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10/20/2007 - Martinsville, VA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jack Sprague captured the pole for Saturday afternoon's Kroger 200 Craftsman Truck Series race at the Martinsville Speedway. The No.60 Toyota circled the tiny 0.526-mile short track in 19.796 seconds (95.656 m.p.h.).
The pole victory was Sprague's second of the season and 31st of his truck career.
Starting with Sprague on the front row will be Matt Crafton, who posted a time of 19.939 seconds.
Denny Hamlin (19.948) and Mike Skinner (19.953) will make up row two.
After weeks and weeks of following Skinner in the standings, Ron Hornaday Jr. has held the top spot for three of the last four races. Hornaday Jr. took over the championship lead at the Gateway International Raceway in the first race of September after Skinner had held the lead from race No.3 and kept it for 14 straight weeks.
Hornaday Jr.'s margin was just four little points after Gateway and it is still a tenuous lead - just 14 point. He will start 14th today.
Back in March at Martinsville, Skinner won in dominant fashion, leading all but seven laps. His trip to Victory Lane was rarely in doubt. The No.5 Toyota has two career wins at Martinsville and three consecutive top-10s. He also leads the series in driver rating (117.2), winnings ($613,800), laps led (970), poles (9) and top-fives (14).
Hornaday Jr. has never won at Martinsville and while he finished sixth in March, couldn't crack the top-10 in either 2006 race.
The race is set to drop the green flag on Saturday at 3 p.m. (et).
<< Federer rolls into Madrid final; Djokovic knocked off
Madrid, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Roger Federer looked every bit the World
No. 1 in a straight-set semifinal victory, while David Nalbandian beat his
second consecutive star to advance at the $2.95 million Madrid Masters.
The defend
<< Schweinsteiger lifts Bayern to another win
Bochum, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Bastian Schweinsteiger scored the game-
winning goal 12 minutes from time to give Bayern Munich a 2-1 win against
Bochum at Rewirpower Stadion on Saturday.
With the win, Bayern maintains its unbea
<< Predators slide into San Jose
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Nashville Predators will try to snap a four-game losing
streak tonight when they clash with the San Jose Harks at HP Pavilion.
Despite an overhauled roster to begin the season after losing a host of
players via free ag
<< Red Wings land in Phoenix
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Henrik Zetterberg will try to extend his personal points
streak tonight, as the Detroit Red Wings conclude their current road trip in
Phoenix against the Coyotes at Jobing.com Arena.
Zetterberg has started the season on a
Alabama suspends five players for Tennessee game >>
Tuscaloosa, AL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The University of Alabama suspended five
football players prior to Saturday's game against Tennessee.
Offensive linemen Antoine Caldwell and Marlon Davis, defensive backs Marquis
Johnson and Chris Ro
Liverpool wins a wild one in Merseyside derby >>
Merseyside, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Dirk Kuyt scored two times from the
penalty spot in the second half, including the game-winner in the dying
moments, as Liverpool downed Everton 2-1 at Goodison Park in the Merseyside
derby.
Monaco's struggles continue at Lyon >>
Lyon, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Monaco lost its fifth straight game on
Saturday at the Stade de Gerland as they fell 3-1 to league-leaders Lyon, who
moved three points clear of second-place Nancy.
Monaco has now lost nine of its la
Vancsik keeps lead at Portugal Masters >>
Vilamoura, Portugal (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Last week, Daniel Vancsik carried a
two-shot lead into the final round of the Madrid Open only to be done in by a
quintuple-bogey at the fifth hole.
He's hoping for a better outcome this week.
V
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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