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07/22/2010 - Etobicoke, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Brent Delahoussaye fired an eight-under 62 Thursday to take the lead after the opening round of the Canadian Open.
Delahoussaye's 62 at St. George's Golf & Country Club matched the tournament's 18-hole scoring record. Leonard Thompson, Andy Bean and Greg Norman all shot 62 at Glen Abbey, while Hunter Mahan also carded a 62 at Angus Glen North.
"I am shocked. I mean I knew I was playing well, and I didn't even really know how many under I was at one point," Delahoussaye admitted. "I just kind of kept going and kept trying to make birdies. I am a little shocked that it's the tournament record and the course record."
Vance Veazey and Brock Mackenzie both shot six-under 64 and share second place. Hunter Mahan headlines a group of nine players tied for third at minus- five.
With a slightly different setup this week, players are starting on the first and ninth tees at St. George's.
Delahoussaye started his round on the ninth and reached the green in two with a three-iron and drained the eagle effort. Delahoussaye came right back with a short birdie putt on the 10th to quickly get to minus-three.
The 28-year-old birdied the 12th, but gave that stroke right back with a three-putt bogey on the 13th. After three straight pars, he birdied the 17th to head to the front nine at minus-four.
Delahoussaye got within one of the lead with a birdie on the second. He poured in three consecutive birdies from the fifth to jump into the lead.
"The key was hitting fairways. I figured the rough was going to be thick, after my practice round," Delahoussaye stated. "I just figured if I could keep it in the fairway I could still get it around the greens. I hit a lot of fairways today and the putter got hot. I made a bunch of putts, to be honest."
Delahoussaye hasn't had a lot of success this year on the PGA Tour, as he has made just three cuts in nine tries and his best finish was a share of 53rd at the Byron Nelson Championship. That stands as his best career PGA Tour finish.
"I've played bad all year, to be honest," Delahoussaye said. "I've been hitting it well, but I was just getting in my own way."
Veazey also started on the ninth and he got his round going right there with a birdie. He rolled in a 15-foot birdie effort on the 11th and followed with another birdie on the 12th.
The 45-year-old, who has won four Nationwide Tour events, parred the final six holes of his opening side.
Veazey sank an eight-foot birdie effort at the first and followed with a 15- footer at the second. He tripped to a bogey at the third, but erased that mistake with a 20-foot birdie effort at the sixth.
Veazey closed with a birdie on the eighth to get in at minus-six.
"The putter was the key ingredient to the score. You have to hit good shots into the greens because they have slope," Veazey said. "I had a lot of good looks today with the putter. So I think that's the key to playing well here is obviously putting it in the fairway, and then you have got to make putts."
Mackenzie was even-par through six holes with a pair of birdies and bogeys. He birdied the eighth and followed with an eagle on No. 9. Mackenzie birdied 10 and 11 to get to five-under. His final birdie was on the 16th.
Mahan was joined in fourth at five-under 65 by Rich Barcelo, Dean Wilson, Daniel Chopra, Charley Hoffman, Jimmy Walker, Spencer Levin, Steve Wheatcroft and Brian Stuard.
NOTES: Veazey's 64 matched his career-low round on the PGA Tour...Defending champion Nathan Green is tied for 37th after opening with a two-under 68...World No. 8 Paul Casey, the highest ranked player in the field, also carded a 68...Robert Garrigus and Brian Davis withdrew after their rounds.
<< McCoy in fold with Browns
Cleveland, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Cleveland Browns have reportedly signed
quarterback Colt McCoy, a third-round draft pick.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports McCoy and the team's other third-round
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<< Kaye leads in Ohio with course-record 63
Columbus, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jonathan Kaye fired a course-record, eight-
under 63 Thursday to grab a two-stroke lead after the first round of the
Nationwide Children's Hospital Invitational.
Kaye, a two-time winner on the PGA
<< Thrashers re-sign Pavelec
Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Atlanta Thrashers announced they have re-
signed goaltender Ondrej Pavelec to a multi-year contract.
Exact terms of the contract were not provided, per team policy.
The 22-year-old appeared in 42 game
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San Francisco, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A hearing has been set for Friday to
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Bonds faces several counts of making false statements under oath to a
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Jol turns down Fulham job >>
London, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Fulham will have to look elsewhere for a
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The former Tottenham boss has decided to stay in charge of Ajax af
Hanley commits future to Blackburn >>
Blackburn, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Blackburn has handed teenage defender
Grant Hanley a new five-year contract.
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of last season against Aston Villa and is
Mulumbu signs extension with West Brom >>
West Bromwich, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Midfielder Youssouf Mulumbu has
committed his future to West Brom after penning a new three-year contract.
The 23-year-old DR Congo international made 46 appearances and scored three
goals i
Paul to meet with Hornets Monday, trade rumors swirl >>
New Orleans, LA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Three-time All-Star point guard Chris Paul
will reportedly sit down with management of the New Orleans Hornets on Monday,
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Several media outlets, inc
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.
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.
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