Pistons fire Curry
Basketball Betting Lines
06/30/2009 - Auburn Hills, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Detroit Pistons president of basketball operations Joe Dumars did an about face Tuesday and fired head coach Michael Curry.
"This was a difficult decision to make," Dumars said in a statement released by the team. "I want to thank Michael for his hard work and dedication to the organization. However, at this time, I have decided to make a change."
Dumars had held a press conference in late April to confirm that Curry would return to the Motor City in 2009-10, despite a disappointing first season as the team's mentor.
In his first year directing the perennial championship contenders, Curry led the Pistons to a 39-43 record, good for the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference.
Detroit was quickly swept in the first round of the playoffs by the top-seeded Cavaliers, who won each game by double digits. The swift exit halted the Pistons' streak of six straight trips to the East finals.
Many of the team's problems could be traced back to the trade that sent franchise point guard Chauncey Billups and two other players to Denver early last season for Allen Iverson. Iverson, a former MVP, never fit in with Detroit's vaunted balance, defensive prowess and chemistry.
Curry, the former president of the NBA Players Association, took over for Flip Saunders, who was fired after the 2007-08 season despite making three consecutive conference Eastern Conference finals appearances.
In addition, Curry also served one season in Detroit as an assistant coach under Saunders (2007-08) and had two separate stints with the organization as a player (1995-97 and 1999-2003).
St. Louis, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The St. Louis Blues have extended qualifying offers to six players, including forward B.J. Crombeen. Crombeen, claimed off waivers by St. Louis from Dallas last November, played in 81 games last season, h
<< Jeter still leads AL All-Star balloting
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter
remained the overall leader among American League players in fan balloting for
the 2009 All-Star Game.
Jeter, who surpassed Tampa Bay Rays third baseman Evan L
<< Safina, Serena, Venus reach Wimbledon semis
Wimbledon, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Top-ranked Dinara Safina, two-time
champion Serena Williams and five-time titlist Venus Williams were
quarterfinal winners Tuesday at Wimbledon. Fourth-seeded Russian Elena
Dementieva also won on Tuesday, a
<< Barca's Xavi would not want Ronaldo
Barcelona, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Barcelona midfielder Xavi has blasted
incoming Real Madrid ace Cristiano Ronaldo, saying there would be no room for
him at the Camp Nou.
Ronaldo is set to complete a world record $132 million
<< Second opinion produces same diagnosis for Beltran
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A second opinion on the injured knee of New
York Mets center fielder Carlos Beltran reportedly remains a bone bruise.
Beltran visited noted surgeon Dr. Richard Steadman in Colorado on Monday and
the New
San Antonio, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The San Antonio Spurs announced on Tuesday that guard/forward Michael Finley stated he will return to the team for the 2009-10 season. Last season with San Antonio, he appeared in 81 games and averaged
Revs acquire international spot from Wizards >>
Foxborough, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New England Revolution acquired an
international roster spot from the Kansas City Wizards on Tuesday in exchange
for a third-round selection in the 2010 MLS SuperDraft.
New England will retain
Torres: Villa out of Liverpool's range >>
Liverpool, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Liverpool striker Fernando Torres has
accepted that his club do not have the financial muscle needed to try and sign
Valencia star David Villa.
Spain international Villa has been tracked by seve
Devils re-sign Johnny Oduya >>
Newark, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New Jersey Devils have re-signed defenseman
Johnny Oduya to a multi-year contract.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Oduya posted career highs of seven goals, 22 assists and 29 points
Maicon pledges future to Inter >>
Milan, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Inter Milan defender Douglas Maicon insists he
has no wish to leave the club and is happy to remain at the San Siro.
Maicon has reportedly attracted interest from Chelsea and Real Madrid, but the
fullback h
Online Sportsbook Football Betting
Why Sports Betting is so much fun?
