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01/29/2012 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A pair of Western Conference contenders meet in the Rockies Sunday when the Denver Nuggets entertain the Los Angeles Clippers at Pepsi Center.
The surprising Nuggets sport the second best record in the West and come into tonight's contest on a six-game run. Most recently, Rudy Fernandez poured in 23 points on Friday to lead four teammates in double-figures as Denver topped the Toronto Raptors, 96-81.
Danilo Gallinari, fresh off signing a four-year, $42 million dollar extension earlier in the week, dropped in 21 points and pulled down seven rebounds, while Nene finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds for the Nuggets, who improved to 7-2 at Pepsi Center. Andre Miller added 13 points and matched a season-high with 12 assists to go with six rebounds.
"I'm feeling good," Fernandez said. "I needed this game for my confidence. I'm very happy about the game."
The Nuggets earned their latest win without starting point guard Ty Lawson, who sat out with a sprained ankle. The North Carolina product has been listed as questionable for tonight's game but is expected to play.
The Clippers, meanwhile, lead the Pacific Division by one game over the Lakers and have alternated wins and losses over their past seven encounters. Most recently, Blake Griffin finished with 20 points, nine rebounds and eight assists, leading the Clips to a 98-91 victory over the Grizzlies at Staples Center on Thursday.
Chris Paul and Mo Williams each scored 18 points, while Caron Butler netted 16 to help Los Angeles rebounded from a loss to the rival Lakers on Wednesday. Paul also had seven rebounds and seven assists.
Tonight's contest will also mark the return of guard Chauncey Billups to Denver. The veteran spent three full seasons and parts of two others over two stints with his hometown team and was traded to New York in the Carmelo Anthony deal last season before signing with the Clips this offseason.
"Chauncey was huge because I was a young point guard coming into the game," Lawson told the Nuggets' website. "He's been everywhere I want to be. He's been an All-Star, he won a championship. I learned everything from him. He was very important to my development. It's going to fun playing against him."
The Clips, who are just 1-4 on the road this season, have won two straight over Denver after dropping the previous four in the series.
<< Wolverines visit Buckeyes in Big Ten showdown
Columbus, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 20th-ranked Michigan Wolverines head to
the Value City Arena today to take on the fourth-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes
with the first place position in the Big Ten Conference standings at stake.
This will be
<< Tar Heels put lengthy home win streak on line vs. Yellow Jackets
Chapel Hill, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The seventh-ranked North Carolina Tar Heels
will try to make it 31 in a row at home tonight when they host the Georgia
Tech Yellow Jackets in an Atlantic Coast Conference battle at the Smith
Center.
This w
<< Hoosiers host Hawkeyes in Big Ten battle
Bloomington, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ranked 16th in the nation to close out the
week, the Indiana Hoosiers try to get back to .500 in Big Ten Conference play
this evening as they entertain the Iowa Hawkeyes at Assembly Hall in
Bloomington.
Si
<< Wolves aim to snap long skid vs. Lakers
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Lakers will finish a two-day tour of the Midwest on
Sunday aiming for their 16th consecutive win over the much-improved Minnesota
Timberwolves.
The Wolves haven't beaten LA since March 6, 2007 but this is a much differ
De Jong's hat trick moves Twente into second >>
Enschede, Netherlands (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Luuk de Jong's hat trick propelled
Twente to a 4-1 win over Groningen on Sunday, moving the club past third-
place AZ Alkmaar on goal difference.
AZ's surprising 2-0 defeat to Roda on Saturday
Bledsoe back with Clippers >>
Denver, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Clippers guard Eric Bledsoe is back with the
team after being recalled from Bakersfield of the NBA Development League on
Sunday.
Bledsoe has not played for Los Angeles this season because of a right k
Time to take the Sixers' temperature >>
Philadelphia, PA (The Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Back when I was covering the NFL,
Bill Parcells was a constant source of wisdom for me.
One of my favorite Parcells' quotes is his famous "You are what your record
says you are" rant.
If that's true
Monchengladbach topples Stuttgart to keep pace >>
Stuttgart, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Monchengladbach remained within one
point of the Bundesliga summit on Sunday after a 3-0 win at Stuttgart.
Mike Hanke's first-half goal gave the visitors a halftime lead before Marco
Reus and Igo
Recently I had an email debate with an angry reader who said I did not understand "the science of oddsmaking", as he called it.
He said I was wrong for suggesting oddsmakers care about who wins or loses games.
"Oddsmakers only care about splitting the betting public 50/50 on both sides of the line and keeping the commission (a.k.a. juice)," he wrote.
He might have been right about not understanding "the science of oddsmaking". After all, I'm not an oddsmaker. That said, I stick to my assertion that oddsmakers (a.k.a. sportbooks) often do care about who wins games.
Granted, as a general rule, sportsbooks try to balance their action so that they're not exposed to big losses. However, there are times when this is difficult to pull off, regardless of how much a line has moved. There are also times when that general rule is ignored and a book pursues risk.
Generally speaking, it's safe to say the books in Vegas are risk-adverse. Unlike in the past when the wise guys ruled the town, Vegas is now corporate and the goal of most casinos is to make as much money as possible with as little risk as possible.
Thus, Vegas sportsbooks try everything in their power to balance the action. They're satisfied simply collecting the juice. But these profits are small, especially compared to the take from other casino games, namely slot machines.
Because the profits at Vegas sportsbooks are so small, you could argue that many casinos operate sportsbooks simply as a novelty to keep the tourists happy.
With a growing aversion to risk, it should come as no surprise that Vegas bookmakers have been panicking this NFL season.
Despite huge pointspreads, a disproportionate percentage of bettors are still laying their money on favorites like the Eagles, Colts, Pats and Vikings rather than the dogs (a common trend for the largely recreational bettors that visit Vegas).
