Thompson, Spieth advance at U.S. Junior

Golf Betting Lines

07/21/2010 - Ada, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Stroke play medalist Curtis Thompson and defending champion Jordan Spieth both won their first-round match play encounters Wednesday at the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship.

Thompson, of Coral Springs, Florida, topped 14-year-old Scottie Scheffler, 3 & 1. Spieth, from Dallas, Texas, cruised past Chelso Barrett, 7 & 5 at Egypt Valley Country Club.

Thompson was actually behind the 64th-seeded Scheffler on three different occasions and was all square after 14 holes. The 17-year-old Thompson won the ensuing three holes to lock up the win.

"On 12 and 13, you could tell that he wasn't hitting as good shots as he was hitting earlier in the round," Thompson said. "I knew when I got to 15 - he's only what 13, 14 [years old] - I knew I could have him there because that hole is 470 [yards] and it was into the wind today. He had 3-wood and I had 8-iron. There's a difference."

Spieth, 16, is attempting to become the second player in history to win multiple Junior Amateur championships after Tiger Woods, who won three in a row from 1991-93.

Next up for Spieth will be Robby Shelton in round two of match play Thursday. Shelton beat Ben Crancer on Wednesday, 3 & 2.

Gavin Hall, the 15-year-old who set a course record with a 62 on Tuesday, beat Brandon Ng, 3 & 2.

There were also a few upsets as Devon Purser beat Shugo Imahira, 1-up; Adam Ball defeated Marcel Puyat, 4 & 3; and Sam Straka got by Brian Jung, 1- up.

The second and third rounds of match play will be Thursday, the quarterfinal and semifinal matches are scheduled for Friday and the 36-hole championship final is slated for Saturday.

Wwwpharoahscasino Golf Betting News


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What Is the Point Spread?

What are Sports Betting Point Spreads?

In any football or basketball game (the main sports that use point spreads) there are two teams playing against each other.

Those teams, though, are rarely exactly evenly matched – meaning that typically one team has a better chance than the other to win the game. If bettors were allowed to bet on who was simply going to win the game, smart ones would obviously bet on the better team (likely winning more than 50% of the time in the process).

If winning were that easy the Las Vegas and online sportsbooks would stop taking any bets! This is where the point spread comes in: the basic function of the point spread is to balance the likelihood of each team “winning” by adjusting the final score by the point spread. After this adjustment is made you get the Against The Spread result (ATS result for short).

Let’s look at Super Bowl XXXIX, New England Patriots vs. Philadelphia Eagles. Most people believed the defending champ Patriots to be the better team – so if betting were simply based upon which team would win the game, an uneven majority of people would have wagered on New England. But, by using the point spread, the bookmakers adjusted the terms of the bet, evening the proposition so about half the people believed the Pats to be the smart bet, while the other half considered Philly to be the smart bet.

How to Read Point Spreads

New England Patriots -7 vs. Philadelphia Eagles

The better team, called the Favorite, is expected to win the game and must “give” or “lay” points to the weaker team. The favorite is listed with a minus sign and the number of points they are favored by (e.g., New England -7)

In the case of our example, New England must not only win the game, but they must win by more than 7 points for Pats bettors to have a winning ATS result. An Eagles bettor wins his bet either if:

To visit this internet sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting and World Series odds.

MySportsbook.com and Kentucky Derby Offer Bonuses
The 2008 Kentucky Derby has announced a $1-million bonus for this weekend’s 134th ‘Run for the Roses’ and MySportsbook.com is doing the same.

Well, not quite $1 million, but MySportsbook.com is offering a 75% rebate for Kentucky Derby lines. Check out the exclusive horse racing bonus for all the details.

According to MySportsbook.com, the favorites for Saturday’s Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky are: Curlin (+250); Street Sense (+500); Scat Daddy (+700); Circular Quay (+750); and Nobiz Like Shobiz (+800).

Derby organizers announced this week that there will be a $1-million bonus at the 2007 Kentucky Derby odds if the first-place horse wins by more than 6 1/2 lengths – the margin of Barbaro's victory last year. The bonus would be divided Saturday among the winning trainer, jockey, owner and a charity, with each receiving 25 percent. The designated charity is the Barbaro Memorial Fund.

''It's certainly creative, it's certainly fun and it has something for the horsemen, which we always want to embrace,'' Churchill Downs president and chief executive Robert Evans said at a news conference. ''What's really cool is it will force us to remember Barbaro.''
    
Meanwhile, the Derby favorite – Curlin – is going against the odds this year. It's been 125 years since Apollo won after skipping his 2-year-old season, and not since Regret in 1915 has such a lightly seasoned horse worn the blanket of red roses.

Arkansas Derby winner Curlin – unbeaten in three career races – tries to overcome both those obstacles in Saturday's 133rd Derby.

''We're not running against history,'' trainer Steve Asmussen said Monday. ''We're running against who they load up.''

Six other horses have run in the Derby without benefit of 2-year-old races and with three or fewer starts. The best any of them managed was a sixth-place finish by Showing Up last year.
   
Asmussen dismissed suggestions that Curlin's lack of racing experience could keep him from the winner's circle.

”He exudes confidence and he's got a great presence about him,'' the trainer said. ''I feel great about the position we're in. He's not worried about anything, why should you be?''
   
The Kentucky Derby is at 4:04 p.m., ET Saturday.

For complete odds on the Kentucky Derby, visit MySportsbook.com. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.