Dodgers hope for sweep of division rival Padres

Baseball Betting Lines

05/16/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The surprising Padres came into this series sitting in first place in the National League West. However, a pair of losses to the Dodgers has quickly reminded them just who the defending division champs are.

San Diego will try to avoid getting swept by Los Angeles at home for the first time in almost nine years this afternoon in the finale of a three-game series at Petco Park.

The Padres finished off a three-game sweep of the Giants earlier this week to move 3 1/2 games ahead of San Francisco in the division standings. They also came into this series five games up on the Dodgers, but San Diego's lead in the division now stands at 1 1/2 over San Francisco and three up on Los Angeles, which has captured the last two NL West crowns.

After dropping a one-run game in the opener on Friday, the Padres fell to the Dodgers last night, 4-1. Los Angeles starter Clayton Kershaw threw seven innings of one-run, three-hit ball with seven strikeouts, while Jamey Carroll had two hits and an RBI.

The victory stretched Los Angeles' longest winning streak of the season to six games. The club has won all five of its games so far on a six-game road trip, a swing that began with a sweep of Arizona.

The Dodgers were able to pick up last night's victory despite playing without early triple-crown threat Andre Ethier, who sustained a fracture on the tip of his right pinkie finger during batting practice. Ethier is slated to see a hand specialist today and leads the majors with a .392 average and 38 RBI, while his 11 homers are tied with Arizona's Kelly Johnson for the most in the NL.

"It's something you certainly don't want to have happen," Dodgers manager Joe Torre said of Ethier's injury. "The season doesn't give you a chance to breathe, just move on and the team we put on the field is the team we have to play with."

Chase Headley drove in the only run for the Padres, who haven't been swept at home by the Dodgers since a four-game series on June 28-July 1, 2001. San Diego was swept in four games at Los Angeles from April 30-May 3 of last season.

Kevin Correia was reinstated from the bereavement list prior to last night's game and gave up five hits and four runs in 5 1/3 innings in defeat. Correia was placed on the bereavement list on Tuesday due to the death of his younger brother Trevor, who died last Saturday after falling from a 60-foot cliff while hiking.

"I know tonight was probably very emotional for him," Padres manager Bud Black said. "But I didn't see that from the time he came in the clubhouse until he left the game. He is a guy, by nature, that is pretty reserved."

Hoping to get the Padres into the win column is Wade LeBlanc. Though he has yet to lose in five starts this year or allow more than two runs in any of his outings, control issues prevented him from picking up a win last time out.

LeBlanc is 2-0 with a 1.61 earned run average on the year, but he lasted just 4 2/3 innings and 94 pitches on Tuesday versus the Giants. LeBlanc did not factor into the decision of his team's 3-2 victory after allowing two runs on six hits and a season-high four walks. Still, San Diego improved to 5-0 when the left-hander starts this season.

LeBlanc, 25, is 1-2 with a 6.27 ERA in four career starts versus the Dodgers, allowing 13 runs, 12 walks and four homers in 18 2/3 innings.

Chad Billingsley appears to have put some of his early-season issues behind him and he seeks a second straight winning start this afternoon for LA.

Billingsley held a 1-0 mark and 7.07 ERA over his first three starts of the year, but he has pitched to a 3.47 ERA over his last four, going 2-2 in that span. He did pick up a victory on Monday in Arizona after holding the Diamondbacks to a pair of runs and a season-low 5 1/3 innings, striking out seven while also matching a season high with four walks.

The 25-year-old righty is now 3-2 with a 4.82 ERA on the season and 8-4 with a 2.71 ERA in 18 career games versus the Padres, 14 of those starts.

The Dodgers won 10 of 18 versus the Padres last year, but San Diego took five of the nine contests played at Petco Park.

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Online Sportsbook Football Betting

Why Sports Betting is so much fun?

Betting Sports

The most popular sports to bet on are NFL and college football along with NBA and NCAA basketball. There are multiple betting opportunities within those sports, beginning with the basic wager on a game’s outcome (also called betting the side). College Football Point spreads are used in both football and basketball in an attempt to even the attractiveness of each team in a match-up. ( See our article detailing how and why point spreads are made)

But you could also simply bet on the money line, or straight-up winner of the game. Oddsmakers use the money line so that more money must be risked on the favorite or expected winner and less money on the underdog to balance the action on both sides. While money line gambling is an attractive option for football and basketball bettors who only care about picking a winner, it is the primary option for those bettors who enjoy wagering on MLB baseball and individual sports like boxing, tennis, golf and racing events such as NASCAR. ( More details on playing the Money Line)

Points (or Runs) Scored

Another bet across all major team sports including football, basketball, baseball, and hockey involves wagering on the amount of scoring in a game, called an Over/Under total. For example, the Over/Under total on Super Bowl XXXIX was 48, which means a bettor could wager whether there would be more or less than 48 points scored by both teams combined in the game.

The final score of Super Bowl XXXIX was 24-21; the scoring of both teams added up to 45, which means the game went Under . So Under bettors won, and Over bettors lost.

Future Bets

Sports gambling doesn’t end there. Betting sides and totals are the most common wagers available everywhere, but many sportsbooks also offer future bets on big upcoming events like who will win next year’s Super Bowl and what movie will win Best Picture at the Academy Awards.

