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05/24/2010 - New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Zenyatta and Lookin At Lucky each remain in first-place in their respective NTRA polls, Undefeated mare Zenyatta is the overwhelming selection in the national rankings and Lookin At Lucky is the undisputed leader among three-year-olds.
Owned by Jerry and Ann Moss, Zenyatta received all but one of the 17 first- place votes cast. She leads Quality Road, who got the other first-place vote, 169 points to 143. Quality Road is set to start in the Mel Mile on Memorial Day at Belmont Park.
Lookin At Lucky is third with 101 points with Misremembered holding onto fourth with 76 points.
Defending Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra moves up one spot to fifth with 52 points and Blame has 50 points to advance from ninth to sixth.
Kentucky Oaks champ Blind Luck follows with 48 points while Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver is eighth with 39 points. Rail Trip is ninth with 36 points and Unrivaled Belle rounds out the top 10 with 34 points.
Preakness champ Lookin At Lucky picked up 14 of 17 first-place votes and 167 points to remain atop the NTRA Three-Year-Old Poll. Super Saver is second with two first-place votes and 142 points.
Ice Box, second in the Run for the Roses, is third with 130 points. He is expected to start in the Belmont Stakes on June 5.
Preakness runner-up First Dude, another Belmont Stakes probable, improves to fourth with 86 points, while Blind Luck drops one spot to fifth with 84 points.
Paddy O'Prado, third in the Kentucky Derby, jumps from eighth to sixth with 67 points. The retired Eskendereya continues to receive one first-place vote, but fell one spot to seventh with 49 points.
Jackson Bend, third in the Preakness, again received 48 points, but dropped one place to eighth.
Evening Jewel and Sidney's Candy exchanged positions in the latest tabulations. The filly Evening Jewel is ninth with 31 points, while Sidney's Candy drops to 10th with 28 points.
<< Federer, Djokovic, Murray win French openers
Paris, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Roger Federer began defense of his French
Open title with a straight-set win on the second day of play at Roland Garros.
Third-seeded Novak Djokovic and No. 4 seed Andy Murray also moved on in Paris.
The
<< This Week in Golf - May 27th through May 30th
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - PGA TOUR - CROWNE PLAZA INVITATIONAL AT
COLONIAL, Colonial Country Club, Fort Worth, Texas - Once again, the buzz this
week focuses on a possible change atop the world rankings.
Phil Mickelson is in the fi
<< Collins returns home to lead Sixers
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Doug Collins is home again and ready to
coach the team for which he played for eight seasons.
Collins agreed to become the next head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers last
week and was introduced Mon
<< Teams on the clock in deep NHL draft
Toronto, Canada (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The NHL Entry Draft, set to take place June
25 in Los Angeles, provides both players and general managers the opportunity
to take the next step towards success.
While top prospects Taylor Hall and Tyler Se
Nash has broken nose, says he will be fine >>
PHOENIX (AP) -Steve Nash has a broken nose but says he doesn't expect it to be a problem for him in Game 4 of the Western Conference finals.The Phoenix playmaker sustained the slight fracture in a fourth-quarter collision with Derek Fisher in the Su
How important is No. 1? >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Phil Mickelson has another chance to
become the No. 1 player in the world.
He had a below-average Players Championship, where he could've supplanted Tiger
Woods. Now, Mickelson can once again lay claim to
Mauer leads AL All-Star balloting >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Minnesota Twins catcher Joe Mauer is the
top vote-getter after the first set of American League All-Star
balloting results.
The reigning American League Most Valuable Player has drawn
Renteria earns first MLS Player of the Week award >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Columbus Crew forward Emilio Renteria was
voted Major League Soccer Player of the Week for Week 9 of the 2010 MLS season
on Monday.
Renteria supplied two goals for the Crew in as many games this wee
My fellow Americans, as tempting as it may be to don the coat and HD-ready tie in order to deliver this State of the Game address before the cameras, I know better. As Brad Paisley sings on his latest album, "I'm so much cooler online."
The ideas for this annual essay to kick off the MySportsbook.com college football betting preview flowed like frat-house beer, which is to say they were cheap and spilled all over the floor. The 2007 season will be better than 2007, if only because there will be more of it. A year ago, the NCAA Football Rules Committee made two rule changes in the interest of speeding up the game. These changes went over like Kobe burgers at a vegan banquet.
To its credit, the rules committee rectified its mistakes. This season the clock once again will start when a kickoff is received, rather than when it is kicked, and the clock will not start so quickly on a change of possession.
However, kickoffs have been moved back five yards, to the 30, which will force more returns. (Thus forcing the clock to run. Clever, huh?) Special teams might decide a lot of games, because coaching strategy will come straight out of another new Paisley lyric (almost), I'd like to check you for kicks.
