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Delpo eyeing return?Tennis Betting Lines08/06/2010 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Earlier this week, 2009 U.S. Open champ Juan Martin del Potro was spotted back on a tennis court with a racquet in his hand. That's very good news for the sport, especially if you're interested in seeing someone other than Rafael Nadal or Roger Federer nail down a major tournament. The 21-year-old "Delpo" has missed just about all of this 2010 campaign because of a lingering right wrist injury that required surgery in May. The 6-foot-6 Argentine star hasn't played an ATP match since losing to Croatia's Marin Cilic in the fourth round at the Aussie Open more than six months ago. The big-hitting del Potro was riding a 10-match Grand Slam winning streak before falling at the hands of Cilic back in January. Delpo stunned the tennis world last September when he came from behind to beat the then-reigning five-time champion Federer in the men's final at the U.S. Open. And his semifinal victim there was Nadal, as he became the first- ever player to slay both Roger and Rafa in the same major. Wow! The Tandil native has been a top-10 stud since 2008, as he possesses one of the biggest games on the planet. Del Potro flat-out mashes all of his strokes -- forehand, backhand, serve, whatever. He was a three-time winner and five- time finalist on the tour last year, which, in addition to his U.S. Open victory, included a run into the final at the prestigious year-ending ATP World Tour Finals, where, unfortunately, he lost to determined Russian star Nikolay Davydenko, who has also missed time with a wrist injury this season. Coincidence? Of course it is. Did You Know?: Del Potro tallied the second-longest winning streak in 2008, and the second longest by a teenager in the Open Era (behind only Nadal), when he rattled off 23 straight match wins over a five-tournament span. Delpo, who has reached at least the quarterfinals in four of his last six Grand Slam events, is currently ranked seventh in the world (due to the inactivity) after entering '10 as the No. 5 dude on the planet. He was ranked as high as No. 4 in January. And JMdP's the only player not named Nadal or Federer to capture a Grand Slam title since the spring of 2008. (Time to pick-up the pace, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray). Since Djokovic captured the '08 Oz Open, Nadal and/or Federer have accounted for nine of the last 10 major titles. And the Nadal-Federer domination dates back much further than 2008...that's for sure. When Delpo stunned the Fed at last year's Open (the U.S. one), he halted the supreme Swiss' unrivaled 41-match Open Era winning streak in the Big Apple, where Roger is a tremendous 51-5 overall. (Delpo's 13-3 at the Open?) Last month, the USTA said that del Potro was "expected to return to Grand Slam competition" this month, August. But Delpo's trainer wasn't so sure at the time. "Nothing is sure," Diego Rivas said, less than two weeks ago. "The goal is to return in Bangkok." The Bangkok event, which believes that JMdp will make his return to the tour there in Thailand, starts in the last week of September, about two weeks after the Open concludes. Will del Potro be ready in time to defend his title in New York? Who knows ... not even Delpo at this point.
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Buffalo, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Buffalo Bills and first-round pick C.J. Spiller have reportedly agreed to terms, ending the running back's training camp holdout. According to the Buffalo News, it is a five-year deal for the Clemso
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Watkins Glen, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A.J. Allmendinger has signed a multi-year contract extension with Richard Petty Motorsports to remain as driver of the No. 43 Ford in the Sprint Cup Series. Allmendinger and RPM made the announc
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How to bet pro footballThere 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.
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