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09/28/2007 - Elmont, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Sunday's $750,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park has attracted a field of seven including leading older thoroughbred Lawyer Ron and Preakness Stakes winner Curlin. The 1 1/4 mile event is an important test leading to the Breeders' Cup Classic with the winner gaining automatic entry to the $5 million race.
Lawyer Ron, already in the Classic with his Whitney Handicap victory, goes after his third straight win this year for owner Hines Racing. Trained by Todd Pletcher, the four-year-old will start from post six with John Velazquez again in the saddle.
The chestnut colt is coming off a win in the Woodward at Saratoga and has established himself as the top older thoroughbred this year. Lawyer Ron has career earnings of more than $2.6 million, winning half of his 24 lifetime starts.
"I think Lawyer Ron in the Whitney and the Woodward has sort of separated himself from most of the horses that are in training right now," Pletcher said. "I mean his track record in the Whitney was a superb race and the Woodward was right along with it so I mean any of the three year olds are going to have to take a step forward to get up to that level and of course a lot of them, that's what we're going to be finding out about."
Stepping up to take on older horses for the first time is Preakness champ Curlin. Coming off a disappointing third in the Haskell Invitational, the three-year-old has lost his last two starts, both as the favorite.
Robby Albarado is back to ride for trainer Steve Asmussen and will break from post five. Albarado was aboard Mineshaft to win the 2003 edition. Curlin has won four of seven career starts, all in 2007, for better than $1.9 million.
The likely third choice is Suburban Handicap winner Political Force. The four- year-old will start from post three with Cornelio Velasquez returning to ride.
Political Force is coming off a fifth place finish behind Lawyer Ron in the Woodward at Saratoga. The colt was second in the Met Mile to Corinthian when Lawyer Ron was the beaten favorite in third.
Trained by Allen Jerkens, Political Force has won four of 16 career starts for $532,232. This year he has earned $445,747 with three wins in seven starts. Jerkens won the Gold Cup in 1973 with Prove Out, 1975 with Group Plan and 1998 with Wagon Limit.
Here is the complete field for the race post position order: Brother Bobby, Stewart Elliott; Sun King, Alan Garcia; Political Force, Cornelio Velasquez; Malibu Moonshine, Channing Hill; Curlin, Robby Albarado; Lawyer Ron, John Velazquez and Indy Wind, Rafael Bejarano.
The 89th running of the Jockey Club Gold Cup has a scheduled post-time of 5:45 p.m. (et) and will be televised on ESPN.
<< Revs, Rapids to battle at Gillette
Foxborough, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - When the New England Revolution and the
Colorado Rapids square off in a Major League Soccer match Saturday at Gillette
Stadium, they will be desperately chasing points for different reasons.
The Revs ha
<< Ravens to Face Lewis, Browns
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Cleveland Browns running back Jamal Lewis will be playing
with a little more aggression on Sunday, when his former team, the Baltimore
Ravens, pay a visit to their AFC North rivals for a Week 4 showdown.
Lewis spent his fi
<< Griese Era Begins In Bears-Lions Showdown
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Chicago Bears will have a new look under center when
they travel to Ford Field this Sunday for an NFC North clash with the Detroit
Lions.
After getting off to a 1-2 start under the guidance of quarterback Rex
Grossman
<< Colts, Broncos, Try to Maintain Division Leads
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A battle of first-place teams will be the feature
attraction at the RCA Dome on Sunday afternoon, as the Indianapolis Colts
welcome the Denver Broncos to town in a matchup between two frequent members
of the AFC elite.
Th
D.C. hopes to avoid letdown against Toronto >>
Washington, D.C. (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - D.C. United will try to take another step
toward finishing with Major League Soccer's best record for the second year in
a row on Saturday against Toronto FC.
D.C. is riding a 10-game unbeaten streak, whi
Panthers' Delhomme listed as doubtful >>
Charlotte, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Carolina Panthers quarterback Jake Delhomme
is doubtful for Sunday's matchup against Tampa Bay due to a strained right
elbow.
