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09/01/2010 - Saratoga Springs, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Four weeks after coming up a head short in the Whitney Handicap, Quality Road will once again go postward on Saturday in the $750,000 Woodward Stakes at Saratoga Race Course.
The colt, trained by Todd Pletcher, will take on six rivals in the 1 1/8-mile race. All seven entered are four-year-olds and will each carry 126 pounds.
Owned by Edward Evans, Quality Road lost the Whitney in the final strides to Blame as the 1-2 favorite. For the Woodward, the colt will start from post three with John Velazquez again riding.
Quality Road has won three of four starts this year, including the Hal's Hope, Donn Handicap and Met Mile. He has earned $810,000 in 2010 and nearly $1.8 million in his career.
Mine That Bird, 2009 Kentucky Derby winner, will attempt to win for the first time since his stunning victory in the Run for the Roses. Trained by D. Wayne Lukas, the gelding will be ridden by Rajiv Maragh from post two. Calvin Borel had been the regular jockey for the four-year-old.
Owned by Double Eagle Ranch and Buena Suerte Equine, Mine That Bird was fifth in the Whitney Handicap.
"I thought he got totally out of touch with the race. Frankly, he got so far back," Lukas said. "I think it was a conditioning experience. I don't think it was a learning experience.
"We put little cutback cup blinkers on him (during training), and we think that may let him lay a little bit closer to the pace. I think he's responded well to it. I liked the way he's worked. He worked alone the other day, and he was much more focused, I thought. He's very genuine."
Mine That Bird has lost seven straight starts, including both this year. The gelding has career earnings of more than $2.2 million with five wins in 16 starts. He was 2009 Canadian champion two-year-old male.
Here is the full field for the Woodward in post position order: Convocation, Javier Castellano; Mine That Bird, Rajiv Maragh; Quality Road, John Velazquez; Arcodoro, David Cohen; Indian Dance, Kent Desormeaux; Tranquil Manner, Alan Garcia and Mythical Power, Martin Garcia.
The Woodward, won last year by Rachel Alexandra, has a post-time on Saturday of 5:50 p.m. (et).
<< Baltimore brings up three
Baltimore, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Baltimore Orioles added three to their
roster on Wednesday, recalling outfielder Nolan Reimold, infielder Brandon
Snyder and selecting the contract of infielder Rob Andino from Triple-A
Norfolk
<< BYU signs TV deal with ESPN
Provo, UT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Brigham Young University has announced an eight-
year agreement with ESPN for the network to televise the school's football
games starting next fall.
BYU officially announced its decision to leave the Mou
<< Hartman earns MLS Player of the Month for August
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - FC Dallas goalkeeper Kevin Hartman was voted
Major League Soccer's Player of the Month for August, it was announced on
Wednesday.
Hartman led Dallas to an undefeated record in the month while posti
<< Toronto's Boyd headlines CFL Players of the Month
Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Toronto running back Cory Boyd, Montreal
linebacker Chip Cox, British Columbia kick returner Yonus Davis and Toronto
linebacker Kevin Eiben have been selected as the CFL's top players for the
month o
Drake to play in Africa in 2011 >>
Des Moines, IA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Drake University football team will play
in the first American football game on the continent of Africa next year.
Drake, a member of the Missouri Valley Football Conference, will play an all-
star team
NHL extends deadline on Kovalchuk deal >>
NEW YORK (AP) -The NHL has extended its deadline to Friday for approving Ilya Kovalchuk's $100 million, 15-year contract with the New Jersey Devils.The league and the NHL Players' Association announced the new deadline Wednesday.The NHL has already
Tar Heels DE Austin suspended indefinitely >>
Chapel Hill, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - North Carolina senior defensive end Marvin
Austin has been suspended indefinitely.
Tar Heels head coach Butch Davis made the announcement on Wednesday, just days
before the team's season-opener against LSU
Big Ten set to announce realignment >>
Bristol, CT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Big Ten is set to announce its divisional
realignment Wednesday evening and early reports have the controversial split
of longtime rivals Michigan and Ohio State in place.
According to an earlier report
Michael Vick is back, Brett Favre isn't and the NFC East remains the best division in the NFC, maybe in all of football.
As players start to gather for the start of another season, some things change and some stay the same in the world of the NFL.
The NFC East has been the dominant division in the National Conference for a while, despite limited playoff success, save for the New York Giants surprise Super Bowl win two seasons ago.
Hell, there's a generation of kids in Texas who have never seen the Cowboys win a playoff game (last win was in 1996).
But collectively, the Giants, Eagles, Cowboys and Redskins (well, maybe not so much the Redskins) are as good as a division gets in an NFC conference that has struggled to stay competitive with the AFC side.
Sports bettors have both acknowledged the NFC East's dominance, as one glance at the NFL future odds menu will show.
Looking over the NFL betting odds at online sports book MySportsbook.com we see the top three teams listed to win the NFC Championship are all from the NFC East:
Dallas Cowboys - 7 - 1
Philadelphia Eagles - 13 - 2
New York Giants - 9 - 2
Slotting in behind these three are two teams from the NFC North: the Minnesota Vikings (15-2) and the Chicago Bears (10-1).