Betting Sports
The most popular sports to bet on are NFL and college football along with NBA and NCAA basketball. There are multiple betting opportunities within those sports, beginning with the basic wager on a game’s outcome (also called betting the side). College Football Point spreads are used in both football and basketball in an attempt to even the attractiveness of each team in a match-up. ( See our article detailing how and why point spreads are made)
But you could also simply bet on the money line, or straight-up winner of the game. Oddsmakers use the money line so that more money must be risked on the favorite or expected winner and less money on the underdog to balance the action on both sides. While money line gambling is an attractive option for football and basketball bettors who only care about picking a winner, it is the primary option for those bettors who enjoy wagering on MLB baseball and individual sports like boxing, tennis, golf and racing events such as NASCAR. ( More details on playing the Money Line)
Points (or Runs) Scored
Another bet across all major team sports including football, basketball, baseball, and hockey involves wagering on the amount of scoring in a game, called an Over/Under total. For example, the Over/Under total on Super Bowl XXXIX was 48, which means a bettor could wager whether there would be more or less than 48 points scored by both teams combined in the game.
The final score of Super Bowl XXXIX was 24-21; the scoring of both teams added up to 45, which means the game went Under . So Under bettors won, and Over bettors lost.
Future Bets
Sports gambling doesn’t end there. Betting sides and totals are the most common wagers available everywhere, but many sportsbooks also offer future bets on big upcoming events like who will win next year’s Super Bowl and what movie will win Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
The main advantage of futures is that you can get appealing odds by betting far in advance. For example, with NFL futures you often can get much higher odds on a team by betting before the season even starts. A NFL future bet on a team to win the Super Bowl odds might be 20/1 in the preseason; but by midseason, their odds might decrease to 10/1 if they turn out to be legitimate championship contenders.
Proposition Bets (or Prop Bets)
Proposition bets , also known as prop bets, focus upon the more exotic aspects of a game and are generally reserved for events that are widely televised. Prop bets are extremely popular when it comes to wagering on the Super Bowl in Las Vegas. The Imperial Palace Casino’s sportsbook is well-known for the enormous number of prop bets offered. For example, you can bet on:- What team will win the coin toss
- What player will score the game’s first touchdown
- What will be the exact margin of victory
Types of Bets
Straight Bet
Involves one individual wager, whether it be on your team to cover the point spread, to win the game straight-up on the money line, or to go over/under the total.
Sports Betting Parlays
A parlay is a single bet that links together two or more individual wagers and is dependent on all of those wagers winning together. The benefit of the parlay bet is much better odds than placing each individual bet separately since the difficulty of hitting it is much higher.Standard payoffs on a two-team parlay are 13/5; while a three-teamer pays 6/1; and a four-teamer 10/1.
Parlay cards are also fairly common in sportsbooks and popular with bettors, as they are released early in the week with set odds that do not change in return for a slightly lower payoff.
Round Robin Betting
Adventurous bettors who enjoy betting parlays sometimes put together a series of parlays called a Round Robin . A three-team Round Robin consists of one three-team parlay and three two-team parlays. For example, Joe likes teams A,B,C – with a Round Robin he has a three-teamer with ABC, and two-teamers with AB, AC, and BC.Betting Teasers
Similar to a parlay, a teaser bet is a single bet that links together two or more individual wagers, but is different in that the point spread is adjusted to your advantage on each individual wager. In exchange for the points, you get less of a return on your bet compared to a parlay. For example, a 6-point teaser would move the line on a 7-point favorite from -7 to -1, meaning the team would have to cover 6 less points. Each of the individual wagers must win or the bet is a loss.These are the main types of sports bets available today. But as sports betting continues to grow, sportsbooks will continue to develop new and creative ways to bet. We’ll continue to track these changes to the sports gambling landscape, so check back often and we’ll tell you all about it!
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs.
Numerous College Basketball teams take final big step to March Madness betting
So, what turned on the lock spigot? Well, after what felt like weeks of teams treading water and slipping back into the bubble muck, a bunch of them finally decided to say "to heck with parity" and won games that should put them into the Big Dance.
Disagree with some of these? Then here's the challenge. Take all of the "should be ins" and make a legit case that each should be ahead of the team that's a lock. Then find 10 more teams that also should be placed in the bracket ahead of that lock team. Not so easy, is it?
