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05/16/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Suffering with the longest losing streak in the American League at the moment, the Oakland Athletics try to close out their three-game set in southern California on a positive note as they take on the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim this afternoon.
On Saturday Oakland fell a game under .500 on the season and to a dismal 5-12 on the road as a result of its 12-3 setback to the Angels. Consequently, LA is now just 1 1/2 games behind the A's for second place in the AL West, with both teams chasing the Texas Rangers at the moment.
Kendry Morales blasted a pair of home runs for the hosts, leading to his five RBI, while Bobby Abreu logged yet another double as he posted three hits and a pair of runs scored. Torii Hunter scored twice and also knocked in one, marking the 900th RBI of his career.
On the mound it was Ervin Santana who handled the action for the Angels, giving up just two earned runs on seven hits and three walks, striking out six over six innings as he picked up his second win of the campaign.
"I was more confident and comfortable when you have a lot of run support. Everything was good when you put everything together," Santana said.
Justin Duchscherer, who had just come off the 15-day disabled list prior to the contest, had been scheduled to make the start for the visiting A's, but he was a late scratch due to left hip inflammation.
"In my warm-up run I felt a little something in my hip. When I was in the bullpen I couldn't land properly," Duchscherer said. "I will see the doctor again to see if I need surgery."
Getting the emergency start instead was Tyson Ross, who lasted just 3 2/3 innings, permitting three earned runs on three hits in his first-ever start. Later in the contest reliever Chad Gaudin was assaulted for five earned runs on eight hits in a mere 2 2/3 innings for the struggling visitors.
Catcher Landon Powell posted three hits in four at-bats for the A's as he and Eric Patterson each tallied an RBI in the contest.
Having been called up from Sacramento in the Pacific Coast League the first of the month, Trevor Cahill is set to make his fourth appearance on the mound for the A's this afternoon. The right-hander, with a career record of 11-14 at the tender age of 22, last threw on Tuesday when he faced off against Texas for the second time in a week. Against the Rangers the second time around Cahill made it through 5 2/3 innings, allowing two runs on four hits and a pair of walks in a 7-6 victory, although he failed to factor into the decision.
In 2009 Cahill made three appearances against the Angels, and while he was able to keep his ERA down to 2.70 over 16 2/3 innings, his control was another story as he issued 11 bases-on-balls.
As for the Angels, they have Joel Pineiro penciled in for his next trip to the mound today. Pineiro, currently 1-2 with a 3.16 ERA at home this season, last pitched on Monday when he led the squad to a 5-4 win over Tampa Bay but failed to factor into the decision.
The 31-year old threw 6 1/3 scoreless innings versus the Rays, allowing five hits and a walk while striking out seven to match a season high. Nevertheless, Pineiro is still trying to snap a personal three-game slide and has not notched a win since April 19 against Detroit.
Of all the opponents in the majors, Pineiro has more wins against the A's (eight) than any other foe in his career, but he also has more setbacks against Oakland as well (eight).
The Angels are now a game up on Oakland at 3-2 on the season, this after posting a 12-7 advantage last year when they won eight of nine on the road versus the A's.
<< Giants send Zito to the hill aiming for another sweep of Astros
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - San Francisco's Barry Zito will try to rebound from a wild
first loss of the season as the Giants try for their second sweep this year of
the Houston Astros in today's finale of a three-game series at AT&T Park.
Zito,
<< Dodgers hope for sweep of division rival Padres
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The surprising Padres came into this series sitting in
first place in the National League West. However, a pair of losses to the
Dodgers has quickly reminded them just who the defending division champs are.
San Diego will
<< Francis set for season debut as Rockies close out set with Nats
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jeff Francis is expected to make his first start in well
over a year this afternoon for the Colorado Rockies, who are coming off a
sweep of yesterday's doubleheader and will look to secure a series win over
the Washington Nat
<< White Sox aim for back-to-back wins over Royals
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Chicago White Sox try to post back-to-back wins for the
first time in the month of May as they battle the Kansas City Royals in the
finale of a three-game series at Kauffman Stadium.
