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10/23/2011 - Talladega, AL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Clint Bowyer made a winning pass on his Richard Childress teammate Jeff Burton on the final lap to take Sunday's Good Sam Club 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.
Both Bowyer and Burton were hooked up in a two-car tandem for most of the 500- mile race. A late-race caution set up a two-lap sprint to the finish. After the final restart, Bowyer and Burton pulled away from field.
As the RCR drivers came out of the last turn of the final lap, Bowyer dove underneath Burton to take the lead. He crossed the finish line 0.018 seconds ahead of Burton for his first win of the season and the fifth of his Sprint Cup Series career. Bowyer also won last year's fall race at Talladega.
Bowyer and Burton did not qualify for this year's Chase for the Sprint Cup championship. Bowyer is leaving RCR at the end of the year and heading to Michael Waltrip Racing for the 2012 season. Burton was attempting to snap a three-year winless streak in the series.
Dave Blaney finished third, while Brad Keselowski was the highest finisher of the Chase drivers with a fourth-place run. Red Bull Racing teammates Brian Vickers and Kasey Kahne took the fifth and sixth positions, respectively.
Carl Edwards finished 11th and increased his lead to 14 points over new second-place and Roush Fenway Racing teammate Matt Kenseth, who finished 18th. Keselowski is now 18 points out of the lead, while Tony Stewart trails by 19 markers. Stewart finished seventh.
Jimmie Johnson finished 26th and fell 50 points behind Edwards. Just four races remain, with the series heading to Martinsville Speedway -- the shortest track on the schedule -- next weekend.
<< Levante sinks Villarreal to claim La Liga lead
Villarreal, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Levante continued its unbeaten start with
a 3-0 thrashing of Villarreal at the El Madrigal on Sunday, as it climbed into
sole possession of first place in La Liga.
Juanlu scored twice in the first half, a
<< Cardinals RB Beanie Wells leaves game
Glendale, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Arizona Cardinals running back Beanie Wells
left Sunday's game against the Pittsburgh Steelers in the second quarter with
a right knee sprain.
Wells carried the ball 12 times for 42 yards before leaving th
<< Coles hangs on for fifth tour win
Ponte Vedra Beach, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Gavin Coles shot just a one-over 71
on Sunday, but it was enough to give him a one-stroke victory at the
Jacksonville Open.
Coles finished at six-under-par 274, good for his fifth Nationwide Tour titl
<< Donald wins Disney, money title
Lake Buena Vista, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - He entered the tournament last Friday
with one thought in mind: win.
Luke Donald did just that.
The Englishman birdied the first six holes of the back nine on Sunday en route
to an eight-under 64
Chiefs blank Raiders, Palmer struggles in debut >>
Oakland, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Brandon Flowers finished with two
interceptions -- one returned for a touchdown -- and the Kansas City defense
totaled six interceptions, as the Chiefs took down the Oakland Raiders 28-0
Sunday afternoon.
Jack
Cowboys' Murray runs past Rams, into record books >>
Arlington, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Filling in for an injured Felix Jones,
DeMarco Murray erupted for a franchise-best 253 yards rushing as Dallas
dispatched St. Louis, 34-7, at Cowboys Stadium.
Murray eclipsed the old single-g
Rodgers, Packers top Vikings to remain perfect >>
Minneapolis, MN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Aaron Rodgers had three touchdown passes
and the Green Bay Packers recovered from a slow start to take a 33-27 win over
the Minnesota Vikings to remain the only unbeaten team in the NFL.
Rodgers complet
Roethlisberger leads Steelers past Cardinals >>
Glendale, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ben Roethlisberger threw for 361 yards and
three touchdowns as the Pittsburgh Steelers rolled to a 32-20 decision over
the Arizona cardinals.
Roethlisberger completed 26-of-39 pass attempts, including a
Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).
Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.
Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).
Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.
Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.
The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.
What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.
Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.
But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.
In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.
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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