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08/20/2010 - New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The National Basketball Association has suspended guard Delonte West for 10 games without pay for pleading guilty to carrying a concealed weapon and wearing, carrying, and transporting a handgun, in violation of the law of the state of Maryland.
West is currently a free agent after being traded by Cleveland to Minnesota last month and was then waived by the Timberwolves earlier this month.
If he signs with an NBA team, his suspension will begin with the first regular season league game he is eligible to play in.
In September, the St. Joseph's product was arrested following a traffic stop on his motorcycle for allegedly carrying a 8.5-inch Bowie-style knife, a 9mm Beretta, a Ruger .357 and a shotgun inside a guitar case that was hanging on his back.
West played the past 2 1/2 campaigns with Cleveland and averaged 8.8 points with 3.3 assists and 2.8 rebounds in 60 games, including three starts, last season.
The Wolves acquired West, along with Sebastian Telfair, in exchange for center Ryan Hollins and guard Ramon Sessions on July 26.
The 27-year-old West has also played for Boston and Seattle in his six-year career and has averaged 10.0 points with 3.7 assists and 3.1 rebounds in 364 games.
<< Marlins' Paulino suspended, placed on restricted list
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Florida Marlins catcher Ronny Paulino has
received a 50-game suspension for violating Major League Baseball's Joint Drug
Prevention and Treatment Program.
The team placed Paulino on the restricted lis
<< Rangers option P Holland, recall Kirkman
Arlington, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Texas Rangers have optioned pitcher Derek
Holland to Triple-A Oklahoma City and recalled pitcher Michael Kirkman from
the same club.
Holland was brought up earlier in the week to make a start against
<< Chicago squares off with Houston on short rest
Houston, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Chicago Fire travel to take on Houston for
their second Major League Soccer fixture in three days on Saturday night.
The Fire are coming off a 2-1 win over New England at Toyota park on
Wednesday
<< Marseille set to add Gignac from Toulouse
Marseille, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Marseille agreed Friday with Toulouse on
the transfer of France striker Andre-Pierre Gignac, who led Ligue 1 in scoring
one season ago.
The 24-year-old Gignac had 24 goals for Toulouse last season, and h
Red Sox put Pedroia back on DL >>
Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Boston Red Sox on Friday placed second
baseman Dustin Pedroia on the 15-day disabled list with a sore left foot.
Pedroia was originally put on the DL in late June due to a fracture of the
navicular
Blue Jays activate C Buck >>
Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Toronto Blue Jays activated catcher John
Buck from the 15-day disabled list on Friday.
He had been on the DL since August 4 with a right thumb injury after taking a
foul ball off his right hand in a 5
Schweinsteiger nets stoppage-time winner for Bayern >>
Munich, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Bastian Schweinsteiger scored in stoppage
time to lift Bayern Munich to a 2-1 win over Wolfsburg at the Allianz Arena on
Friday in the Bundesliga season opener.
Schweinsteiger directed a cross from Franck
Roddick, Fish into Cincy Masters >>
Mason, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former world No. 1 Andy Roddick and a hot
Mardy Fish were a pair of American quarterfinal winners Friday at the $3
million Western & Southern Financial Group Masters, a U.S. Open Series
event.
The ni
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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