Cavs, Bucks square off in Milwaukee

Basketball Betting Lines

02/20/2009 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Cleveland Cavaliers could have a pair of key players back in the lineup when the Eastern Conference front-runners visit the Bradley Center for tonight's Central Division showdown with the Milwaukee Bucks.

Guard Delonte West is expected to play for the first time since he fractured his right wrist in a January 15 loss at Chicago. The fifth-year pro, who is averaging 12.3 points and 3.5 assists this season, has missed the team's last 15 contests.

Cleveland is also hopeful that veteran center Ben Wallace will be back in action tonight. The four-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year sat out Wednesday's 93-76 victory at Toronto while a lacerated right arm he suffered while playing a street football game over the recent All-Star break.

The Cavs still had LeBron James in uniform against the Raptors, and the superstar forward delivered 20 points, nine rebounds and nine assists to lead Cleveland to its 10th win in its last 13 games. Zydrunas Ilgauskas also had a big night for Cleveland, posting a game-high 22 points along with six rebounds.

All-Star Mo Williams added 17 points for the Cavaliers, who shot a sizzling 58 percent from the floor on the night, while Anderson Varejao pulled down a season-best 14 rebounds.

The Bucks had endured their share of injuries as well this season, having lost sharpshooter Michael Redd to a season-ending ACL tear last month and center Andrew Bogut (back) and guard Luke Ridnour (broken thumb) out for indefinite periods. Despite those significant personnel losses, Milwaukee currently holds the eighth seed in the East with a 27-30 record and had won five times in a seven-game span before losing at home to rival Chicago on Wednesday.

Richard Jefferson poured in 32 points for Milwaukee in the team's 113-104 setback to the Bulls, with Charlie Villanueva posting a double-double with 17 points and 12 rebounds.

The Bucks had won three in a row prior to Wednesday's loss and were coming off a key 92-86 road victory over Detroit on Tuesday.

Milwaukee, which is a solid 16-10 at the Bradley Center this season, has lost both its previous clashes with Cleveland in 2008-09. The Cavaliers have topped the Bucks in 10 of the last 13 encounters between the foes.

Wwwsportinglife Basketball Betting News

<< Nets host Wizards at Izod Center
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - In desperate need of a win, the New Jersey Nets return to the Izod Center tonight to take on the team with the worst record in the Eastern Conference, the Washington Wizards. The Nets lost some ground in the East's playoff

<< New-look Kings visit Memphis
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Sacramento Kings are hoping a flurry of roster moves will help them improve upon the NBA's worst record. The team will unveil its new-look roster in tonight's clash with the Memphis Grizzlies from the FedEx Forum. Sac

<< Pacers hope to snap road skid in Twin Cities minus Granger
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Indiana Pacers will be without their best player this evening, when they try to end a 10-game road losing streak against the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Target Center. Pacers forward and leading scorer Danny Granger

<< Rockets resume homestand against Mavs
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Houston Rockets will resume a six-game homestand Friday versus the Southwest Division-rival Dallas Mavericks at the Toyota Center. Houston has won the first two tests of the residency and handed the New Jersey Nets a 1

<< Zimmerman avoids arbitration with Nats
Viera, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Washington Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman avoided salary arbitration and agreed to a one-year contract on Friday. Financial terms were not disclosed, but Zimmerman was asking for $3.9 million and the clu

Capitals, Avalanche square off at Verizon Center >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Washington Capitals will try to continue their excellent play in the month of February when they host the Colorado Avalanche in tonight's interconference battle at Verizon Center. The Capitals are 6-1-1 this month and

Power Players: Red Wings try to stay hot vs. Ducks >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The NHL's top power-play unit returns to the ice tonight, as the Detroit Red Wings host the Anaheim Ducks at Joe Louis Arena. The Red Wings are clicking at a league-best 28.1 percent on the man advantage this year and have

Hurricanes try to continue mastery of Lightning >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Carolina Hurricanes shoot for their sixth straight win over the Tampa Bay Lightning tonight in a Southeast Division battle at RBC Center. The two clubs split their eight-game series a season ago, with the Hurricanes w

Magic seeking quick turnaround in visit to Charlotte >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Orlando Magic will try to rebound from a beating they took in New Orleans when they take on the Charlotte Bobcats tonight at Time Warner Cable Arena. Orlando opened a quick two-game road trip with a 117-85 setback agai

Revamped Knicks to begin home-and-home set with Raptors >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A pair of Atlantic Division rivals square off tonight at Madison Square Garden, where the re-tooled New York Knicks will host the Toronto Raptors. Hoping to make a run at a postseason berth, Knicks president Donnie Walsh m

Online Sportsbook Accepts Credit Cards

Credit Card Sports Betting: Sportsbook accepts U.S. credit cards

Tired of credit card deposit hassles? Then this is the place for you! MySportsbook boasts the best rate of acceptance for credit card deposits in the whole sports betting industry! They give you an instant 10% bonus for doing so as well, where as many other online bookies do not award a bonus for credit card transactioned deposits.

Welcome to MySportsbook.com the biggest and best sportsbook on the web! If you need a sportsbook accepting US credit cards for deposits you've come to the right place because they are the best.

Are you the type that needs lots of wager offerings? Then keep reading! MySportsbook is one of the best at offering everything gambling related that you can think of! Their sportsbook has all the current football and basketball odds as well as auto racing, horse racing, boxing and hard to find sports as well. Their casino boasts tons of different options as well such as blackjack, video poker, slots and virtual games such as hi-lo and virtual horse derby.

Reasons to Play There: A little tip for you all.. This is a sportsbook promotions that has a tremendous volume of players. They also offer an online poker room. Many of these sports bettors hop over to the poker room once the days games are over. Many of these sports bettors are just that and NOT good poker players. In summary, often times you'll be able to get into some lower limit games with some very ripe fish in the late evening hours resulting in some very easy pickin's and nice wins.

Speaking of poker, they offer satellite tournaments where you can win a free seat to the World Series of Poker! Be sure to check out their cycle, no hitter and slaughter rule refunds too! Open an account today by clicking here!

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.