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Bandon, OR (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Cheyenne Woods, the stroke-play medalist, picked up a 4 & 3 win Wednesday at the U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links Championship. Woods, the niece of Tiger Woods, took down Ashley Edwards in the first round and will face Bethany Wu in the second round on Thursday. Wu needed 19 holes to beat Ashlan Ramsey.
Defending champion Emily Tubert was a 4 & 2 winner over Mandi Morrow. Tubert will face Harin Lee in round two on Thursday. Last year's runner-up Lisa McCloskey fell 2 & 1 to Catherine Dolan.
Sally Watson. who played on the Great Britain and Ireland Curtis Cup team last year, earned a 2 & 1 win Wednesday.
The championship continues Thursday on the Bandon Trails course at Bandon Dunes with the second and third rounds. The Old Macdonald course will have the quarters and semis on Friday, as well as the 36-hole final on Saturday.
Traditionally a five-round tournament where pros tee it up with amateurs, the Humana Challenge trimmed the championship back to four rounds. Professionals will team with different amateur partners over the first three rounds. The top 70 professionals make the 54-hole cut and the winner will get the newly- created Bob Hope Trophy.
The number of courses in the rotation was trimmed as well. LaQuinta Country Club, PGA West Nicklaus Private Course and PGA West Palmer Private will remain part of the tournament, but SilverRock Resort was dropped.
Paris, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Australian Richard Green and Englishman Graeme Storm both posted rounds of six-under 65 on Thursday to share the first-round lead of the Open de France. George Coetzee got to seven-under par, but bogeyed 15 and 17 to shoot a five- under 66. He is tied for third place with Thorbjorn Olesen and James Morrison at Le Golf National.
World No. 4 Martin Kaymer carded a respectable even-par 71, but the man he beat in a playoff last year for the PGA Championship fared slightly worse on Thursday.
They're all chasing the co-leaders, who both played in the morning wave.
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Floyd Sparks Conference From Head
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Race Win Crush Crush Into Year
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Daytona Joins Series Over Race
Haas Leads Holes For Victory >>
Green Helps Philadelphia With Hunter >>
FC Dallas Leaves Ugo Down France >>
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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