Again, despite the lack of recent playoff success, the Dallas Cowboys are popular with the sports betting community, as they hold 14% of all the money wagered on who will win the NFC Championship.
So far, the New York Giants are the bettors' favorite to represent their conference in the Super Bowl, as they have 24% of the overall NFC Championship betting volume.
And what about the Philadelphia Eagles? For the most part, the Eagles had a very productive offseason, the kind that could bring them back to the top.
They had a good draft adding the likes of WR Jeremy Maclin and RB LeSean McCoy.
Unfortunately, the team received a blow when long-time defensive coordinator Jim Johnson passed away on Tuesday.
But this team will make a real run at the division title this year. Going into the regular season, Philly is listed at +240 to win the division.
Last season the Eagles were 9-6-1 SU and 10-6 ATS.
Teams from the NFC East will play teams from the AFC West in the regular season and the Eagles haven't really been a good bet in the last 20 games against the likes of San Diego, Oakland, K.C. and Denver, only going 8-12 ATS.
Two seasons removed from that Super Bowl title, the New York Giants see themselves listed as the odds-on favorite in NFC East championship futures at +162.
Plaxico Burress is gone and with him all the bad publicity surrounding the gun in the sweatpants incident, but can they replace him in the offense?
Last season the Giants were a very reliable bet going 12-4 ATS.
In the Giants' last 20 games against fellow teams from the NFC East; they are 13-7 ATS.
Dallas is listed at +240 to win the division.
Dallas went 9-7 SU and 7-9 ATS last season and with the amount of talent the Cowboys have, a similar performance won't do.
The Cowboys have been atrocious against divisional rivals, going 6-14 ATS in their last 20.
The Washington Redskins are longshots to win the division at +550.
Visit MySportsbook.com for free sportsbook odds RSS feeds go to MySportsbook.com for all your betting football needs.
MySportsbook.com: New College Football Clock Rules Examined
Coaches and bettors alike are desperate to make sense of the new time-keeping rules on the NCAA gridiron. One of the big stories to come out of the Ohio State-Texas clash last weekend was Texas coach Mack Brown's criticism of the NCAA's new clock rules that are intended to shorten the duration of college football games, therefore affecting college football betting.
"They scored with six minutes left and the game was over before we had a chance to do anything," Brown told ESPN.com. "I really hope whoever made these changes will go back and look them over."
Sure, it might be sour grapes; the Buckeyes thoroughly trounced the defending national champion Longhorns 24-7. However, Brown isn't alone in giving the changes their due thought. Bettors are also wondering about them, albeit for a completely different reason. Most experts agree that the changes will result in games being shortened by anywhere from 10 to 20 plays. The obvious consequence is lower scores, with more time rolling off the clock during changes of possession. (The Ohio State-Texas game flew well under the total of 52.)
According to research at the online sportsbook MySportsbook.com, more than 18 plays a game disappeared last weekend into thin air. That's a 10-percent reduction. In 2005, a typical game had 168.58 plays. For 2007 already, it's down to 150.26.
As a result, teams combined to gain an average of about 100 fewer yards a game last weekend versus the 2005 openers. Scoring was also down by about 4.5 points (attention Las Vegas sports lines).
Of course, oddsmakers were able to adjust to the changes before the season started. Proof of that came as the over went a balanced 8-9 at My Sportsbook on Saturday.
Other angles to consider:A shorter game should theoretically result in shorter lines. Whereas Team A might have been a 14-point favorite in a 168-play game (last year), if there are 10 percent less snaps in 2007, the line should also be reduced by 10 percent (to 13 or 12.5). Of course, this is an over-simplification of the matter, but something to keep in mind.
Less possessions means a better chance the game will be decided by three or seven points. For example, what might have been a 20-10 final score in 2005 may end at
17-10 in 2007. Granted, a 24-17 game last year might end at 21-17 these days, but the former - a three- or seven-point advantage being preserved as opposed to created - is the most likely scenario.
*UPDATE* - Sept. 25, 2007
New Clock Rules Boon for online bookmakers
By adjusting the time-keeping rules to shorten the duration of college football games, the NCAA hoped to make its product more enjoyable for the fans. While the NCAA's success in this regard is still up for debate, bookmakers couldn't be happier with the results.
"We are seeing a massive jump in college football betting," noted the MySportsbook.com management team. "With all the early Saturday games (12 a.m. ET) ending before the second wave begins (3:30 p.m. ET) - something that didn't always happen before the changes - bettors are now able to re-invest their winnings from the morning session in the afternoon games."
While not all bettors will choose to roll over their winnings, it doesn't take much for an impact to be seen on the bottom line. "Not all of the millions of dollars in morning payouts get re-bet. In fact, it's probably only 10 to 20 percent," noted the sportsbook management team. "Still, the increased football betting lines window will create a ton of growth for us over the course of the season."
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