On Saturday the Sox battled back fr
Rangers activate INF Arias >>
Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Texas Rangers on Sunday activated infielder
Joaquin Arias from the 15-day disabled list and optioned right-hander Pedro
Strop to Triple-A Oklahoma City.
Arias had been sidelined with a lower back stra
Another Serie A crown for Inter >>
Siena, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Inter Milan claimed its fifth successive Serie
A title on Sunday as Diego Milito's goal in the 57th minute was enough to give
Inter a 1-0 win at Siena.
The Nerazzurri entered the final day of the season wit
Hanson overcomes penalties, wins Mallorca playoff >>
Son Servera, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Peter Hanson parred the first playoff
hole Sunday to beat Alejandro Canizares and win at the Iberdrola Open Cala
Millor.
Hanson overcame a penalty for a double-hit on a chip and an unplayable
Suns, Magic plan to play spoiler >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - When you talk rivalries, the Lakers-
Celtics is right up there with Yankees-Red Sox and Ohio State-Michigan as the
best in all of sports.
The NBA's two marquee teams have met in the Finals 11 different tim
There is little doubt that the NFL is where the sportsbooks see the most action and also make the most loot. The NFL possesses betting friendly attributes that are unlike any of the other major sports. First off, there are relatively few teams to keep track of in comparison to college football betting or college basketball. And second, these teams play only once a week which makes staying on top of the results much easier than it is in the daily leagues such as the NBA, NHL, and MLB.
These dynamics, along with the sheer excitement of watching and wagering on football, brings more square action to the table than any of the other sports. Almost every Tom, Dick and Harry in America is an NFL expert in their own mind and that is precisely what the oddsmakers prey upon.
Understanding who bets the games is just as important as understanding which teams are playing the games. The market at times will dictate price, which in the betting world means the oddsmakers cater to the public rather than reality.
Knowing the market inside and out is the basis of our NFL handicapping model. That is, our approach to NFL handicapping is of the contrarian or value seeking variety. We will at times place a higher premium on public sentiment than on the fundamentals. This strategy dictates playing dogs and/or lesser competent teams, or teams the public wants nothing to do with. Or better yet, fading the teams the oddsmakers want you to bet on.
Along these same lines, we carry a similar notion that the first week of the NFL season presents one of the ripest opportunities for the astute gambler. This conflicts with conventional wisdom and/or handicapping lore, as most would say it is better to watch a few games and assess each team before jumping in with both feet. That’s all fine and dandy, but there are some interesting trends to exploit in Week 1 and we’d be remiss to ignore them. Let us quickly explain.
Gone are the days of dynasties, where the same core players stay intact and dominate the league year after year. Free agency and player movements can completely transform teams from one season to the next. In today’s parity-driven NFL, poor teams typically don’t stay poor for all that long and excellent teams must constantly reinvent themselves to stay on top.
The temptation might be to assume prior year results are the best indicator of who is going to cover in Week 1. To Joe Public, playoff teams from the prior season, home teams, favorites, and so one, look even more enticing than usual since there is no current season performance to judge them against. But the question begs: are the oddsmakers setting a trap?
To find the answer, we culled five years worth of Week 1 NFL data. As always, all of our analysis is done from an ATS perspective. The purpose here is to share the most important angles we unearthed and try to explain the logic behind them. So strap on your helmet, throw on your shoulder pads, and follow our lead as we expose some rare holes in the oddsmakers’ line of defense.
Home vs. Away Teams
Over the past five seasons, NFL home teams in Week 1 are just 31-42-7 ATS (42 percent). This of course implies that roadies are a 58 percent winning proposition during this time. The public at large has a tendency to overvalue home teams and this is especially true in Week 1 when there is no current season data to make predictions from. Consequently, the oddsmakers almost surely shade the home teams, by and large making road teams the choice for the value player.
Conclusion: Look long and hard at road teams first when handicapping the opening week.
Price ranges
Favorites are just 31-42-7 ATS (42 percent) in the opening week over the past five NFL seasons (Coincidentally, home teams hold the same ATS record as noted above). This means that underdogs bark at a 58 percent clip. Mid-range favorites performed the worst among our specified price ranges. In particular, favorites priced between –3 1/2 and –6 1/2 are only 8-15 ATS (35 percent) during this time.