Paisley sings with a twang, which is why he's appropriate for this college football season. The sun coming up over the 2007 college football betting lines season rises from the south. It's a Southern football world. As the Southeastern Conference begins its 75th year, the power shift is noticeable.
Eight-figure budgets, glamorous settings -- and that's just for the head coaches. The SEC has four coaches who have won national championships -- the greatest aggregation of coaching know-how since Eddie Robinson dined alone.
Steve Spurrier, Phil Fulmer, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer have given lie to the idea that a conference championship game is too daunting a hurdle on the road to No. 1. In six of the past 10 seasons, the national champions played and won a conference championship game -- three of the six (Tennessee, 1998; LSU, 2003; Florida, 2007) from the SEC.
There will be more of the same this season, if the preseason prognostications are correct. Six SEC teams are in the preseason coaches' poll, more than from any other conference. Only one conference has talent so deep that a team with 15 returning starters, including the best quarterback in the league, from an eight-win season is considered an afterthought. That may speak more to Kentucky's losing legacy than to the wisdom of the predictions, but there you have it. And seriously, keep an eye on Wildcats QB Andre' Woodson.
The reach of the South extends all the way to No. 1. Take a look at the team that is a consensus pick to win the national championship. The quarterback is from Shreveport. The best wide receiver is from Nashville. The top recruit is from New Orleans.
So what's the campus doing in Los Angeles? Hey, it is the University of Southern California.
USC lost two Pacific-10 Conference games a year ago, the first time that had happened in five seasons, and university officials withstood the urge to form blue-ribbon panels to unearth the cause of such a disaster. Instead, the Trojans gathered themselves and routed Michigan, 32-18, in the Rose Bowl.
USC's losses at Oregon State and at UCLA last year should have given pause to those who question the Pac-10's football prowess (such as, without naming names, L.M. from Baton Rouge). The league only got deeper this season; Dennis Erickson is taking over an Arizona State team that never quite got out of its own way under his predecessor, Dirk Koetter.
Erickson will resume his quest to become the first coach to win a national championship at two schools. Both he and Spurrier, now in his third season at South Carolina, returned to college football at schools with lower profiles than where they won their titles.
That isn't the case for the third coach looking for the national championship double. You may have missed this, but NASA reported the astronauts on the space shuttle last spring made contact with what can only be described as beings from another galaxy.
The leader of the aliens said, "We come in peace," followed by, "So how do you think Nick Saban will do at Alabama?"
The public is reacting to the new Crimson Tide coach as if he is the Barry Bonds of college football -- beloved at home for what his fans believe he is going to do, hated on the road for his intimidating attitude and for what his detractors believe he did (bend NCAA recruiting rules). I made this comparison from the dais at a charity dinner in Mobile, Ala., last month, and the chill that washed over me didn't come from the air conditioning.
Saban will attempt to prove that he can remake in Tuscaloosa what he built in Baton Rouge, much like another member of the national championship fraternity. Bobby Bowden is attempting to remake at Florida State what he built at, um, Florida State. Bowden rebuilt his offensive staff, bringing in four new coaches led by Saban's former offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, to jump-start an offense that has been dead for a couple of years.
The Atlantic Coast Conference is expected to show new signs of life, too. That is said with no disrespect toward last season's champion, Wake Forest, which provided one of the best story lines of 2007. The Demon Deacons begin this season in their customary position, overshadowed by the Virginia Techs, Miamis and Florida States.
It's not that Wake will find it difficult to duplicate its success in 2007 as much as the feeling that success engendered. Surprising success is the narcotic of sport. It never feels quite so euphoric the next time. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has figured this out. He refers to 2007, when a league looked down upon by fans and foes alike took three undefeated teams into November, as "Cinderella."
The fairy tale may be over, but the Big East has four genuine Heisman Trophy candidates in Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm, West Virginia tailback Steve Slaton and quarterback Pat White, and Rutgers tailback Ray Rice. Rutgers, as did Wake Forest and, of course, Boise State, proved last season that the have-nots in college football occasionally have quite a lot.
The Broncos' rousing 43-42 overtime victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl has raised the profile of all schools in conferences that don't get automatic BCS bids. This season, TCU and Hawaii are the preseason favorites to burst through the BCS doors and earn an at-large bid. The Warriors return 14 starters from an 11-3 team, including quarterback Colt Brennan.
Brennan not only broke the single-season record with 58 touchdown passes in 2007, but he also led Division I-A in passing efficiency (186.0). The senior is expected to contend for the Heisman Trophy, and neither his success nor the rise of his team should come as any surprise in the 2007 season.
After all, Hawaii is the southernmost team in the country.
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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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