Sports Betting Blog

If you’ve been wagering for a while you probably already have marked down the days for some of the big sporting events in your calendar. You probably placed a couple plays in for the Super Bowl and you might be quite thrilled about the exciting 20-plus days of March Madness right around the corner. Perhaps you are looking ahead for the NBA Finals, the ATP Grand Slams, maybe even a golf tournament up in the future when Tiger Woods decide to get back in the game.

This particular year you probably already took some action on the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, and perhaps you are seriously considering taking part on the action for the 2010 South Africa Soccer World Cup. Even if you are not that much into soccer, you know that there is plenty of betting action and great promotions coming up for that event.

Perhaps you are a well-versed player and even marked down the dates for each of the horse-races in the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Races: the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stake and the Belmont Stake, or all the other events you can play on through our racebook. But there is a chance you might have not considered the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences awards as part of your betting strategy. And maybe you should. BetIAS is offering odds to win the Oscars for the main categories at this year’s Oscars Award Ceremony.

The 82nd Academy Awards, honoring the best in film for 2009, will be held on Sunday February 7th, 2010 at the Kodak Theatre and hosted by Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin. The favorites in each of the main categories have been already ruled out and there Money-Line odds to wager on the winner of each of the main categories: best picture of the year, best actor, best actress, best supporting actor and best supporting actress.

Here are a couple of pointers. The next blog entry will offer some sort of Academy-Award-Winner’s-handicapping, if you will. But for the sake of order, let’s stick to the basics. First, forget E Entertainment Television, TMZ and US Weekly, with all their pre-Award Ceremony hype and marketing antics: they are good at entertaining and improving audience-ratings not at predicting Oscar Statuette winners. Second, although there is always a chance for an upset, and the Academy has brought out one or two Cinderella Stories before, these awards can turn out to be quite predictable. And that explains the higher odds on some of the picks.

The Sportsbook Industry accuracy in this sort of future events (think US presidential campaign, and recent either political or entertainment futures) has been extremely high. Enough as to make it clear, three weeks before election, that it was Obama and not McCain whom was going to sit at the Oval Office.

The theory that betting markets can offer very accurate predictions about future events is relatively new. The logic behind it says that when an opinion on the outcome of an event is backed by a bettor’s own money, it is more likely to be carefully considered. This means there is a lot of consideration behind the fact that Jeff Bridges has a ML-800 to win Best Actor, while Morgan Freeman and his role in Invictus could comeback with $1500 for every $100 you risk on him. So do a little research, it certainly won’t hurt. You might just make a good profit from the movie industry. I mean, that’s the least it could do to get you back for all the hours you’ve spent at the cinema.

The golf world’s elite is getting together at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in Marana, Arizona. So if you have never placed a wager on golf, this might be the tournament to give it a try. First, it’s an easy to follow single elimination tournament divided into four different brackets. Think, March Madness, with tees and clubs, and a much more solemn audience. The players have it very clear. It’s a win or go home situation. With an $8.5 million purse, and knowing that you only face one opponent per round, the players should have enough motivation to give its very best at each matchup.

Online Sportsbook Industry leader BetIAS has wagering lines available for the key matches of the opening round. What’s more, we are going to offer lines for the key matchups in every round, with daily updated lines as the brackets starts to fill in.

As if that was not enough, you can wager on the odds to win the whole tournament, or wager on the winner for each of the four brackets or Divisions.

The first round brings up some interesting golf matches. Ian Poulter and Justin Leonard (rotation 7013-14) are facing each other in the first round of the Bobby Jones Division. The two players are coming from a solid performance at the Ryder Cup, and might put out a good show. As of press time, Poulter is the favorite for this matchup at ML-170 with a comeback for Justin Leonard of +130.  This tournament gives a good opportunity to the new, younger players to get their name out in the golfing world.

Two of the most promising young players are going head to head in the first round. Camilo Villegas and Dustin Johnson (rotation 7047-48) are expected to battle for a pass into the second round. Rory McIlroy is not likely to have troubles in the first round. He is ML -260 against big underdog Kevin Na +190 (7025-26), both players put college education on hold to play in the professional circuit this year, and this early year win, could boost them into a great 2010.

