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07/21/2010 - Lake Forest, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Chicago Bears on Tuesday signed running back Harvey Unga, who the team selected in the seventh round of the supplemental draft last week.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the Chicago Tribune reported it is for four years, along with a signing bonus worth approximately $60,250.
Unga finished his collegiate tenure at BYU as the school's all-time leading rusher with 3,455 yards and added 36 rushing touchdowns over four seasons (2006-09) with the Cougars. He departed school in a cloud of suspicion, though, after breaking the school's strict honor code. His girlfriend, former BYU women's basketball player Keilani Moeaki, also left school for that reason.
The native of Provo, Utah is expected to compete for a third-string running back slot, according to the Tribune.
In other roster moves, the Bears released defensive tackle Jimmy Saddler- McQueen and wide receiver Vic Hall.
<< Longoria, Rays edge O's to take series
Baltimore, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Evan Longoria homered, doubled and drove
in the game-winning run with a walk, as the Tampa Bay Rays held on for 5-4
win over the Baltimore Orioles in the rubber match of a three-game set at
Camden
<< Liriano and Twins shut down Tribe and their win streak
Minneapolis, MN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Francisco Liriano pitched seven shutout
innings, and the Minnesota Twins avoided their first home sweep of the season
with a 6-0 win over the Cleveland Indians.
Liriano (8-7) allowed six hits and walk
<< Szczur, Thomas headline All-CAA team
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Villanova and Richmond, the last two FCS
champions, lead the way on the Preseason All-CAA Football Team with eight and
seven selections, respectively.
Villanova senior Matt Szczur was named in two spots, a
<< Blazers officially sign G Matthews
Portland, OR (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Portland Trail Blazers have
officially signed restricted free-agent guard Wesley Matthews.
As per club policy, no terms of the deal were announced. However, a report in
the Oregonian last
Chakvetadze a surprise second-round winner in Slovenia >>
Portoroz, Slovenia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Unseeded Russian Anna Chakvetadze
scored a surprise victory in second-round action at the Slovenia Open.
On Wednesday, Chakvetadze dismantled four-seed Italian Sara Errani by a 6-1,
6-2 count in
Yankees outslug Angels to earn series split >>
Bronx, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mark Teixeira went 3-for-5 with a pair of
doubles and three runs batted in, as the New York Yankees outlasted the Los
Angeles Angles of Anaheim, 10-6, in the finale of a brief two-game set.
Rookie Col
Greinke and Pena lead Royals past Jays >>
Kansas City, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Zack Greinke allowed two runs and struck
out nine in eight strong innings, leading the Kansas City Royals to a 5-2 win
over the Toronto Blue Jays in the rubber match of a three-game series.
Greinke (6-
Melzer advances at Hamburg as more seeded players fall >>
Hamburg, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Third-seeded Austrian Jurgen Melzer was
among the second-round winners Wednesday at the German Open Tennis
Championships, while more seeded players fell out of the tournament.
Melzer advanc
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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