11/03/2008 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Just when it looked like Jimmie Johnson was going to run away with this year's "Chase for the Sprint Cup" championship, here comes Carl Edwards with a late-season surge.
Edwards took a huge gamble in his quest for the title Sunday, when he drove the final 69 laps without pitting for fuel to win the Dickies 500 at the Texas Motor Speedway. He also trimmed 77 points off of Johnson's lead after Johnson finished 15th, marking the first time the two-time defending Sprint Cup Series champion has finished outside the top-10 in this year's Chase.
Johnson came to Texas with a 183-point advantage over Edwards, and was in a position to possibly clinch his record-tying third-consecutive Cup championship in next weekend's race at Phoenix. But Edwards has now livened up the Chase as the title will now likely be decided in the season-finale at Homestead. That development comes as a sigh of relief for NASCAR officials, as well as officials at the South Florida track.
"I feel good about it, and I feel satisfied that we did take a chunk out of that lead," Edwards said. "I do feel like what happened (at Texas), I didn't expect to be able to close that many points on Jimmie without him having some sort of catastrophic problem."
Edwards dominated Texas, leading 212 of 334 laps, but handed the lead over to teammate Jamie McMurray in the late stages after he took four new tires while McMurray grabbed only two new ones during a round of pit stops. McMurray and Greg Biffle stopped for fuel to make the distance, but Edwards and crew chief Bob Osborne elected to go the distance without pitting and grabbed the lead with 14 laps to go. The gamble paid off as Edwards scored his eighth Sprint Cup victory of the season, tying him with Kyle Busch for most wins so far this year.
Johnson, meanwhile, struggled with an ill-handling car in the early-going and fell one lap behind Edwards in 29th place by Lap 95. He was never able to get back on the lead lap.
"It's like getting kicked in the (groin) over and over," Johnson said. "That sucked. After that we got the car better, and I ran in the top four, top six throughout the rest of the race, but just never had a chance to get a lap back."
Edwards also won last week at Atlanta, but gained very little ground on Johnson in points as Johnson staged a remarkable comeback with the help of his crew chief Chad Knaus.
Johnson was penalized for speeding on pit road and fell one lap down in 30th, but a bold call by Knaus to pit late in the race helped Johnson cap off his turnaround. After taking four new tires, Johnson charged from 11th to second in the final eight laps.
Unfortunately, Johnson and Knaus could not pull off the same magic at Texas.
"I'm more frustrated in the fact we didn't do the job we needed to today than the fact that I lost points," Johnson said. "If I lose five, 10 or 20 points at a time to those guys because they win and I finish fourth or fifth, I can handle that. But to go out there and not perform, get caught a lap down, stuck a lap down all day, that's the part I'm frustrated with."
Unless Johnson experiences more problems and Edwards continues to narrow the gap, Johnson remains in the driver's seat to win the championship as he holds a 106-point lead over Edwards with just two races to go.
But Edwards has said as long as he's within 130 points going to Homestead, he's there to win a championship.
With two straight victories behind his belt, Edwards has a lot of momentum going to Phoenix, and has a fighting chance to fulfill his mission heading to Homestead.
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Englewood, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Denver Broncos, losers of three
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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 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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