Sports Betting Blog

In case you are into Cinderella stories check this out: the Cornhuskers were a +10.5 point underdog against the Mizzou Tigers. As if that was not enough, Nebraska had only won two Conference Games in the regular season. The Cornhuskers held a 2-14 record in conference play and 15-17 overall mark this season, and finished last in the Big 12 Conference standings. But, boy-oh-boy, did they play with all their might this afternoon to win over Missouri 75-60.

Mizzou had a good regular season, finishing 5th in the Big 12 with a 10-6 conference record, and holding a 22-10 overall mark, so chances for an opening round upset at Kansas City, Mo., were quite unexpected. But the Cornhuskers dominated every aspect of their game. They outrebounded, outshot, and outperformed the Tigers with ease. It might be a long shot, but there’s still a chance to see this guys in March Madness.

The Cornhuskers made it quite clear with a 16-1 run from the beginning that the Tigers where in for more than they could chew. Yet the Tigers fans were still quite enthusiastic for a while. Mizzou had easily defeated the Tigers in their previous two matches this season. Until the talented Brandon Richardson brought his A-game and came in with 19 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists.

The Tigers were a -13 point favorite over Nebraska in their first game of the season and a -4.5 point favorite on their second game against the Cornhuskers. In neither game were the Cornhuskers able to cover their spread. Matter of fact, Nebraska was 7-14 ATS for the regular season, while Missouri was 14-11.

Kim English pulled the tigers to a 61-51 with 4:01 to play.  Yet Richardson came along with a 3 pointer taking a foul from Zaire Taylor for a nice 4 point play that sealed that game. Ryan Anderson had 16 points while Jorge Diaz had 10 of his own to help tip off the game on Nebraska’s side. It sure was not a good game for the Big 12 Tournament defending Champions.

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.

If one takes into account exclusively the 37-21 score, it would seem that Alabama smacked the Longhorns. But it wasn’t quite so. Alabama won, and the team won on fair grounds. But if you are a true college football fan, regardless of whom you cheer for, we could certainly understand if you felt a bit robbed. Don’t take us wrong, it was quite an exciting game. But, boy -oh boy-, how much would we have liked to see Colt McCoy finish the game without his early game injury. Just for the sake of the sport. Even the most hardcore Tide fan would agree on this: winning with McCoy on the field would have been even better.

Yet football has its own logic (and fate) and 300 lbs. Marcell Dareus sacked McCoy a send him to the X Ray Room after only his 5th offensive play. Freshman Garret Gilbert had to come in and finish the rest of the game. Gilbert completed 15 of his 40 attempts and threw for 186 yards –more then half oh his total 310-yards in his college career.

The Longhorns began their offensive with two Field Goals by kicker Hunter Lawrence for 18 and 42 yard respectively. Then 2009 Heisman Trophy winner, Mark Ingram Jr. completed a 2-yard run over the defensive line for touchdown. The Longhorns were certainly struggling at this point. Ingram’s play was followed by a 49 yard run from Trent Richardson to make it 14-6. Leigh Tiffin would later on complete 26 yard field goal and still there was no answer from the Longhorns. Marcell Dareus intercepted Gilbert’s short pass and made a 28-yard return for a 24-6 Lead by halftime.

And it seemed that it was all over for the Longhorns. By halftime, Instant Action Sports had made Alabama favorite by 7½ points. And it all seemed too easy. Soon the line moved to -9½ -125 for Alabama. And although the Crimson Tide could have sworn the team was in for an easy ride, Gilbert came back from the break a new man. The freshman completed 2 touchdown passes to Jordan Shipley to trim the deficit 24-21.

After Alabama’s punt, Texas had 6:13 to run those 93 yards that separated them from one of the most far-fetched comebacks in college football history. But then it all went south. Gilbert was sacked by Eryk Anders so that Courtney Upshaw could recover the ball. Alabama gained possession, to score another touchdown.

Three plays later Mark Ingram made a 1-yard run to secure the victory. One last score by Trent Richardson would close the match, making it look easier then it really was. And just like that Alabama was going to take their first National Championship since 1992.  Mark Ingram ran for 116 yards, and 2 touchdowns, while Trent Richardson also ran for 100+ yard game, and 2 TDs.

Gilbert (who had only thrown 26 passes in his college career) was able to get Alabama into some trouble. McCoy would have almost certainly made it much harder for the Tide to take the National Championship home.  But we just have to face it: it’s a bit too risky to write about the things that could have been. Bottom line: The National Championship Trophy sits quite nicely in Tuscaloosa and it deserves to be there.

By Stephen Lars

Magics vs. Raptors

In an exciting journey loaded of high scores, the Toronto Raptors defeated Orlando Magic with a score of 108-102. On this encounter the big star that took charge of leading Toronto to the victory was Anthony Parker, who with his 26 points knew how to take control of the game. From the Orlando’ side, who arrived with an advantage of 17 matches won, also brought some good scores, Dwight Howard gain 39 points that even so in the end weren’t enough to reach the Raptors, who regardless of not counting with Jermaine O’Neal or José Calderón, showed during the whole game set to win it.

Cavaliers vs. Wizards

The Washington Wizards, the team at the bottom from the Southeast division of the East Conference managed to overcome the Cleveland Cavaliers after a mistake by LeBron James within seconds from the end of the encounter, at the moment of throwing the ball that could have tied the final result, James by mistake gave more steps than what’s permitted, which brought the success to Wizards with the 80-77.

Clippers vs. Pistons

Following an arbitrary decision, LA Clippers were beaten with a difference of one point only (88-87) by the Detroit Pistons, who despite not having the help of some of their most important players starter players _due to injuries_, attained their seventh in a row triumph. During the course of the match, the approaches to the hoop from both teams were constant but not very effective, if the contrary would have happened the scores would have been of the three digits.

Grizzlies vs. Mavericks

Memphis Grizzlies surpassed the bad streak of thirteen consecutive losses when they crushed the Dallas Mavericks. The player of the game was definitively Marc Gasol, who leaded his team and scored 19 points for them, the next 2 responsible of scoring more points were Rudy Gay and Hakim Warrick with 18 points each.

Celtics vs. Knicks

Another pair meeting was Boston Celtics, the current NBA Champions who couldn’t trounce their rival, the New York Knicks, for whom the encounter was the perfect stage to break the chain of eight consecutive fails before the Celtics. The higher scorer was Al Harrington who brought 30 points to the Knicks that controlled the game from the third quarter on, imposing strongly in the last period. For the Boston Celtics this is the fourth loss of the last six matches.

Lakers vs. Trial Blazers

The last encounter of the day saw the LA Lakers stood up firmly before the Portland Trail Blazers with a score of 100-86. Again Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol shined in the stadium, this time the two superstars guided their team to the victory with 26 and 19 points respectively. From the very beginning Los Angeles marked the direction of the battle, which blocked the guys from Portland and reduced their chances to reach the contrary backboard. The triumph for the Lakers line up in their list of consecutive winnings at home, which count 15 until now; and in general six.

About the Author:

Stephen Lars has been a prominent writer on daily NBA Basketball, sports news and sportsbook industry updates for many exceptional sports web sites. You may reprint this article in its full content, please note no modifications to it are accepted.