49ers place Fields on IR

Football Betting Lines

12/22/2006 - Santa Clara, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The San Francisco 49ers placed defensive tackle Ron Fields on injured reserve Thursday because of a broken left arm.

Fields suffered the injury sometime on Wednesday, but it was not discovered until after practice. The second-year player has 28 tackles in 13 games this season.

Replacing Fields on the roster is defensive end Lance Legree. Legree was waived by the 49ers before the start of the regular season before landing with the Giants. He played in two games with New York before being waived again.

Legree has 91 tackles and seven sacks in five seasons.

Football356 Football Betting News

<< Weatherford to start for Seminoles in Emerald Bowl
Tallahassee, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Florida State head coach Bobby Bowden named Drew Weatherford the starting quarterback for the December 27 Emerald Bowl against UCLA. Bowden had been indecisive between Weatherford or Xavier Lee on sta

<< Rudd to return to Nextel Cup with Yates
Mooresville, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ricky Rudd made it official Thursday, saying he will join forces with Robert Yates Racing to participate in a full NASCAR Nextel Cup schedule for the 2007 season. Rudd, who sat out 2006, will fill the seat

<< Dolphins place Wilkinson on IR
Davie, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Miami Dolphins placed defensive tackle Dan Wilkinson on the injured reserve list Thursday because of a calf injury. To replace him on the roster, Miami signed defensive tackle Chase Page off the practice sq

<< NFL Inactives (Thursday, December 21, 2006)
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The following is a list of the players placed on the inactive squad for this week's NFL games. MINNESOTA VIKINGS AT GREEN BAY PACKERS , 8:00 P.M. (ET) Vikings - 3rd QB Brooks Bollinger, WR Jason Carter,

<< Barca stumbles into Christmas break
Barcelona, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Defending La Liga champion Barcelona needed a win in its last game before the Christmas break to keep pace with leader Sevilla on Thursday. The match at Nou Camp turned out to be another disappoi

Air Force game at Northern Colorado postponed >>
Greeley, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The blizzard that has dumped more than two feet of snow in most of Colorado is now responsible for the postponement of Saturday's basketball game between 24th-ranked Air Force and Northern Colorad

Notre Dame battles past Army >>
South Bend, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Colin Falls scored 24 points, mostly on shots from beyond the arc, as 20th-ranked Notre Dame throttled Army, 88-47, to win its ninth straight game. Falls went 9-of-11 from the field, including 6-of-

Thomas, Bruins shut down Canucks >>
Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tim Thomas recorded his first shutout of the season and second of his career, stopping 39 shots to lead the Boston Bruins over the Vancouver Canucks, 2-0, at TD Banknorth Garden Marc Savard notched two

Snowstorm causes postponements >>
Greeley, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Postponements continue to pile up due to a blizzard that dumped more than two feet of snow in most of Colorado. The storm is responsible for the postponement of Saturday's basketball game between 24th-

Third-period burst helps Lightning zap Senators >>
Ottawa, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Paul Ranger scored his first goal of the season and added an assist to help the Tampa Bay Lightning down the Ottawa Senators, 4-2, at Scotiabank Place. Martin St. Louis, Ruslan Fedotenko and Vincent Lecaval

Sportsbooks to bet on football

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.

MySportsbook.com offers Blackjack contest and $10,000.00 in Free Prize money!

Every month MySportsbook.com's casino host, Jack Black, gives away $10,000.00 in free casino prize money. To Enter - All you have to do is play at least 10 hands (total) of Blackjack on one of the specified dates of the blackjack contest. The online casino host randomly hands out free bonuses ranging from $50 - $500, and one lucky player who will receive a free $2,500.00 bonus.

"We have been running this monthly free blackjack contest to our active mebers for 5 years now, and the players just love it," says Jack Black, online casino host at MySportsbook.com. "And why wouldn't they love a free chance to win some extra online blackjack cash."

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your Sportsbook accepts Mastercard needs.