Delhomme, who missed practice for the third straight day, was injur
Flyers' Downie suspended 20 games >>
Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Flyers rookie Steve Downie was suspended 20
games by the NHL on Friday for his hit on Ottawa's Dean McAmmond that gave the
center a concussion and knocked him out of action indefinitely.
The incident occu
Bayern puts unbeaten mark on line against Leverkusen >>
Leverkusen, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Re-tooled Bayern Munich has lived up to
expectations so far this year, going undefeated in seven games to sit atop the
standings as the class of the Bundesliga.
An offseason signing spree that included
Recently I had an email debate with an angry reader who said I did not understand "the science of oddsmaking", as he called it.
He said I was wrong for suggesting oddsmakers care about who wins or loses games.
"Oddsmakers only care about splitting the betting public 50/50 on both sides of the line and keeping the commission (a.k.a. juice)," he wrote.
He might have been right about not understanding "the science of oddsmaking". After all, I'm not an oddsmaker. That said, I stick to my assertion that oddsmakers (a.k.a. sportbooks) often do care about who wins games.
Granted, as a general rule, sportsbooks try to balance their action so that they're not exposed to big losses. However, there are times when this is difficult to pull off, regardless of how much a line has moved. There are also times when that general rule is ignored and a book pursues risk.
Generally speaking, it's safe to say the books in Vegas are risk-adverse. Unlike in the past when the wise guys ruled the town, Vegas is now corporate and the goal of most casinos is to make as much money as possible with as little risk as possible.
Thus, Vegas sportsbooks try everything in their power to balance the action. They're satisfied simply collecting the juice. But these profits are small, especially compared to the take from other casino games, namely slot machines.
Because the profits at Vegas sportsbooks are so small, you could argue that many casinos operate sportsbooks simply as a novelty to keep the tourists happy.
With a growing aversion to risk, it should come as no surprise that Vegas bookmakers have been panicking this NFL season.
Despite huge pointspreads, a disproportionate percentage of bettors are still laying their money on favorites like the Eagles, Colts, Pats and Vikings rather than the dogs (a common trend for the largely recreational bettors that visit Vegas).
And much to the dismay of the books, those favorites are finding ways to cover the thick chalk. In fact, prior to Week 7, the four teams listed above are a combined 16-2-2 (88 percent) against the spread. (The tables turned dramatically in Week 7, but more on that later.)
The result has been an early-season beating for the books, and a bonanza for bettors.
While Vegas increasingly hates risk, it's no longer a major player in the sports betting world. Most of the betting action now takes place offshore where sportsbooks are not as obsessed about balance. In fact, some books encourage exposure to risk because the rewards can be so much bigger.
Consider MySportsbook.com. On its website, the book has odds pages which actually display the amount of action it's getting on games. In other words, you can see how much action the book is taking on both sides of a pointspread, moneyline or over/under.
One look at these numbers and it's obvious MySportsbook.com does not balance every game. In fact, far from it.
Take last weekend's matchup between St. Louis and Miami. By game time on Sunday, 83 percent of the betting action at MySportsbook.com was on the Rams; only 17 percent was on Miami.
What's interesting is that MySportsbook.com opened the pointspread with Miami at +6 1/2. By game time, the spread had lowered to +5.
That goes contrary to the balancing theory. If MySportsbook.com had wanted to balance the action, it would have given Miami more points; instead, it took away 1 1/2. World Series odds are now up as well.
MySportsbook.com exposed itself to even more to risk, and rolled the dice on the underdog Dolphins. Why? I contacted a representative with the book to find out. His answer was simple.
"The line moved early based on 'smart money' from sharp players," said Jeff Gilroy, a spokesperson for the book. "We also knew from early in the week that we would need Miami, therefore (we dropped) the spread to encourage Rams money.
