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Milan, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - AC Milan's midfield duo of Gennaro Gattuso and Alberto Aquilani has been ruled out of Sunday's derby with Inter Milan. Gattuso has been diagnosed with an eye disease called ocular myasthenia, which he picked up while on the club's recent trip to Dubai, while Aquilani is set to miss the next month because of an ankle injury.
Milan enters the derby eight points clear of Inter, which resides in fifth place.
The two-legged showdown in the quarterfinals of the competition will no doubt be a highly-anticipated event, but Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas is trying to keep his team focused on Saturday's task.
"We shouldn't obsess about the tie," Casillas told the club's official website when asked about Wednesday's fixture with Barca.
Real will be without midfielder Sami Khedira because of ligament damage to his ankle, with a return for the Germany international still yet to be determined.
Mallorca has claimed only one win from its last five matches in the league but administered a 6-1 thrashing to Real Sociedad in the Copa del Rey on Wednesday.
Saturday's other fixtures feature Granada hosting Rayo Vallecano in a clash of bottom-half teams, last-place Real Zaragoza entertains Getafe and Sevilla tries to snap a three-game losing streak when Espanyol visits the Sanchez Pizjuan.
Kansas City, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Atlanta Beat picked U.S. national team and UCLA forward Sydney Leroux No. 1 overall in the 2012 Women's Professional Soccer draft Friday. The 21-year-old Leroux scored 30 goals in 36 games for U.S. Under-20 national team from 2008-10. She made her debut for the U.S. senior side last year, when she was also a MAC Hermann Trophy semifinalist as the best college player.
"She is really, really fast; she is skilled; she makes very mature runs for her age, and she puts the ball in the back of the net. She was clearly always going to be our No. 1 pick."
She later moved to the U.S., and helped the U-20 side win the 2008 World Cup. Leroux debuted for the American senior side against Sweden last January.
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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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