Backcourt leads Gators past Gamecocks

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

02/03/2012 - Gainesville, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kenny Boynton netted 24 points and Bradley Beal finished with 17 points and 11 rebounds as No. 12 Florida downed South Carolina, 74-66.

Erving Walker added 14 points and seven assists for the Gators (18-4, 6-1 SEC), who have won six straight games.

Bruce Ellington scored 15 points while Damontre Harris netted 12 points with nine rebounds and six blocks for South Carolina (9-12, 1-6 SEC), which has lost six of its last seven games.

Back-to-back three-pointers by Ellington and Anthony Gill pulled the Gamecocks within five, 61-56, with 2:52 to play in the game.

A bit later, Boynton's layup gave Florida a 67-59 advantage, but a Brenton Williams trey made it 67-62.

But Florida went 7-of-8 from the charity stripe in the final 51 seconds to seal the win.

A 14-2 Gators surge gave Florida a commanding 27-10 advantage midway through the opening half. Boynton netted five points while Mike Rosario had four points during the surge.

Florida, though, recorded just one point over the final 5:06 of the stanza. South Carolina closed the half on a 9-1 run to pull within 37-28 at the break.

Game Notes

The Gators shot just 37.3 percent, but Florida outrebounded South Carolina 42-30 and 20-10 on the offensive glass...The Gators made just 1-of-13 shots from beyond the arc in the second half.

Wwwlasvegascasino NCAA Basketball Betting News

<< Wild blank Avalanche
Denver, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Niklas Backstrom stopped all 37 shots he faced -- including 17 in the third period -- as Minnesota slipped by Colorado, 1-0, at Pepsi Center. Greg Zanon's first-period goal was enough for the Wild, who

<< Stanford fights off ASU behind Ogwumike sisters
Tempe, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Nnemkadi Ogwumike and Chiney Ogwumike totaled 42 points and 32 rebounds, carrying No. 4 Stanford past Arizona State, 62-49 for its 67th straight Pac-12 victory. Nnemkadi scored 22 points, her younger sister add

<< Bulls ride Rose in fourth to down Knicks
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Derrick Rose scored 15 of his 32 points in the fourth quarter as the Chicago Bulls held on to take down the New York Knicks, 105-102. Carmelo Anthony had an opportunity to tie the game at the final buzzer,

<< Parker, Spurs use late spurt to get past Hornets
San Antonio, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tony Parker finished with 18 points and seven assists and provided the Spurs the spark they needed in the fourth quarter, as San Antonio fended off the New Orleans Hornets, 93-81. The final score

<< Murray State stays perfect in win over Redhawks
Murray, KY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Isaiah Canaan had 32 points and the 10th-ranked Murray State Racers remained perfect with an 81-73 victory over the Southeast Missouri State Redhawks. The only unbeaten team left in the Division I ranks traile

Saint Mary's downs San Diego to remain perfect in WCC >>
Moraga, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Rob Jones posted 28 points and eight rebounds, and No. 18 Saint Mary's pulled out an 84-73 win over San Diego to remain undefeated in West Coast Conference play. Stephen Holt scored 23 points, while

Gagner matches Oiler greats with 8-point night >>
Edmonton, AB (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Sam Gagner joined the likes of Wayne Gretzky and Paul Coffey as he posted eight points to lead the Oilers to an 8-4 win over the Chicago Blackhawks. Gagner, who came into the game with just five goals

Sharks shoot down Stars >>
San Jose, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Logan Couture, Joe Pavelski and Joe Thornton each had a goal and an assist to lead the San Jose Sharks to a 5-2 win over the Dallas Stars. Michal Handzus and Ryane Clowe both scored for the Sharks, who h

Red Wings edge Canucks in shootout >>
Vancouver, BC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Pavel Datsyuk scored the winner in the shootout as the Detroit Red Wings edged the Vancouver Canucks, 4-3, in a battle of the top two teams in the Western Conference. Datsyuk faked to the foreha

Warriors run over Jazz >>
Oakland, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Golden State's starting backcourt of Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry combined to score 62 points as the Warriors downed the Utah Jazz, 119-101. Ellis had 33 points while Curry finished with 29 points and 12

NFL Football Office Pool Printable Sheets

NFL Office Pool Sheets

MySportsbook.com is considered one of the finest online sportsbook according to several surveys performed by independent industry analysts considering such factors as payout accuracy and timeliness, overall quality of website, and bettor satisfaction.

MySportsbook is offering a free printable NFL football office pool sheets. Run your own NFL Football Office Pool. Create your own pool, invite your friends to join. Compete with your with co-workers, friends or family for bragging rights every week. Exchange some hard hits without risk of injury. Trash Talk with your fellow co-workers.

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your nfl football pool sheets needs.

How to bet pro football

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.