"At the end of the day, we liked the home team."
So the conclusion is this: MySportsbook.com respected the sharp action, and gambled that the sharp bettors had a better take on the game than the recreational bettors, who were hammering the visiting Rams.
In the end, the gamble paid off. Miami, desperate for a win in front of its home fans, pounded the overrated Rams, who are terrible on the road and even worse on grass. Final score: 31-14 Fish.
MySportsbook.com was also heavily exposed on numerous favorites in Week 7, including Philadelphia, Seattle and Denver. All three failed to cover.
The fact that sportsbooks are exposed to risk on certain games is really nothing new. The fact, that Sportsbook.com is willing to show the public where it's exposed is intriguing.
Armed with this type of information, bettors can make more educated wagers. They can get an idea where the sharp money is going and conversely where the public money is headed.
MySportsbook.com is opening up its cashbox, letting bettors look inside and challenging them to take their best shot at grabbing the cash.
To visit this online football betting got to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting odds needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.
Michael Vick is back, Brett Favre isn't and the NFC East remains the best division in the NFC, maybe in all of football.
As players start to gather for the start of another season, some things change and some stay the same in the world of the NFL.
The NFC East has been the dominant division in the National Conference for a while, despite limited playoff success, save for the New York Giants surprise Super Bowl win two seasons ago.
Hell, there's a generation of kids in Texas who have never seen the Cowboys win a playoff game (last win was in 1996).
But collectively, the Giants, Eagles, Cowboys and Redskins (well, maybe not so much the Redskins) are as good as a division gets in an NFC conference that has struggled to stay competitive with the AFC side.
Sports bettors have both acknowledged the NFC East's dominance, as one glance at the NFL future odds menu will show.
Looking over the NFL betting odds at online sports book MySportsbook.com we see the top three teams listed to win the NFC Championship are all from the NFC East:
Dallas Cowboys - 7 - 1
Philadelphia Eagles - 13 - 2
New York Giants - 9 - 2
Slotting in behind these three are two teams from the NFC North: the Minnesota Vikings (15-2) and the Chicago Bears (10-1).
Again, despite the lack of recent playoff success, the Dallas Cowboys are popular with the sports betting community, as they hold 14% of all the money wagered on who will win the NFC Championship.
So far, the New York Giants are the bettors' favorite to represent their conference in the Super Bowl, as they have 24% of the overall NFC Championship betting volume.
And what about the Philadelphia Eagles? For the most part, the Eagles had a very productive offseason, the kind that could bring them back to the top.
They had a good draft adding the likes of WR Jeremy Maclin and RB LeSean McCoy.
Unfortunately, the team received a blow when long-time defensive coordinator Jim Johnson passed away on Tuesday.
But this team will make a real run at the division title this year. Going into the regular season, Philly is listed at +240 to win the division.
Last season the Eagles were 9-6-1 SU and 10-6 ATS.
Teams from the NFC East will play teams from the AFC West in the regular season and the Eagles haven't really been a good bet in the last 20 games against the likes of San Diego, Oakland, K.C. and Denver, only going 8-12 ATS.
Two seasons removed from that Super Bowl title, the New York Giants see themselves listed as the odds-on favorite in NFC East championship futures at +162.
Plaxico Burress is gone and with him all the bad publicity surrounding the gun in the sweatpants incident, but can they replace him in the offense?
Last season the Giants were a very reliable bet going 12-4 ATS.
In the Giants' last 20 games against fellow teams from the NFC East; they are 13-7 ATS.
Dallas is listed at +240 to win the division.
Dallas went 9-7 SU and 7-9 ATS last season and with the amount of talent the Cowboys have, a similar performance won't do.
The Cowboys have been atrocious against divisional rivals, going 6-14 ATS in their last 20.
The Washington Redskins are longshots to win the division at +550.
Visit MySportsbook.com for free sportsbook odds RSS feeds go to MySportsbook.com for all your betting football needs.
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