If you want more evidence that these locks should be good to go, check out what our research department dug up. Since the NCAA Tournament went to 64 teams in 1985, only six teams from a "big six" conference have had a record of 10-6 or better in conference play and not been selected: Colorado (2004) and Nebraska (1999) from the Big 12, Boston College and Seton Hall (both 2003) from the Big East, Indiana (2005) from the Big Ten and UCLA, which somehow went 12-6 in the Pac-10 in 1988 and still missed out. (Note: Five teams went 11-7 and didn't get in, the latest being last season's Stanford team, which had a brutal nonconference run.)
Yes, 10 conference wins doesn't always mean what it used to because of unbalanced schedules, but this season, it should be plenty good in all but the extreme cases (see: Iowa).
In a way, this is a welcome development, because this is a bubble watch, not a lock watch. We can finally be done with teams like Maryland and Virginia Tech and start really bearing down on at-large battles such as Syracuse-West Virginia and Appalachian State-Georgia Tech.
Interestingly, all the shifting of teams into lock status appears to be more administrative than impactful. The number of remaining available at-larges didn't change one iota. The only difference is that teams on the bubble now have a clearer idea of which team(s) they are competing with for those precious bids.
| The Bubble Breakdown | |||
| CONFERENCE | LOCKS | SHOULD BE INS | AT-LARGES TAKEN (assuming no auto bid outlier) |
| ACC Betting Odds | 6 | 0 | 5 |
| Big East Betting Odds | 5 | 0 | 4 |
| Big Ten Betting Odds | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| Big 12 Betting Odds | 3 | 0 | 2 |
| Pac-10 Betting Odds | 5 | 1 | 5 |
| SEC Betting Odds | 4 | 0 | 3 |
| MVC Betting Odds | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| MWC Betting Odds | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| TOTAL | 28 | 5 | 25 |
As always, I've tried to be as inclusive as possible while only including teams that would have a reasonable chance of at least being discussed if this were Selection Sunday. If your team's not on here, there's probably a good reason (or three) -- start with the RPI and SOS numbers and work your way down.
(Please remember, per selection committee criteria, that records displayed are Division I only. Next update: Feb. 28)
If you have a legitimate grievance, or just like talking bubble, send an e-mail. Polite ones with fact-based arguments have a much better chance of receiving a response. I apologize in advance if I can't get back to all of you.
Atlantic Coast Conference
Work left to do: Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech
The ACC moves to six locks as BC, Va Tech and Virginia all got their 10th ACC wins, which should be more than enough this season, and Maryland rallied past North Carolina to get the final piece the Terps needed. After that? It could end there unless FSU, Ga Tech or Clemson picks things up in a hurry.
Work left to do:
Clemson [19-9 (5-9), RPI: 41, SOS: 42] The Tigers are closer to locking up the collapse of the year award (in a good battle with OK State) than they are to grabbing an at-large. Clemson's been very competitive, but there's no really positive way you can spin nine losses in 11 games. They now cannot get to .500 in ACC play and still must head to Virginia Tech in the season finale (after hosting Miami). Unless the Tigers win both and/or do some serious work in the ACC tourney, they very well could be left out. There are no great nonconference wins, but ODU, App State, Miss. State, South Carolina and Georgia are all respectable W's.
Florida State [18-11 (6-9), RPI: 48, SOS: 14] The Noles got thrashed at Maryland to run their losing streak to five, but then pounded NC State at home to set the table for what likely is an elimination game at Miami. You can at least make a case for the Seminoles at 7-9 in ACC play (and some work in the ACC tourney), but 6-10 is not going to cut it. Wins at Duke and over Florida will resonate, but the computer numbers remain questionable. Beyond Florida, FSU thrashed bubble buddy Providence, but there's not a ton beyond those two games that will help. They didn't show well in big-time opportunities against Pitt and Wisconsin (before the Florida win).
Georgia Tech [18-10 (6-8), RPI: 51, SOS: 46] The Jackets beat Wake on Wednesday but couldn't get it done at UVa on Saturday, which could be a crucial loss with UNC and BC (both at home) remaining and 8-8 almost a certain need for at-large consideration. A nonconference win over Memphis helps, but the RPI and SOS are not at-large quality right now; if you combine those with a sub-.500 ACC mark, that could spell NIT for GT.
For more College Basketball betting lines go to MySportsbook.com
Additional basketball lines can be found at: www.MySportsbook.com
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com - this sportsbook accepts credit cards.