Ajax held by Excelsior, trail PSV by five

Soccer Betting Lines

02/18/2007 - Amsterdam, Holland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Just when Ajax had climbed to within three points of league-leaders PSV, the Amsterdam club lost two points over the weekend to fall five off the pace. PSV recorded a 2-0 over Heracles on Saturday, and Ajax followed with a 2-2 draw against Excelsior at Amsterdam Arena on Sunday.

Things started off well for the home side as Edgar Davids put Ajax ahead after 19 minutes with his first goal for the club, but Excelsior responded with a pair of goals in a five-minute span to move in front on the half-hour mark. Andwele Slory and Eldridge Rojer tallied for the visitors, but Ajax sniper Klaas-Jan Huntelaar had his team on level terms heading into the half with a goal in the 38th minute. After a torrid pace in the first half, things slowed considerably in the second half, and the teams were left to split the points.

After a 3-0 thrashing at the hands of Werder Bremen in the UEFA Cup during the week, Ajax came out firing and went ahead 19 minutes into the match. Huntelaar was taken down by Excelsior's Henrico Drost, setting up a dangerous free-kick chance. Tom De Mul then rolled the ball to Davids, who slammed a shot into the top corner of the net, giving keeper Theo Zwarthoed no chance.

A poor pass from Johnny Heitinga led to the visitors climbing back into the game six minutes later. His errant pass allowed Slory to carry the ball into the penalty area before beating keeper Maarten Stekelenburg with a low shot into the left corner.

Five minutes later, Excelsior went in front on a brilliant individual play from Rojer. After making room on the left flank for himself, Rojer carried the ball into the box and beat Stekelenburg to make it 2-1 to the visitors.

Another set piece allowed Ajax to equalize in the 38th minute. De Mul's corner was swung into the area and met by the head of Huntelaar, who banged home a powerful header to even the score at 2-2.

An exciting first half was followed by a lackluster second half, with the best chance of breaking the deadlock falling to Ajax's Leonardo, who failed to hit the net from close range.

In other Eredivisie play on Sunday, AZ squandered a chance to move into second place with a 1-1 draw at Groningen, Twente scored twice in the first half and held off Heerenveen for a 2-1 win and Feyenoord got a pair of goals in the opening 20 minutes to get past Utrecht 2-0.

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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 week 1 NFL lines


Now that the 2008 NFL schedule is finally out, it is only matter-of-course for lines on “Week 1” to follow.  Of course MySportsbook.com is the first to churn out odds for the NFL’s inaugural week for the upcoming season.   Expect a lot of fireworks the first Thursday night of the season as the defending champion Indianapolis Colts face off against the surprise of the 2008 season, the New Orleans Saints.  These teams were ranked #1 and #3 in the NFL respectively a season ago so a high scoring affair could be in order.  As of now, the Colts will be giving 6 points to the Saints; keep in mind the Saints were one of the better road teams last season going 6-3 SU and 7-2 ATS.  The first Monday night of the season will again provide a “double feature”. Coming off a disappointing season, the Cincinnati Bengals will look to get back to playoffs and improve their public image as they take on the AFC North favorite Baltimore Ravens.  The second game features a couple of teams that haven’t had too much success recently but each could make some noise if the NFC is as weak as it was last year as the San Francisco 49ers host the Arizona Cardinals. The most interesting game of the opening week will feature the NFC champion Bears as they hit the road to take on the NFL’s top team during last year’s regular season, the San Diego Chargers.

MySportsbook.com Week 1 odds:

Saints +6 @ Colts -6

Falcons @ Vikings (pick ‘em)

Panthers @ Rams (pick ‘em)

Broncos -3.5 @ Bills +3.5

Chiefs -1 @ Texans +1

Dolphins +3 @ Redskins -3

Patriots -5 @ Jets +5

Eagles -3.5 @ Packers +3.5

Steelers -4 @ Browns +4

Titans +6 @ Jaguars -6

Bears +6 @ Chargers -6

Lions +3 @ Raiders -3

Bucs +6.5 @ Seahawks -6.5

Giants +4 @ Cowboys -4

Ravens +3 @ Bengals -3

Cardinals +3 @ 49ers -3

 Super Bowl line (2008)

NFC +6.5 vs. AFC -6.5

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