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03/09/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Philadelphia Flyers will be attempting to extend their current home winning streak in tonight's matchup with a New York Islanders team they've dominated over the past few seasons from the Wachovia Center.
The Flyers have won four straight and 10 of their last 12 outings on home ice and began a four-game residency with Sunday's 3-1 decision over Toronto. Goaltender Michael Leighton stopped 27-of-28 shots in a strong effort between the pipes, while Danny Briere, Simon Gagne and Jeff Carter all scored goals to help Philadelphia halt a two-game losing streak.
Carter gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead with a power-play tally in the first period, while Gagne and Briere lit the lamp just 1:16 apart late in the second to halt a 1-1 tie. Leighton made the lead stand by making 10 saves over the final 20 minutes.
"The game wasn't pretty," said defenseman Chris Pronger, who contributed two assists on the night. "I don't know if it was a byproduct of the style that Toronto plays or a product of how we play. We rebounded in the second period. It wasn't looking very pretty the first 15 minutes, then we kind of got our legs underneath us and got going."
Mike Richards had an assist on Carter's goal and has notched at least one point in five consecutive games, with the Flyers captain compiling three goals and five assists during that span.
Philadelphia, now 19-11-2 at the Wachovia Center for the season, will also be trying to keep another impressive streak intact this evening. The Flyers have defeated the Islanders 14 straight times, the longest active stretch of victories over any single opponent in the NHL, with four of those wins having taken place in 2009-10.
New York hasn't downed Philadelphia since a 4-3 verdict at Nassau Coliseum on February 12, 2008. The Islanders' most recent triumph in the City of Brotherly Love occurred on April 7, 2007, with the club having dropped its last nine meetings as the visitor in this one-sided series.
In addition, the Islanders enter tonight's clash on a seven-game road losing streak following Thursday's 6-3 setback at Atlanta. New York followed up that performance with a 3-2 home defeat to Boston on Saturday, the team's 11th loss in its last 14 overall tests.
The Islanders outshot the Bruins by a 39-34 margin for the game, but only Josh Bailey and Matt Moulson were able to sneak the puck past Boston's Tim Thomas. Moulson's goal gave him a point in five consecutive games (2 goals, 3 assists) and was his team-best 23rd of the season.
New York fell despite a solid showing from veteran netminder Dwayne Roloson, with the 40-year-old coming through with 31 saves in a losing cause.
"We always play with a lot of energy and because of that, we had a lot of mental mistakes," said Islanders head coach Scott Gordon of the game. "It's not a physical thing. If you can skate from line to line and avoid a defenseman and then try to avoid finishing a check, it's not following through [and] you're taking the easy way out."
The Islanders' rough recent stretch has placed them 14th out of 15 Eastern Conference teams with 60 points. Philadelphia presently stands sixth in the East with 72 points, two better than seventh-place Montreal.
<< 2010 Big Ten Conference Tournament Preview
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 13th Annual Big Ten Conference
Tournament gets underway on Thursday, March 11th from Conseco Fieldhouse in
Indianapolis, Indiana. Purdue is the defending tournament champion, having
topped Ohio State in l
<< Red Wings host Flames in matchup of playoff hopefuls
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Calgary Flames and Detroit Red Wings will both be
aiming for a third straight victory when they meet in the Motor City tonight
for a battle between playoff hopefuls at Joe Louis Arena.
In addition to winning two straig
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(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A pair of playoff hopefuls will try to avoid third
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Both the Thrashers and Predators came out of the Olympic break with ba
<< Slumping Lakers target win vs. Raptors
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The reigning NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers hope to avoid
their longest losing streak in three seasons tonight when they hit the
hardwood against the Toronto Raptors at Staples Center.
The Lakers dropped their
Habs return home to face Lightning >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Having just completed a successful road trip, the Montreal
Canadiens will play for the first time at the Bell Centre in nearly a month
when the playoff hopefuls host the Tampa Bay Lightning this evening.