The same basic pattern holds true when looking at home favorites (road favorites gravitate towards a 50 percent mean). Home favorites indeed are just 21-32-3 ATS (40 percent) in the first week of NFL action since 1999. Again, mid-range favorites are similarly the poorest performers when we look at home teams. Consider that home teams priced between –3 1/2 and –6 1/2 have stumbled to a 6-13 ATS (32 percent) mark in Week 1 games the past five seasons.
Conclusion: Like home teams, favorites and particularly mid-range favorites are generally overvalued in Week 1.
Playoff teams
It might surprise you to learn that playoff teams from the prior year versus non-playoff teams from the prior year are a mere 16-23-3 (41 percent) ATS in NFL Week 1 games over the past five seasons. Home teams which made the playoffs versus teams which did not make the playoffs from the prior season drop to a meager 7-14-1 ATS (33 percent) during this time.
Why are playoff teams, and in particular those at home, such bad bets the past five openers? Just as the case with home teams and with favorites, oddsmakers intentionally overprice playoff teams in the opening week to compensate for the public’s propensity to over bet them.
This theory holds true just looking at straight-up records from the past season as well. That is, home teams with winning records from the prior season vs. road teams with losing records from the prior season are just 8-13 ATS in Week 1 NFL games since 1999.
Conclusion: Playoff teams from the prior year and in particular, home playoff teams, are overvalued in Week 1 NFL games.
Scoring defense and scoring offense
Do good defenses and for that matter good offenses from the prior season fare better against the number the following year in Week 1 games? Well, sort of. Generally speaking, teams with a solid offense or defense from the prior season tend to do well in the opening week so long as they are on the road. As a host, however, the best offenses and best defenses from the prior year tend to be overvalued in Week 1.
Consider that the top five scoring defenses (i.e. points allowed) from the prior season are a nice 8-4 ATS (66 percent) on the road in NFL openers the past five seasons. Meanwhile, the top five scoring defenses from the prior season are just 3-8-2 ATS (27 percent) as a host in Week 1 during the same time period.
There is no discernable advantage or disadvantage for teams with a top five scoring offense (i.e. points scored) in Week 1 games. However, when we look at scoring offenses from the bottom up (isolating the five worst offenses from the prior season), the results are rather interesting. In particular, teams ranked in the bottom five in scoring offense from the prior season are 9-4-1 ATS (69 percent) when on the road in Week 1.
The logic is simply that the public perception is a poor scoring offensive unit from the year prior will have little chance of winning on the road in Week 1. In turn, the oddsmakers compensate for this perception and these poor offensive teams from the year prior carry extra line value on the Week 1 trail.
Conclusion: Teams with top-ranked defenses from the previous season are good bets when playing on the road, but poor bets when playing at home. Also, teams ranked among the bottom five in scoring offense from the prior season are generally a good value in their Week 1 openers, provided they are playing on the road.
Scoring margin
An exceedingly straightforward way of measuring scoring offense and scoring defense together as a whole is to look at a team's “margin." Margin is simply scoring offense minus scoring defense, which is a fairly clear-cut measure of how a team does on both sides of the ball. Typically, the higher the margin, the better the team.
In this regard, it might seem counterintuitive that teams carrying the higher margin from the prior season in week one matchups are merely 31-42-7 ATS (42 percent). Furthermore, road teams with the higher margin are 14-20-6 ATS (41 percent), while home teams with the higher margin are 17-22-1 ATS (44 percent). Once again, these results line up with the theory that better teams from the prior year are overvalued come opening day of the following season.
Conclusion: “Better” teams, which often boast a higher margin than their opponent, are overvalued the following season in NFL openers.
In sum
Oddsmakers cater NFL betting lines to match public perception and also to bait the public into poor bets. The temptation to use the prior year’s success as a buy sign for how a team will perform against the spread in Week 1 of the following season is an enormous trap.
The fact is, isolating road teams, road dogs, non-playoff teams vs. playoff teams, teams with a losing record or low margin vs. playoff teams or ones with a high margin from the previous year is where the line value resides. Quite simply, taking the road less traveled is your surest path to NFL betting profits.
To visit this sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your Sportsbook accepts Visa needs.
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.
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