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06/19/2010 - Newton, IA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Will Power from Team Penske won the pole for Sunday's Iowa Corn Indy 250 IZOD IndyCar Series after beating Target Chip Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon by the slimmest of margins in qualifying at Iowa Speedway.
Power, currently second in points, recorded a four-lap average of 181.338 m.p.h. around the .875-mile track for his fourth pole of the season, but his first on an oval. He also gave Penske its seventh straight pole.
"It's fantastic," said Power, who claimed his sixth career IndyCar pole. "It's the best place to start the race tomorrow. It's going to be a long day. It's a tight track around here, and there's always a lot of traffic. I just want to have a good result on an oval, and I'm looking for it here."
The Aussie held a sizeable points lead after finishing no worse than fourth, including two victories, in the first four road course races this season. He has finished no better than eighth in the last three oval races -- Kansas, Indianapolis and Texas.
Power was only 0.002 seconds quicker than Dixon, who will start on the outside pole.
"In qualifying, we did very well sitting in P2, and the four-lap average was so close to Will Power," Dixon said. "We barely missed it. We will try to improve even more and hopefully get some points for the championship, but I am very happy with [qualifying]."
Marco Andretti qualified third, followed by Helio Castroneves and current points leader Dario Franchitti, who won this race in 2007 and '09. He missed Iowa in 2008 when he was competing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series.
Franchitti, the defending series champion, enters the race with just a two- point advantage over Power.
Alex Tagliani, Takuma Sato, Ryan Briscoe, who won two weeks ago at Texas, Danica Patrick and Dan Wheldon, the 2008 race winner at Iowa, will start sixth through 10th, respectively.
Milka Duno spun and crashed hard into the turn two wall during her qualifying attempt. Duno was not injured and was cleared by medical officials to compete in Sunday's 250-lap race, which is scheduled to start at 2:30 p.m. (et).
<< Jin Jeong cruises to British Am title
East Lothian, Scotland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Korea's Jin Jeong captured a 5 & 4
win over Scotland's James Byrne in the 36-hole final at the British Amateur
Championship on Saturday.
In the 125-year history of the event, Jeong became th
<< Saints ship OL Brown to Redskins
New Orleans, LA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New Orleans Saints have traded left
tackle Jammal Brown to the Washington Redskins in exchange for an undisclosed
pick in the 2011 NFL Draft.
Brown, who was a restricted free agent, signed his
<< Report: Saints agree to ship OL Brown to Redskins
New Orleans, LA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New Orleans Saints have reportedly
agreed to trade left tackle Jammal Brown to the Washington Redskins in
exchange for a conditional draft pick.
According to the New Orleans Times-Picayu
<< Broadaway takes one-shot lead in Arkansas
Fort Smith, AR (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Josh Broadaway carded a five-under 65 on
Saturday to grab a one-stroke lead after 54 holes of the Fort Smith Classic.
Broadaway finished three rounds at Hardscrabble Country Club at 11-under-par
199. H
Pedroia lifts Red Sox over Dodgers >>
Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Dustin Pedroia drove in the game-winning run
with a single in the bottom of the ninth inning, as the Boston Red Sox edged
the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-4, in the second installment of a three-game
interle
Edwards wins caution-filled Nationwide race at Road America >>
Elkhart, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Carl Edwards finally performed his celebratory
back flip from his car for the first time this NASCAR season after winning
Saturday's inaugural Bucyrus 200 Nationwide Series race at Road America.
Edwards d
Twins rally to win wild slugfest against Phillies >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Delmon Young drove in the go-ahead run
during a three-run 11th inning, as Minnesota rallied from a pair of five-run
deficits to top Philadelphia, 13-10, in the middle contest of a three-game
interle
Hur leads by one in New Jersey >>
Galloway, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - M.J. Hur fired a seven-under 64 Saturday to
take a one-stroke lead after two rounds of the ShopRite LPGA Classic.
Hur, who collected her lone LPGA Tour win last year, finished 36 holes at 11-
under-par 131
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 online football betting 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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