Montreal began its
Panthers aim for rare win against Wild >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Florida Panthers were able to stop their longest losing
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Wild wh
Canucks visit Avs in clash between Northwest's top two teams >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Of all the games the Vancouver Canucks have played on their
NHL-record 14-game road trip, tonight's contest with the Colorado Avalanche
could be the most important.
Northwest Division-leading Vancouver will try to extend i
Ailing Senators start up road trip in Edmonton >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - As the Ottawa Senators head to Western Canada, they hope
they left a crippling flu bug behind them. The team will try to snap a three-
game overall slide and pick up a sixth straight win over the Edmonton Oilers,
who look to
There is little doubt that the NFL is where the sportsbooks see the most action and also make the most loot. The NFL possesses betting friendly attributes that are unlike any of the other major sports. First off, there are relatively few teams to keep track of in comparison to college football betting or college basketball. And second, these teams play only once a week which makes staying on top of the results much easier than it is in the daily leagues such as the NBA, NHL, and MLB.
These dynamics, along with the sheer excitement of watching and wagering on football, brings more square action to the table than any of the other sports. Almost every Tom, Dick and Harry in America is an NFL expert in their own mind and that is precisely what the oddsmakers prey upon.
Understanding who bets the games is just as important as understanding which teams are playing the games. The market at times will dictate price, which in the betting world means the oddsmakers cater to the public rather than reality.
Knowing the market inside and out is the basis of our NFL handicapping model. That is, our approach to NFL handicapping is of the contrarian or value seeking variety. We will at times place a higher premium on public sentiment than on the fundamentals. This strategy dictates playing dogs and/or lesser competent teams, or teams the public wants nothing to do with. Or better yet, fading the teams the oddsmakers want you to bet on.
Along these same lines, we carry a similar notion that the first week of the NFL season presents one of the ripest opportunities for the astute gambler. This conflicts with conventional wisdom and/or handicapping lore, as most would say it is better to watch a few games and assess each team before jumping in with both feet. That’s all fine and dandy, but there are some interesting trends to exploit in Week 1 and we’d be remiss to ignore them. Let us quickly explain.
Gone are the days of dynasties, where the same core players stay intact and dominate the league year after year. Free agency and player movements can completely transform teams from one season to the next. In today’s parity-driven NFL, poor teams typically don’t stay poor for all that long and excellent teams must constantly reinvent themselves to stay on top.
The temptation might be to assume prior year results are the best indicator of who is going to cover in Week 1. To Joe Public, playoff teams from the prior season, home teams, favorites, and so one, look even more enticing than usual since there is no current season performance to judge them against. But the question begs: are the oddsmakers setting a trap?
To find the answer, we culled five years worth of Week 1 NFL data. As always, all of our analysis is done from an ATS perspective. The purpose here is to share the most important angles we unearthed and try to explain the logic behind them. So strap on your helmet, throw on your shoulder pads, and follow our lead as we expose some rare holes in the oddsmakers’ line of defense.
Home vs. Away Teams
Over the past five seasons, NFL home teams in Week 1 are just 31-42-7 ATS (42 percent). This of course implies that roadies are a 58 percent winning proposition during this time. The public at large has a tendency to overvalue home teams and this is especially true in Week 1 when there is no current season data to make predictions from. Consequently, the oddsmakers almost surely shade the home teams, by and large making road teams the choice for the value player.
Conclusion: Look long and hard at road teams first when handicapping the opening week.
Price ranges
Favorites are just 31-42-7 ATS (42 percent) in the opening week over the past five NFL seasons (Coincidentally, home teams hold the same ATS record as noted above). This means that underdogs bark at a 58 percent clip. Mid-range favorites performed the worst among our specified price ranges. In particular, favorites priced between –3 1/2 and –6 1/2 are only 8-15 ATS (35 percent) during this time.
