UCLA remains on top of poll; Clemson and Tennessee join Top 25
NCAA Basketball Betting Lines
12/25/2006 - New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - For the fifth consecutive week, UCLA remained atop the Associated Press college basketball poll.
The Bruins (11-0) crushed Michigan, 92-55, and also dismantled Sam Houston State this past week and accumulated 71 first-place tallies and 1,799 points in the nationwide media panel of voters.
North Carolina (10-1) received the only first-place vote that UCLA did not get and remained at No. 2 followed by the Florida Gators, who destroyed Ohio State, 86-60, on Saturday. The Buckeyes, who were the third-ranked team in the country last week, fell three spots to No. 6.
Meanwhile, the Wisconsin Badgers retained the No. 4 ranking they achieved last week. The Badgers (12-1), who topped Pacific over the weekend, remain at their highest ranking in program history.
Perennial power Duke moved up one spot and rounds out the top five.
Arizona checks in No. 7 with 1,347 points, only four behind the Buckeyes, followed by Alabama, Kansas and Pittsburgh. Pitt was previously ranked seventh in the nation, but lost to then 15th-ranked Oklahoma State.
The next 10 teams consist of Texas A&M and Connecticut followed by the OSU Cowboys (12-1), who moved up to No. 13 due to their aforementioned win over Pitt. Washington, Butler, Wichita State are next with LSU, Marquette, Notre Dame and Oregon rounding out the top 20.
LSU (7-3) had been ranked No. 12, but fell five spots after an 88-72 loss to then No. 17 Washington.
The final five are Tennessee (10-2), which was unranked last week, Memphis, Air Force, Nevada and the Clemson Tigers (12-0), who are one of four undefeated teams in the poll this week. The Bruins, UConn (10-0) and Oregon (11-0) also do not have a loss yet this season.
Gonzaga and Syracuse dropped out of the top 25. The former had been No. 22 but lost to Duke, while the Orange, who were previously the 23rd-ranked squad, dropped an 84-79 decision to unranked Drexel.
Due to the holidays and the semester break, there is only one game between ranked teams this week. That will occur on Sunday, when No. 14 Washington travels to Pauley Pavilion to take on the top-ranked Bruins.
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Maryland, North Carolina, and now Duke, hold the top three spots in the latest Associated Press women's college basketball poll as Oklahoma tumbled out of the third spot and all the way down to eight. With
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(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Los Angeles Lakers and the defending world champion
Miami Heat hook up for the third straight year on Christmas Day, as the teams
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On Christmas Day in
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NEW YORK (AP) -The 83 remaining free agents:AMERICAN LEAGUEBALTIMORE (4) - Bruce Chen, lhp; Russ Ortiz, rhp; Fernando Tatis, 3b; Chris Widger, c.BOSTON (4) - Keith Foulke, rhp; Gabe Kapler, of; Mark Loretta, 3b; Trot Nixon, of.CHICAGO (3) - Sandy Al
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Big 12 Conference betting odds
Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State
Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.
Work left to do:
Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.
Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.
Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.
Online Sportsbook Football Betting
Why Sports Betting is so much fun?
Betting Sports
The most popular sports to bet on are NFL and college football along with NBA and NCAA basketball. There are multiple betting opportunities within those sports, beginning with the basic wager on a game’s outcome (also called betting the side). College Football Point spreads are used in both football and basketball in an attempt to even the attractiveness of each team in a match-up. ( See our article detailing how and why point spreads are made)
But you could also simply bet on the money line, or straight-up winner of the game. Oddsmakers use the money line so that more money must be risked on the favorite or expected winner and less money on the underdog to balance the action on both sides. While money line gambling is an attractive option for football and basketball bettors who only care about picking a winner, it is the primary option for those bettors who enjoy wagering on MLB baseball and individual sports like boxing, tennis, golf and racing events such as NASCAR. ( More details on playing the Money Line)
Points (or Runs) Scored
Another bet across all major team sports including football, basketball, baseball, and hockey involves wagering on the amount of scoring in a game, called an Over/Under total. For example, the Over/Under total on Super Bowl XXXIX was 48, which means a bettor could wager whether there would be more or less than 48 points scored by both teams combined in the game.
The final score of Super Bowl XXXIX was 24-21; the scoring of both teams added up to 45, which means the game went Under . So Under bettors won, and Over bettors lost.
Future Bets
Sports gambling doesn’t end there. Betting sides and totals are the most common wagers available everywhere, but many sportsbooks also offer future bets on big upcoming events like who will win next year’s Super Bowl and what movie will win Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
The main advantage of futures is that you can get appealing odds by betting far in advance. For example, with NFL futures you often can get much higher odds on a team by betting before the season even starts. A NFL future bet on a team to win the Super Bowl odds might be 20/1 in the preseason; but by midseason, their odds might decrease to 10/1 if they turn out to be legitimate championship contenders.
Proposition Bets (or Prop Bets)
Proposition bets , also known as prop bets, focus upon the more exotic aspects of a game and are generally reserved for events that are widely televised. Prop bets are extremely popular when it comes to wagering on the Super Bowl in Las Vegas. The Imperial Palace Casino’s sportsbook is well-known for the enormous number of prop bets offered. For example, you can bet on:- What team will win the coin toss
- What player will score the game’s first touchdown
- What will be the exact margin of victory
Types of Bets
Straight Bet
Involves one individual wager, whether it be on your team to cover the point spread, to win the game straight-up on the money line, or to go over/under the total.
Sports Betting Parlays
A parlay is a single bet that links together two or more individual wagers and is dependent on all of those wagers winning together. The benefit of the parlay bet is much better odds than placing each individual bet separately since the difficulty of hitting it is much higher.Standard payoffs on a two-team parlay are 13/5; while a three-teamer pays 6/1; and a four-teamer 10/1.
Parlay cards are also fairly common in sportsbooks and popular with bettors, as they are released early in the week with set odds that do not change in return for a slightly lower payoff.
Round Robin Betting
Adventurous bettors who enjoy betting parlays sometimes put together a series of parlays called a Round Robin . A three-team Round Robin consists of one three-team parlay and three two-team parlays. For example, Joe likes teams A,B,C – with a Round Robin he has a three-teamer with ABC, and two-teamers with AB, AC, and BC.Betting Teasers
Similar to a parlay, a teaser bet is a single bet that links together two or more individual wagers, but is different in that the point spread is adjusted to your advantage on each individual wager. In exchange for the points, you get less of a return on your bet compared to a parlay. For example, a 6-point teaser would move the line on a 7-point favorite from -7 to -1, meaning the team would have to cover 6 less points. Each of the individual wagers must win or the bet is a loss.These are the main types of sports bets available today. But as sports betting continues to grow, sportsbooks will continue to develop new and creative ways to bet. We’ll continue to track these changes to the sports gambling landscape, so check back often and we’ll tell you all about it!
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs.