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Cards send Wainwright to hill in Cincinnati

Baseball Betting Lines

04/07/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Even after delivering a long-anticipated breakout year, Adam Wainwright found himself overshadowed by the accomplishments of his St. Louis Cardinals teammates last season. The standout pitcher once again has a tough act to follow when he makes his 2010 debut against the Cincinnati Reds this evening at Great American Ball Park.

Wainwright led all National League hurlers with 19 victories and 233 innings pitched during a banner 2009 campaign, while also ranking in the top five in earned run average (2.63) and strikeouts (212). The 28-year-old still finished behind fellow rotation member Chris Carpenter in voting for the league's Cy Young Award, with Carpenter losing out to San Francisco's Tim Lincecum by a mere six points for the coveted honor.

Of course, both St. Louis pitchers take a back seat to two-time reigning NL MVP Albert Pujols when it comes to the Cardinals, and the superstar first baseman was the star of the show once again on Opening Day. Pujols slugged a pair of homers and finished 4-for-5 with three RBI to lead the defending Central Division champions to an 11-6 victory over the Reds in Monday's opener of this three-game set.

"You make a mistake, he's right on it," Reds starter Aaron Harang said of Pujols afterward. "You have to give him a good pitch. He's the best hitter in the game."

Pujols wasn't the only St. Louis player swinging the heavy lumber, though. Catcher Yadier Molina belted a ninth-inning grand slam and ended 2-for-4 on the afternoon, while center fielder Colby Rasmus also homered and collected two hits.

Carpenter put forth a solid outing as well, yielding two runs on five hits and not issuing a walk over six frames to pick up the win. Both runs allowed came via solo homers from Joey Votto and Scott Rolen in the fourth inning.

Harang worked the first five innings for Cincinnati and gave up four runs (3 earned) on five hits, including homers to Pujols and Rasmus, in taking the loss.

"Overall, it wasn't my best," Harang told the Reds' official site. "I wish I could have been out there longer."

Votto went 3-for-5 and scored twice to lead Cincinnati offensively, with Brandon Phillips contributing a two-run double in defeat.

While Wainwright emerged as one of the NL's elite pitchers last season, the Reds are hoping this is the year Johnny Cueto comes through with a breakthrough performance of his own. The young right-hander improved from a 9-14 rookie campaign in 2008 to an 11-11 mark last year, but his 4.41 ERA shows he could use a little more consistency.

Cueto was plenty good in three 2009 starts against the Cardinals, though, winning two of those matchups and yielding just three runs over a combined 15 1/3 innings of work. In five career appearances versus St. Louis, the 24-year- old Dominican is 2-2 with a 6.14 ERA.

Wainwright only faced the Reds once last year and wound up with a no-decision at Great American Ball Park after permitting four runs over six innings. He's 1-2 with a 4.91 ERA in nine overall meetings with Cincinnati, five of which have come in relief.

These two divisional foes split 16 encounters a year ago, with the Reds winning five of the nine games held in Cincinnati.

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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:
  • What team will win the coin toss
  • What player will score the game’s first touchdown
  • What will be the exact margin of victory

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.

MySportsbook.com favors Bears, Bengals, Chargers and Colts to remain perfect

LAS VEGAS , Sept. 28 - Two big match-ups of undefeated teams have fans salivating at the Week Four schedule in the NFL. The Chicago Bears stifling defense looks to provide a less than hospitable welcome to the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday night in a battle of two 3-0 teams in the NFC conference. In the AFC, the San Diego Chargers (2-0) head to Maryland to face the surprising Baltimore Ravens (3-0) as both try to keep pace atop the conference standings. Betting Lines makers at MySportsbook.com, online sportsbook and casino, have set the Bears as 3.5 point favorites while the Chargers are a 2.5 point bet.

Of the three remaining undefeated teams, only one, New Orleans, enters this week's game as an underdog. Despite an emotional and resounding win over Atlanta on Monday night, the Saints are a 7.5 point underdog against the struggling Carolina Panthers. Indianapolis looks to stay perfect when they face the New York Jets as a 9 point road favorite while the Cincinnati Bengals are a 6 point favorite at home to the New England Patriots.

Six teams enter the week still looking for their first win, with a seventh, Tampa Bay, on a bye week. The prospect of dropping another game would not bode well for a potential playoff run. Since 1990, just three teams -- the 1992 Chargers, 1995 Detroit Lions and 1998 Buffalo Bills -- have overcome losing their first three games of the season to earn a postseason berth. And only the Chargers managed to accomplish the feat after starting 0-4.

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