Dodgers to host Rockies in key divisional set
Baseball Betting Lines
05/07/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Andre Ethier will bring his Triple Crown numbers and late-game heroics into Friday's opener of a three- game series versus the NL West-rival Colorado Rockies at Chavez Ravine.
Ethier was at it again in last night's 7-3 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers, helping the Dodgers salvage the finale of a three-game set. After Los Angeles closer Jonathan Broxton blew his second save and spoil John Ely's bid for his first major league win, Ethier clubbed a LaTroy Hawkins offering over the wall in center field for a grand slam and the 11th walkoff hit of his young career.
"I want to go up there in that situation, I want to end the game right there," said Ethier, who cracked four game-winning homers a year ago. "[Hawkins] threw me a fastball right down the middle. I just put an easy swing on it and it just kept going."
The lefty is tied with Arizona's Kelly Johnson for the National League lead in homers (10) and leads the NL in average (.371) and RBI (30).
Ethier's hit made a winner out of Broxton, while Ely tossed 6 2/3 innings of one-run ball and struck out seven batters.
James Loney knocked in a run in his sixth straight game and Xavier Paul ended with two hits, two runs scored and an RBI for Los Angeles, which has won four of six and improved to 4-3 on a 10-game homestand.
Dodgers starter Hiroki Kuroda hopes to build off an impressive outing his last time out when he toes the rubber this evening. Kuroda beat Pittsburgh on Sunday with eight innings of one-run ball and lowered his earned run average from 2.36 to 2.08. The Japanese right-hander is 3-1 in five starts but winless in his career against the Rockies, having gone 0-2 with a 7.00 earned run average in three starts.
Los Angeles is 4-1 when Kuroda takes the mound this season.
Colorado, meanwhile, will continue a nine-game road trip Friday and has won three of its last four games. It took two of three matchups with San Diego and is coming off Wednesday's 6-5 victory in 12 innings thanks to Ian Stewart's solo home run in the top of the 12th.
Manuel Corpas tossed 2 2/3 scoreless frames of relief to post the win for the Rockies, who recorded their first road series victory of the season. Starter Aaron Cook lasted five innings, allowing five runs on six hits.
"We've had a couple of rough series on the road, so to get this win was big for us, (especially) against a really good team playing good baseball right now," Rockies second baseman Clint Barmes said on the team's website. "Hopefully this will boost us to play the way we know we're capable of playing."
Barmes went 3-for-5 with three runs batted in and a run scored for Colorado, which is 3-3 on the trek and got an RBI apiece from Seth Smith and Melvin Mora.
Esmil Rogers is scheduled to make his third career start tonight for the Rockies and lost his most recent outing in a 6-1 setback at San Francisco on Saturday. The Giants pounded Rogers for five runs, four of which were earned, and five hits in four innings.
The Dominican right-hander is 0-1 with a 5.63 ERA in four games (1 start) this season and has never faced the Dodgers.
Los Angeles owned Colorado last season to the tune of a 14-4 record, including victories in seven of nine games held in Hollywood. The Dodgers have also won four of the last five encounters in this series and are 24-12 in the past 36 meetings between the NL West inhabitants.
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A pair of slumping American League West rivals get together tonight in the Emerald City, where the Seattle Mariners and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim collide in the opener of a three-game series at Safeco Field. The Marine
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<< Rays try to stay perfect vs. AL West in opener at Oakland
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Sydney, Australia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former world No. 1 John Newcombe underwent surgery to have a cancerous growth removed from the right side of his nose. "It's a cancerous growth so he (the doctor) had to cut...and finish
UConn's Calhoun receives five-year extension >>
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Penn National joins MID in Maryland Jockey Club >>
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Montreal to join MLS in 2012 >>
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Matt Kenseth And Kevin Harvick Favorites To Take NASCAR Nextel Cup Championship
(September 15)—The NASCAR season has hit the homestretch with the opening event on this year’s Chase for the Cup taking place this weekend at the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway. With 10 races remaining to determine the Cup Series champion, leading online sportsbook MySportsbook.com today announced odds on all 10 Chase qualifying drivers capturing the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship.
One of the largest sportsbook sites on the Internet, MySportsbook.com currently lists the top two drivers in the point standings as the early favorites to win the Nextel Cup. Entering the Chase for the Cup with a slim five-point lead in the point standings, 2003 NASCAR champ Matt Kenseth has been made a slight favorite to win his second Cup at 7/2 betting odds. 2001 Cup Rookie of the Year Kevin Harvick has betting odds listed at 5/2 and four-time NASCAR champion Jeff Gordon is listed at 6/1 to capture the Nextel Cup this year.
Hoping to follow in the footsteps of his legendary father who won six NASCAR titles, Dale Earnhardt Jr. stands at 8/1 to breakthrough with his first Cup victory. Staying with the family theme, MySportsbook.com lists 2005 Rookie of the Year Kyle Busch at 14/1 to succeed big brother Kurt’s 2004 NASCAR title. While Kasey Kahne was the final driver to qualify for the Chase with a third place finish last week, the oddsmakers give him a fighting chance at 10/1 mainly due to several mile-and-a-half tracks remaining on the schedule. Despite going winless on the NASCAR circuit this season, Jeff Burton enters the Chase at 5/1 to capture the Cup title. Meanwhile, rookie Denny Hamlin is 4/1 to win the championship, while veteran driver Mark Martin enters the Chase for the Cup as a 15/1 long shot to win his first NASCAR title in his 24th and final season.
MySportsbook.com will offer comprehensive Nascar betting lines on every race remaining on the Nextel Cup series including driver match-ups, props and odds to win each race. For a complete list of NASCAR odds, please visit www.MySportsbook.com.
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your Sportsbook accepts US credit cards needs.
Sportsbooks to bet on football
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.