The same basic pattern holds true when looking at home favorites (road favorites gravitate towards a 50 percent mean). Home favorites indeed are just 21-32-3 ATS (40 percent) in the first week of NFL action since 1999. Again, mid-range favorites are similarly the poorest performers when we look at home teams. Consider that home teams priced between –3 1/2 and –6 1/2 have stumbled to a 6-13 ATS (32 percent) mark in Week 1 games the past five seasons.
Conclusion: Like home teams, favorites and particularly mid-range favorites are generally overvalued in Week 1.
Playoff teams
It might surprise you to learn that playoff teams from the prior year versus non-playoff teams from the prior year are a mere 16-23-3 (41 percent) ATS in NFL Week 1 games over the past five seasons. Home teams which made the playoffs versus teams which did not make the playoffs from the prior season drop to a meager 7-14-1 ATS (33 percent) during this time.
Why are playoff teams, and in particular those at home, such bad bets the past five openers? Just as the case with home teams and with favorites, oddsmakers intentionally overprice playoff teams in the opening week to compensate for the public’s propensity to over bet them.
This theory holds true just looking at straight-up records from the past season as well. That is, home teams with winning records from the prior season vs. road teams with losing records from the prior season are just 8-13 ATS in Week 1 NFL games since 1999.
Conclusion: Playoff teams from the prior year and in particular, home playoff teams, are overvalued in Week 1 NFL games.
Scoring defense and scoring offense
Do good defenses and for that matter good offenses from the prior season fare better against the number the following year in Week 1 games? Well, sort of. Generally speaking, teams with a solid offense or defense from the prior season tend to do well in the opening week so long as they are on the road. As a host, however, the best offenses and best defenses from the prior year tend to be overvalued in Week 1.
Consider that the top five scoring defenses (i.e. points allowed) from the prior season are a nice 8-4 ATS (66 percent) on the road in NFL openers the past five seasons. Meanwhile, the top five scoring defenses from the prior season are just 3-8-2 ATS (27 percent) as a host in Week 1 during the same time period.
There is no discernable advantage or disadvantage for teams with a top five scoring offense (i.e. points scored) in Week 1 games. However, when we look at scoring offenses from the bottom up (isolating the five worst offenses from the prior season), the results are rather interesting. In particular, teams ranked in the bottom five in scoring offense from the prior season are 9-4-1 ATS (69 percent) when on the road in Week 1.
The logic is simply that the public perception is a poor scoring offensive unit from the year prior will have little chance of winning on the road in Week 1. In turn, the oddsmakers compensate for this perception and these poor offensive teams from the year prior carry extra line value on the Week 1 trail.
Conclusion: Teams with top-ranked defenses from the previous season are good bets when playing on the road, but poor bets when playing at home. Also, teams ranked among the bottom five in scoring offense from the prior season are generally a good value in their Week 1 openers, provided they are playing on the road.
Scoring margin
An exceedingly straightforward way of measuring scoring offense and scoring defense together as a whole is to look at a team's “margin." Margin is simply scoring offense minus scoring defense, which is a fairly clear-cut measure of how a team does on both sides of the ball. Typically, the higher the margin, the better the team.
In this regard, it might seem counterintuitive that teams carrying the higher margin from the prior season in week one matchups are merely 31-42-7 ATS (42 percent). Furthermore, road teams with the higher margin are 14-20-6 ATS (41 percent), while home teams with the higher margin are 17-22-1 ATS (44 percent). Once again, these results line up with the theory that better teams from the prior year are overvalued come opening day of the following season.
Conclusion: “Better” teams, which often boast a higher margin than their opponent, are overvalued the following season in NFL openers.
In sum
Oddsmakers cater NFL betting lines to match public perception and also to bait the public into poor bets. The temptation to use the prior year’s success as a buy sign for how a team will perform against the spread in Week 1 of the following season is an enormous trap.
The fact is, isolating road teams, road dogs, non-playoff teams vs. playoff teams, teams with a losing record or low margin vs. playoff teams or ones with a high margin from the previous year is where the line value resides. Quite simply, taking the road less traveled is your surest path to NFL betting profits.
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