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02/09/2012 - Staten Island, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former Fordham head football coach Tom Masella has been named associate head coach at Wagner College, veteran Seahawks head coach Walt Hameline announced Thursday.
Masella, a native of Staten Island who played defensive back at Wagner before graduating in 1981, also will serve as the secondary coach and special teams coordinator.
It is Masella's second coaching stint at Wagner, where he began his career under Hameline from 1982-84.
"I'm excited to be back at my alma mater and to be back home here on Staten Island," Masella said. "Obviously, I have the utmost respect for Walt Hameline as a person and as a football coach. This is an exciting opportunity for me and I can't wait to jump in and start getting to know and working with the players and the rest of the coaching staff."
Masella has coached at nine colleges. Most recently, he served as Fordham's head coach for six seasons. He finished 27-40 overall and was fired last November after the Rams went 1-10 - their worst record since 1999.
He also was head coach at Fairfield (1996), Boston University (1996-97) and Central Connecticut State (2004-05). He has a 44-66 all-time record.
Wagner finished 4-7 overall, and 4-4 in the Northeast Conference, this past season.
<< Orioles beat Bergesen in arbitration
Baltimore, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Baltimore Orioles pitcher Brad Bergesen lost
his arbitration case and will earn a salary of $800,000 for the 2012 season.
Bergesen had sought $1.2 million.
The right-hander was 2-7 with a 5.70 earned run a
<< High-ankle sprain shelves Pens' Kennedy
Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Dan Bylsma
revealed Thursday that forward Tyler Kennedy has a high-ankle sprain and will
possibly be sidelined at least a month.
"After a week we'll have a better idea
<< Koivu back in Wild lineup Thursday
St. Paul, MN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Minnesota Wild will have captain Mikko
Koivu in the lineup when they host the Northwest Division-leading Vancouver
Canucks on Thursday.
Koivu missed eight games with a shoulder injury suffered
<< Real Madrid's Altintop sustains calf injury
Madrid, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Real Madrid's Hamit Altintop has sustained a
muscle tear in his left calf and will likely be sidelined for a few weeks, the
La Liga club announced Thursday.
Although Real Madrid gave no exact timetable for
Breen prepares Pants On Fire for return >>
Hallandale Beach, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Saturday marks a big day for trainer
Kelly Breen with the return of his 2011 Belmont Stakes champion Ruler On Ice.
The four-year-old gelding is one of the favorites for the $500,000 Donn
Handica
Houston acquires Kandji from Colorado >>
Houston, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Houston Dynamo have acquired forward
Macoumba Kandji from the Colorado Rapids in exchange for a conditional draft
pick.
Kandji, 26, has played 57 regular season matches over five seasons in MLS. H
Lafayette-Lehigh to play 150 in NYC? >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - As if the 150th meeting between the
Lafayette and Lehigh football teams wasn't special enough ...
How about an extra special venue?
The Express-Times of Easton, Pa., reported Thursday about the concept o
Gonzalez will retire next month >>
Santiago, Chile (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chilean star Fernando Gonzalez says he
expects to retire from the ATP World Tour next month.
The former Australian Open runner-up, who has been plagued by hip, knee and
back injuries over the las
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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