 |
 Basketball Betting |
 |
||||
|
 |
||||
|
||||
Spezza lifts Ottawa over NashvilleHockey Betting Lines02/09/2012 - Ottawa, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jason Spezza netted two goals and added an assist, leading the Ottawa Senators to a 4-3 win over the Nashville Predators at Scotiabank Place. Chris Phillips -- playing in his 1,000th NHL game -- contributed in a big way with a pair of goals, while Milan Michalek and Bobby Butler added a pair of assists apiece for the Senators, who snapped a seven-game skid. Alex Auld made 24 saves in the victory. Martin Erat had a goal and an assist, while Patric Hornqvist and Gabriel Bourque scored and Ryan Suter added two assists for the Predators, who have dropped three of their last four. Pekka Rinne was tagged for all four goals on 29 shots. Ottawa struck first at 4:46 of the opening period when Spezza accepted a pass on the left wing, crossed the blue line with speed and wired a quick wrister high past Rinne. Nashville answered to tie the game at 18:46 of the first frame after Bourque buried a wrister past Auld off a nice drop pass in the slot from Jordan Tootoo. Phillips picked up his first tally of the game at 7:50 of the second frame when he took a feed from Suter and snapped a wrister home from the slot to give the Sens the lead back at 2-1. But, the Preds tied it at two with a power-play tally at 12:40 of the second frame when Ryan Suter let a simple wrist shot go from the left point that was deflected past Anderson by a perfectly-positioned Hornqvist in front. The Senators though, responded with a power-play goal of their own with 1:05 to play in the second period as a result of some sloppy play by Nashville in its defensive zone. After winning a faceoff to the left of Rinne, Nick Spaling attempted to take the puck around behind the net, but it was knocked off his stick and put home by Spezza amid a mad scramble in front. Ottawa added a second power-play tally at 13:35 of the final stanza when Suter put a slap shot on net from the right point that was stopped by Rinne, but Phillips was there to stuff home the rebound for his second goal of the game and a 4-2 Sens lead. Erat jammed home a rebound from in close with just 10 seconds left in regulation to pull Nashville to within 4-3, but it was too little, too late as the Sens held on for the win. Game Notes Nashville fell to 26-3-3 when scoring more than two goals,..Predators' forward Mike Fisher played his first game in Ottawa since being traded to Nashville last season. Fisher was taken by the Senators in the second round of the 1998 draft and played 10 full seasons with the club. He finished with a plus-1 rating in 17:36 of ice time...Nashville finished 1-for-5 on the power play, while the Senators went 2-for-6 with the man advantage.
<< Richards lifts Rangers over Lightning in OT
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Brad Richards scored 2:37 into overtime, lifting the New York Rangers to a 4-3 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday night. Ryan Callahan, Derek Stepan and Brian Boyle also scored for the R
<< Tennessee State shocks Murray State, topples nation's last unbeaten
<< Stars jump on Jackets early, hold on
<< Clemmensen, Panthers beat Kings for first time in almost a decade
<< Jets rally late, beat Capitals in shootout
Indiana pulls away from Illinois >>
Bloomington, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Cody Zeller dropped a game-high 22 points to lead four Hoosiers in double figures as Indiana rolled past Illinois, 84-71, at Assembly Hall on Thursday. Christian Watford, Victor Oladipo, and Jorda
Canucks keep Wild reeling >>
Rockets use strong bench effort to down Suns >>
Detroit shocks unbeaten Green Bay >>
Curry leads Golden State past Denver >>
Betting the NFL preseasonRule No. 1 in the gamblers' handbook states, "Avoid sports betting on meaningless games." When you're drowning in a sea of baseball monotony, however, things change. Even a hint of pro football betting can persuade the most disciplined bettor to break a few rules. The NFL preseason is around the corner, with a tempting Hall of Fame match kicking off on Sunday. But bettors must stay vigilant. Wagering on NFL exhibition games is an entirely different beast than the regular season. Most fans don't recognize the players on the field because starters get as much action in August as Warcraft fans get on Prom night. The only certainty about the NFL this time of year is uncertainty – and yet there are some who say betting in August can be a gold mine. “I actually feel the NFL preseason presents solid profit opportunities for sharp bettors and handicappers,” Sports Expert Steve Merril explains. “My experience has been that the sportsbooks fear the preseason, which is evident by lower limits and massive moves.” The line moves are attributed to the limited knowledge available regarding playing-time distribution. One team’s top unit out on the field for one more series has an impact on the pointspread. Setting lines in the preseason often is a shot in the dark. “We base the betting lines mostly on public perception,” Pete Korner, founder of the Sports Club in Las Vegas, says. “It’s very tough to predict, almost a guessing game.” The preseason is all about figuring out who’s in and for how long. “It becomes a race between bettors and oddsmakers to find out how long the quarterbacks are going to stay in,” Korner admits. “If a sharp gets the information first, he could exploit an early line. I’m a full believer in moving the line in the preseason if the books find out something late in the week.” Determining what each team’s motive is can help bettors handicap. To do this you must pay close attention to the philosophies head coaches employ in exhibition play. “You need to know what a coach is trying to accomplish,” says Covers Expert Bryan Leonard. “Sometimes a new coach will want to instill a winning attitude. Others just want to make sure their starters don’t get hurt." So how do you distinguish who’s playing scared and who’s playing for keeps? “Head coaches on the hot seat or new coaches trying to implement a winning attitude usually try harder to win in the preseason,” Merril says. Cleveland Browns head coach Romeo Crennel fits this criteria. He’s entering his third season as the sideline boss and has yet to lead the Browns to more than six wins. Cleveland is an enticing bet as well because of the unresolved quarterback situation. General manager Phil Savage sacrificed the Browns’ first-round pick in next year’s draft for Brady Quinn, but the former Notre Dame quarterback hasn’t signed or reported to training camp yet. Charlie Frye and Derek Anderson split time at QB last season and it looks like either player (or even Quinn) could be the opening-day starter. “If a team has quarterback depth and the pecking order hasn’t been decided, it’s a big advantage,” Leonard says. Even in the third week of the preseason when starters generally play the most, the final outcome of the game is in the hands of fringe players. A team's talent, all the way down to the last man on the roster, is something to consider. The New England Patriots have long been considered one of the deeper teams in the NFL and coach Bill Belichick has said in the past he’s unafraid of stars getting hurt in games with nothing on the line. He shocked his colleagues in 2003 by playing some of his starters on special teams in the preseason. “We want to have the team ready to play a tough, physical game and preparation has to go into that and I imagine a certain amount of injuries go with it,” Belichick told the Providence Journal in August 2003. Bettors can only hope to find more teams that share the Pats' business-like approach to the preseason (New England is 17-9-3 against the spread since 2000) and take advantage of teams who detest the exhibition schedule. To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your bet on football needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.
FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 millionIn the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree. And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so. Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal. So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them. Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.) The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money. As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached. The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs. In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season. Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done. And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting. So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year. There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve. So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal. And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million. There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.) Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft. Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey. Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year. So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation. To visit this sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your college football betting needs. |
|