The main advantage of futures is that you can get appealing odds by betting far in advance. For example, with NFL futures you often can get much higher odds on a team by betting before the season even starts. A NFL future bet on a team to win the Super Bowl odds might be 20/1 in the preseason; but by midseason, their odds might decrease to 10/1 if they turn out to be legitimate championship contenders.

Proposition Bets (or Prop Bets)

Proposition bets , also known as prop bets, focus upon the more exotic aspects of a game and are generally reserved for events that are widely televised. Prop bets are extremely popular when it comes to wagering on the Super Bowl in Las Vegas. The Imperial Palace Casino’s sportsbook is well-known for the enormous number of prop bets offered. For example, you can bet on:

Types of Bets

Straight Bet

Involves one individual wager, whether it be on your team to cover the point spread, to win the game straight-up on the money line, or to go over/under the total.

Sports Betting Parlays

A parlay is a single bet that links together two or more individual wagers and is dependent on all of those wagers winning together. The benefit of the parlay bet is much better odds than placing each individual bet separately since the difficulty of hitting it is much higher.

Standard payoffs on a two-team parlay are 13/5; while a three-teamer pays 6/1; and a four-teamer 10/1.

Parlay cards are also fairly common in sportsbooks and popular with bettors, as they are released early in the week with set odds that do not change in return for a slightly lower payoff.

Round Robin Betting

Adventurous bettors who enjoy betting parlays sometimes put together a series of parlays called a Round Robin . A three-team Round Robin consists of one three-team parlay and three two-team parlays. For example, Joe likes teams A,B,C – with a Round Robin he has a three-teamer with ABC, and two-teamers with AB, AC, and BC.

Betting Teasers

Similar to a parlay, a teaser bet is a single bet that links together two or more individual wagers, but is different in that the point spread is adjusted to your advantage on each individual wager. In exchange for the points, you get less of a return on your bet compared to a parlay. For example, a 6-point teaser would move the line on a 7-point favorite from -7 to -1, meaning the team would have to cover 6 less points. Each of the individual wagers must win or the bet is a loss.

These are the main types of sports bets available today. But as sports betting continues to grow, sportsbooks will continue to develop new and creative ways to bet. We’ll continue to track these changes to the sports gambling landscape, so check back often and we’ll tell you all about it!

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs.

NFL ODDSTop Football Betting Free Agents to Change Teams

NFL Betting

It’s time to see how the biggest NFL free agent signings will perform for their news teams. Some will work out and could be the difference that makes a difference in the win column.

We look at the best off-season signings and if they should influence your NFL betting this season. Julius Peppers – Peppers was the biggest prize available on the 2010 NFL free agent market and the Chicago Bears opened the bank to bring his talents to the south side.

Peppers is explosive, he can get around blockers and cause quarterbacks to lose their minds. We all remember the classic Peppers game last year against the Vikings where he hounded Brett Favre into his worst game of the season. Peppers joining the Bears could be the reason Favre retired for good Tuesday morning. In addition to Peppers, the Bears added Chester Taylor to back up Matt Forte, Forte didn’t have the same intensity in 2009 compared to 2008 and bringing in Taylor will challenge Forte to bring it every game or he’ll risk losing carries to Taylor.

Betting on the Bears is a good option this season because of Julius Peppers and to a lesser extent Taylor. Antonio Bryant and Terrell Owens – The Cincinnati Bengals signed two former number one wide receivers to line up with Chad Ocho Cinco. Antonio Bryant had a huge season in 2008 catching 83 passes for over 1200 yards but regressed last season. Playing for the Tampa Bay Bucs last season was a large part of the regression, everyone was bad in TB last season.

Bryant should have a bounce back season if he can win the number two spot from Terrell Owens. If Bryant wins the number 2 WR spot, it will open up a completely new set of problems for the Bengals. If Owens is forced to the bench in favor of Bryant, his attitude will create trouble for Carson Palmer and head coach Marv Lewis. If Owens is the number two receiver, it means Bryant can’t live up to his past numbers and the Bengals are still limited in the passing game. NFL bettors should be wary of laying their money down on what could potentially be the biggest gong show in the league in 2010. 2010 football betting lines for this can be found at this top online sportsbook. Karlos Danby – The Miami Dolphins have a great running back tandem in Ricky Williams and Ronnie Brown, a good young QB in Chad Henne and now the Bill Parcells regime is building a solid defense.

NFL bettors should be wary of laying their money down on what could potentially be the biggest gong show in the league in 2010. Karlos Danby – The Miami Dolphins have a great running back tandem in Ricky Williams and Ronnie Brown, a good young QB in Chad Henne and now the Bill Parcells regime is building a solid defense. They signed away the Arizona Cardinals top linebacker Karlos Danby. In the past two seasons, Danby has totaled 228 tackles, 5 sacks, 3 interceptions and 3 forced fumbles. The Dolphins are the forgotten team of the AFC East with the second longest odds to win the division but with the addition of Karlos Danby and a trade for WR Brandon Marshall makes the Miami Dolphins legitimate contenders in the AFC East and in the NFL’s Eastern Conference.

The Dolphins will make NFL wagering fans a lot of money this season, get in early and enjoy the cash.

NFL Wagering

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