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03/07/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Playing at home has been good as of late for the Atlanta Thrashers, who head back to Philips Arena tonight to take on the Carolina Hurricanes in a Southeast Division showdown.
Atlanta has won its last three tests as the host team and returned from the NHL's break for the Winter Olympics to post consecutive home victories over Florida and the New York Islanders. With a win this evening, the Thrashers will have recorded their longest winning streak at Philips Arena since a seven-game tear from March 2-18, 2007.
The Thrashers' home success bodes well for a possible postseason berth, as they will play seven of their next eight games in Atlanta. The club is currently tied for ninth in the Eastern Conference with 66 points, but just two behind Montreal for the eighth and final playoff seed.
Atlanta had gone 4-0-2 over its last six overall outings before stumbling at Tampa Bay last night, with the Lightning coming away with a 6-2 win behind a three-goal first period. Thrashers goaltender Johan Hedberg was victimized for all six goals on 30 shots and had a personal three-start winning streak halted.
"Everybody knows the situation (about the playoffs) and we have to be more aware when we're out there," forward Nik Antropov remarked afterward.
On a positive note, Niclas Bergfors scored one of Atlanta's two goals and continued his strong play since coming over from New Jersey as part of the February 4 trade that sent All-Star wing Ilya Kovalchuk to the Devils. The young Swede has now netted six goals in seven games since the swap.
Although the Hurricanes are a longshot to reach the postseason after dealing away a number of veteran players at Wednesday's trade deadline, they've still been a handful for opposing teams recently. Carolina had ripped off a season- best seven straight wins before Saturday's 4-1 loss to Florida, and dealt the Thrashers a 5-2 defeat in their most recent trip to Philips Arena back on January 21.
Hurricanes captain Eric Staal had a hat trick in that game and has amassed 22 points (10 goals, 12 assists) over his last 18 contests. Forward Jussi Jokinen, who accounted for Carolina's lone score in last night's setback, has racked up 14 goals and nine assists over that same stretch.
Goaltender Manny Legace has also been on a strong run since taking over for the injured Cam Ward as the Hurricanes' main backstop. The veteran has won his last four starts and surrendered just eight goals during that span.
Rookie Justin Peters was between the pipes for Saturday's game and received his first NHL loss after allowing three goals on 29 shots. The 23-year-old had gone 3-0-0 with an outstanding 1.34 goals against average over his first three starts.
Atlanta had won the first two season meetings between these divisional foes before that January 21 home loss, but Carolina has prevailed in six of its last eight matchups as the visitor 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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