-round winner Wednesday at the Open 13 tennis event.
The 2009 Marseille titlist trounced fellow Frenchman Nicolas Mahut 6-3, 6-2 on
the i
<< Detriot Tigers
Agreed to terms with pitchers Matt Hoffman, Andy Oliver and Adam Wilk, infielder Hernan Perez and outfielder Andy Dirks.
<< Catania tops Siena to ease relegation worries
Siena, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Francesco Lodi's first-half penalty kick
handed Catania a 1-0 win at Siena on Wednesday that lifts the visitors nine
points clear of the relegation zone.
Wins have been scarce for both clubs in rece
This Week in Auto Racing February 23 - 26 >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Get ready for what is expected to be a
wild four days of racing at Daytona International Speedway, culminating with
Sunday's Daytona 500.
NASCAR
Sprint Cup Series
Daytona 500 - Daytona International
Hurricanes, Ruutu agree to 4-year extension >>
Raleigh, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Carolina Hurricanes agreed to terms with
forward Tuomo Ruutu on a four-year contract extension on Wednesday.
"Players like Tuomo are extremely difficult to replace, and it is very
important for
Company sues Marlins based on auction bid >>
Ft. Lauderdale, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Miami Marlins are being sued for
damages by a corporation that says it won a bid to buy the team at an auction
more than four years ago.
In a complaint filed in the 17th Judicial Circuit Court
Gatorade Duels: Who's in and who's not in the Daytona 500? >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Series: NASCAR Sprint Cup. Date: Thursday,
February 23. Race: Gatorade Duel twin-qualifying races. Site: Daytona
International Speedway. Track: 2.5-mile tri-oval. Start time: 2:00 p.m. (et).
Laps: 60 (each ra
Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"
A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."
Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.
In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.
"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."
Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.
But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"
Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.
This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.
Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.
In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.
No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.
And that's all any bettor can ask for.
To visit this sports book go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs.
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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