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05/08/2010 - Lille, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mathieu Debuchy scored in injury time to lead Lille to a 3-2 win over freshly-crowned champions Marseille on Saturday at the Stadium Lille Metropole.
Marseille, which Wednesday secured its first French Ligue 1 title since 1992, led after 80 minutes, but Tulio De Melo scored in the 81st and Debuchy added the game-winner on a header in extra time.
Yohan Cabaye also scored for Lille, which will enter the last week in second - which would secure group stage berth in the Champions League next season.
Auxerre is two points back in third following a 0-0 tie with Lens, and Lyon is four back with a game in hand following a 2-2 draw against Valenciennes.
Mamadou Niang scored in the sixth minute to take over the Ligue 1 scoring lead and hand Marseille and early lead, but Cabaye leveled in the 28th on a penalty kick that resulted from a red card to Marseille goalie Steve Mandanda.
Vitorino Hilton put Marseille back in front before half, but Lille grabbed the two late goals to steal the win.
De Melo scored off a header in the 81st, and Cabaye found Debuchy off a corner four minutes into stoppage time and he converted for the match-winner.
Lyon plays Monaco on Wednesday and, depending on the result, Lille could claim second with just a draw at Lorient next week. Lille would finish second with a win, regardless of how Lyon fares.
Auxerre settled for the scoreless tie, but still holds a Champions League spot as the third-place team. Auxerre has a two-point cushion on Lyon for the berth in the qualification rounds of the Champions League.
Lyon stayed in the chase for second thanks to an own goal from Dianbobo Balde, which came in extra time of its draw against Valenciennes. Lyon is fourth, but that's only good enough for a Europa League spot.
Victor Montano and Souleymane Camara converted penalty kicks in the first half as promoted Montpellier edged Lorient 2-1 to remain in contention for a berth in the Europa League.
Wendel and Benoit Tremoulinas scored as 2009 champion Bordeaux also stayed in the race for a Europa League berth with a 2-0 win over Sochaux.
Also Saturday, Monaco edged Nancy 2-1, Rennes tied Nice 2-2, Toulouse defeated St. Etienne 1-0, relegated Le Mans edged PSG 1-0 and relegated Grenoble topped fellow relegated side Boulogne.
<< Real Salt Lake makes Union pay for mistakes
Sandy, UT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kyle Beckerman and Jamison Olave took advantage
of defensive mistakes by Philadelphia to score their second goals of the year,
and Real Salt Lake beat the Union 3-0 on Saturday at Rio Tinto Stadium.
Alvaro Sabo
<< Fredette to return to BYU for senior season
Provo, UT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Brigham Young guard Jimmer Fredette announced on
Saturday he has withdrawn his name from the upcoming NBA Draft and will return
to play for the Cougars for his senior season.
Fredette led BYU to a program-record
<< Toronto FC rolls to 4-1 win over Chicago
Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chad Barrett scored twice, O'Brian White had a
goal and an assist and Toronto FC rolled to a 4-1 win over the Chicago Fire on
Saturday at BMO Field.
Nick LaBrocca also scored for Toronto FC (3-4-0), and leadin
<< Liverpool rules out selling Gerrard, Torres
Liverpool, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Liverpool chairman Martin Broughton has
ruled out the possibility of his club being forced to sell either Steven
Gerrard or Fernando Torres this summer.
England midfielder Gerrard and Spain strike
Late Rogers' goal pushes Crew past New England >>
Columbus, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Columbus Crew earned a hard-fought three
points by edging the New England Revolution 3-2 at Crew Stadium in Major
League Soccer action on Saturday night.
Robbie Rogers scored a stoppage-time goal
Karstens strong as Pirates blank Cards >>
Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jeff Karstens tossed six scoreless innings
and four Pirates relievers finished off the shutout, as Pittsburgh clawed out
a 2-0 win over St. Louis in the middle test of a three-game series.
Karstens (1-1)
Chicago's Peavy throws eight strong, snaps Toronto's streak >>
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jake Peavy allowed two runs in eight strong
innings, helping the White Sox beat the Blue Jays, 7-3, and snap Toronto's
six-game win streak in the third of four games at U.S. Cellular Field.
Peavy (2-2)
Fleury, Penguins handle Canadiens to take 3-2 series lead >>
Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 32 shots to help
the Pittsburgh Penguins take a 2-1 win and the series lead in Game 5 of their
Eastern Conference semifinal series against Montreal.
Fleury came just 29.7 seconds
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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