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02/18/2007 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Two Pacific Division powers will collide this afternoon at the American Airlines Center, where the Dallas Stars host a San Jose Sharks club looking to stop a two-game losing streak.
San Jose currently resides in second place in the rugged Pacific with 73 points, three more than the Stars, who have played one fewer game than the Sharks. Both clubs are looking up at Anaheim, who leads the division with 78 points, in the standings.
Dallas has been the better of the two teams of late, as the Stars had won three straight games before being overtaken by powerful Detroit on Wednesday. Henrik Zetterberg scored the tiebreaking goal with 4:36 remaining in the third period and the Red Wings tacked on an empty-netter in the final seconds to come away with a 3-1 victory at the American Airlines Center.
Mike Ribeiro scored the lone goal for the Stars, who mustered just 18 shots on the evening. Mike Smith finished with 29 saves between the pipes.
Dallas wraps up a five-game homestand this afternoon and brings an 18-9-1 record as the host into this showdown.
The Sharks will be playing the fifth test of a grueling eight-game road trip. After winning the first two contests of the swing, San Jose has been shut out in back-to-back games against Nashville and Columbus.
On Friday, Fredrik Norrena turned aside all 29 shots he faced to lead the Blue Jackets to a 3-0 triumph. It marked the first time since January 26-30, 1999 that the Sharks were blanked in consecutive contests.
San Jose was without captain Patrick Marleau, who sat out with an upper body injury and is questionable to return to the lineup today. The star center, who leads the club with 29 goals, had a string of 173 straight games played come to an end.
The Sharks did make a move towards bolstering their offense on Friday, re- acquiring veteran forward Alex Korolyuk from New Jersey for a conditional third-round draft choice. The 31-year-old spent six seasons in San Jose from 1997-2004 and totaled 62 goals and 80 assists in 296 games.
Korolyuk, who has not played in the NHL since the lockout, was in his native Russia at the time of the trade and is expected to join the team later this week.
In other injury news, Dallas center Eric Lindros is expected to miss his third straight contest with a lower body injury.
The Stars have won four of the six meetings between the rivals this season, although the teams have split a pair of games in Dallas. The road team has emerged victorious in each of the last four matchups in this series.
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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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