And much to the dismay of the books, those favorites are finding ways to cover the thick chalk. In fact, prior to Week 7, the four teams listed above are a combined 16-2-2 (88 percent) against the spread. (The tables turned dramatically in Week 7, but more on that later.)
The result has been an early-season beating for the books, and a bonanza for bettors.
While Vegas increasingly hates risk, it's no longer a major player in the sports betting world. Most of the betting action now takes place offshore where sportsbooks are not as obsessed about balance. In fact, some books encourage exposure to risk because the rewards can be so much bigger.
Consider MySportsbook.com. On its website, the book has odds pages which actually display the amount of action it's getting on games. In other words, you can see how much action the book is taking on both sides of a pointspread, moneyline or over/under.
One look at these numbers and it's obvious MySportsbook.com does not balance every game. In fact, far from it.
Take last weekend's matchup between St. Louis and Miami. By game time on Sunday, 83 percent of the betting action at MySportsbook.com was on the Rams; only 17 percent was on Miami.
What's interesting is that MySportsbook.com opened the pointspread with Miami at +6 1/2. By game time, the spread had lowered to +5.
That goes contrary to the balancing theory. If MySportsbook.com had wanted to balance the action, it would have given Miami more points; instead, it took away 1 1/2. World Series odds are now up as well.
MySportsbook.com exposed itself to even more to risk, and rolled the dice on the underdog Dolphins. Why? I contacted a representative with the book to find out. His answer was simple.
"The line moved early based on 'smart money' from sharp players," said Jeff Gilroy, a spokesperson for the book. "We also knew from early in the week that we would need Miami, therefore (we dropped) the spread to encourage Rams money.
"At the end of the day, we liked the home team."
So the conclusion is this: MySportsbook.com respected the sharp action, and gambled that the sharp bettors had a better take on the game than the recreational bettors, who were hammering the visiting Rams.
In the end, the gamble paid off. Miami, desperate for a win in front of its home fans, pounded the overrated Rams, who are terrible on the road and even worse on grass. Final score: 31-14 Fish.
MySportsbook.com was also heavily exposed on numerous favorites in Week 7, including Philadelphia, Seattle and Denver. All three failed to cover.
The fact that sportsbooks are exposed to risk on certain games is really nothing new. The fact, that Sportsbook.com is willing to show the public where it's exposed is intriguing.
Armed with this type of information, bettors can make more educated wagers. They can get an idea where the sharp money is going and conversely where the public money is headed.
MySportsbook.com is opening up its cashbox, letting bettors look inside and challenging them to take their best shot at grabbing the cash.
To visit this online football betting got to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting odds needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.
MySportsbook.com: New College Football Clock Rules Examined
Coaches and bettors alike are desperate to make sense of the new time-keeping rules on the NCAA gridiron. One of the big stories to come out of the Ohio State-Texas clash last weekend was Texas coach Mack Brown's criticism of the NCAA's new clock rules that are intended to shorten the duration of college football games, therefore affecting college football betting.
"They scored with six minutes left and the game was over before we had a chance to do anything," Brown told ESPN.com. "I really hope whoever made these changes will go back and look them over."
Sure, it might be sour grapes; the Buckeyes thoroughly trounced the defending national champion Longhorns 24-7. However, Brown isn't alone in giving the changes their due thought. Bettors are also wondering about them, albeit for a completely different reason. Most experts agree that the changes will result in games being shortened by anywhere from 10 to 20 plays. The obvious consequence is lower scores, with more time rolling off the clock during changes of possession. (The Ohio State-Texas game flew well under the total of 52.)
According to research at the online sportsbook MySportsbook.com, more than 18 plays a game disappeared last weekend into thin air. That's a 10-percent reduction. In 2005, a typical game had 168.58 plays. For 2007 already, it's down to 150.26.
As a result, teams combined to gain an average of about 100 fewer yards a game last weekend versus the 2005 openers. Scoring was also down by about 4.5 points (attention Las Vegas sports lines).
Of course, oddsmakers were able to adjust to the changes before the season started. Proof of that came as the over went a balanced 8-9 at My Sportsbook on Saturday.
Other angles to consider:A shorter game should theoretically result in shorter lines. Whereas Team A might have been a 14-point favorite in a 168-play game (last year), if there are 10 percent less snaps in 2007, the line should also be reduced by 10 percent (to 13 or 12.5). Of course, this is an over-simplification of the matter, but something to keep in mind.
Less possessions means a better chance the game will be decided by three or seven points. For example, what might have been a 20-10 final score in 2005 may end at
17-10 in 2007. Granted, a 24-17 game last year might end at 21-17 these days, but the former - a three- or seven-point advantage being preserved as opposed to created - is the most likely scenario.
*UPDATE* - Sept. 25, 2007
New Clock Rules Boon for online bookmakers
By adjusting the time-keeping rules to shorten the duration of college football games, the NCAA hoped to make its product more enjoyable for the fans. While the NCAA's success in this regard is still up for debate, bookmakers couldn't be happier with the results.
"We are seeing a massive jump in college football betting," noted the MySportsbook.com management team. "With all the early Saturday games (12 a.m. ET) ending before the second wave begins (3:30 p.m. ET) - something that didn't always happen before the changes - bettors are now able to re-invest their winnings from the morning session in the afternoon games."
While not all bettors will choose to roll over their winnings, it doesn't take much for an impact to be seen on the bottom line. "Not all of the millions of dollars in morning payouts get re-bet. In fact, it's probably only 10 to 20 percent," noted the sportsbook management team. "Still, the increased football betting lines window will create a ton of growth for us over the course of the season."
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