Defending Champion Geoff Oglivy is ML-270 against Alexander Noren (7045-7046). This could be the third time that Oglivy takes home the Walter Hagen Cup. Some well-experienced veterans are also going head to head this week. For instance, Jim Furyk is a ML favorite by -185 with a comeback +140 for Scott Verplank in rotation 7049-7050 in our matchups.

The top 64 golfers in the World Golf Ranking are meeting outside Tucson, Arizona, for the 12th edition of the Accenture Match Play Championship. This will be the first part of the 4-Tournament-series 2010 World Golf Championship. This year the Tournament is missing #1 Tiger Woods, and #3 Phil Mickelson, in what otherwise is a great selection of the world’s golf elite. The golfers will have to put out their best game in these 5 days of head to head single elimination competition. The Players have it simple: win or go home.

The Tour’s top-ranked players from the International Federation of PGA Tours, which includes the Asian Tour, European Tour, Japan Golf Tour, American PGA Tour, the PGA tour of Australasia and Southern Africa Tour, have been invited to the Accenture Match Play. The Tournament format tests the player’s game, confidence and performance under pressure. Unlike regular PGA Tournaments that follow the stroke-play format (which adds up all the strokes from multiple days to decide a winner) the match-play format demands the player’s innermost concentration at every hit, since it is played on a hole by hole basis.

This tournament is divided into four brackets. The number one seed plays number 16th; number 2 plays the 15th seed, and so on. The brackets are each named after one of Golf’s Legends: Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Gary Player and Bobby Jones. For a PDF view of the complete Accenture Match Play Championship Bracket, click here.

The 7.833 yard, par 72 Ritz Carlton Golf Club Course in Marana, Arizona was designed by Jack Nicklaus and it is the longest venue in PGA history. Last year, in this same course, Australia’s Geoff Ogilvy captured the Accenture Tournament after defeating England’s Paul Casey 4 and 3 in the final matchup. This year, Ogilvy, Steve Striker, Rory McIlroy and Lee Westwood have the highest odds to win the Tournament. These are the four favorites to make it into the demanding 36-hole Championship Game on February 21.

The Saints came back from a 10-0 deficit to win the XLIV Super Bowl last Sunday February 7th. Drew Brees and the bayou boys gave us one heck of a game against the 5-point favorite, the Indianapolis Colts, to win their first National Championship. The Vince Lombardi Trophy was still on its way to New Orleans when the online wagering team at Instant Actions Sports was coming up with new ideas to improve your online and over the phone wagering experience.

The Super Bowl is well behind us, and we are already working on preparing the best NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament wagering-related information you can find on the web. We are currently updating all the content you can find on our website regarding every NCAA Division I Basketball team. We’re happy to announce that now, from one single source, you can find a small overview with last season’s statistics, the 2009-2010 season schedules, and other important handicapping information about every team in NCAA Division I right here.

As if that wasn’t enough, once the tournament gets going and we move into the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight rounds, our handicappers are going to be bringing up-to-date wagering related statistics and game previews for the key matches of each round. What this means is that we are going to be giving you information from real basketball game insiders so you can make the best calls possible. Sound a bit too good coming from the writers of a well-known sportsbook? Instant Actions Sports is all about immaculate costumer service, offering our clients the best possible wagering experience. This attention to detail might just put us – and more importantly, you – over the edge.

Let’s say you would like to know how many times the Kansas Jayhawks covered their spread (ATS) during the regular season. We’ll have it.  Let’s say you would like to know how many of Syracuse’s games have gone over. We’ll have that too.  We’ll have regular season Wagering Statistics for the top 5 teams in the AP rankings by the time the tournament kicks in. Check out the coverage we gave the XLIV Super Bowl and you might get an idea of the sort of information we’re going to provide exclusively through this blog.

One last thing before we go. Our team of designers is working on creating a clear and easy to download-read-and-print PDF of the March Madness Bracket, so you can keep track of all the college hoops action. So, if you’re into college basketball, and would like to get into the heat of March Madness, stick around – we’re just getting started. At Instant Actions Sports, we get you in on the action.