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09/16/2011 - Glasgow, Scotland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - As expected, Celtic and Rangers have once again stormed to the top of the Scottish Premier League through six games, and the two sides are preparing for the first Old Firm contest of the season on Sunday at Ibrox.
But while Rangers will have a full week between its last match and Sunday's showdown, Celtic enters the contest coming off of a 2-0 defeat to Atletico Madrid on Thursday in Europa League play.
Despite the defeat, Hoops boss Neil Lennon believes that his team can take the positives from the match into Sunday's game, and that a similar performance has the chance to yield a better result.
"I'm not happy about losing the game but there are positives for us to take out of the game," Lennon said following Thursday's match.
"I'm hoping the players take something from their performance in Madrid. The game at Ibrox is one they're relishing, and I'm looking for a similar kind of performance."
Rangers has claimed 16 of a possible 18 points from six games this season, but has been particularly strong in defense, yielding just one goal in league play.
Romanian defender Dorin Goian has played a big part in the success of the defense, and he is relishing the chance to take part in his first Old Firm match.
"I have been thinking all week about this game," Goian said. "It will be my first derby in Scotland and I'm very curious about how it will be. I'm sure it will be a difficult game for us because Celtic are a good team."
The Hoops enter the contest one point back of Rangers, but the team won two of the four matches between the sides last season with one draw.
Saturday's slate of games is highlighted by Motherwell's home contest with St Johnstone as Motherwell attempts to bounce back from a 4-0 defeat to Celtic.
Hibernian owns one win in six SPL contests and visits Dunfermline, Aberdeen has won just one of seven games in the league and hosts Kilmarnock, Dundee United entertains Inverness and Hearts tangles with St Mirren as both teams enter the match with nine points.
<< Inter needs to rebound against Roma
Milan, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Inter Milan manager Gian Piero Gasperini has
not gotten off to a great start with the Nerazzurri, but he will be hoping for
a reversal of fortune on Saturday at the San Siro against Roma.
Inter's 4-3 defeat
<< Nalbandian gives Argentina 1-0 lead over Djokovic-less Serbia
Belgrade, Serbia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Hometown hero Novak Djokovic pulled out
of the opening singles rubber in the Davis Cup semifinal between host and
reigning champion Serbia and Argentina, and David Nalbandian promptly beat
the world No. 1 st
<< Pats give Ninkovich a new deal
Foxboro, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New England Patriots have reportedly given
linebacker Rob Ninkovich a two-year contract extension.
According to the Boston Globe, Ninkovich inked the deal earlier this week and
received a $2 million signi
<< San Jose acquires forward Griffin
San Jose, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The San Jose Earthquakes acquired forward
Maxwell Griffin on loan Thursday from USL-Pro league champion Orlando City on
for the remainder of the Major League Soccer season.
Griffin was among the top go
Ben's Cat has hoof out for some help >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Breeders' Cup World Championships are
on the horizon, but not all the stakes winners around are certain to get
there. One such horse is Ben's Cat who is bred, owned and trained by Maryland
legend
Cueto to miss start, could sit rest of season >>
Cincinnati, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Cincinnati Reds pitcher Johnny Cueto is
expected to miss at least his next start and could sit out the rest of the
season after suffering a strained lat muscle on Wednesday.
Cueto left Wednesday's
Eagles T Peters and QB Young questionable for Sunday >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Philadelphia Eagles offensive tackle Jason
Peters and backup quarterback Vince Young are listed as questionable for
Sunday's game against the Atlanta Falcons.
Peters, the Eagles' lone offensive linem
Paszek reaches semis in Quebec >>
Quebec City, QC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Reigning champion Tamira Paszek
continued her winning ways at the Bell Challenge on Friday.
The third-seeded Austrian slugger handled Britain's Heather Watson 6-4, 7-6
(7-5) in 2 hours, 7 minutes in qu
Kurt Warner to start, Matt Leinart to watch
Despite the debate that's swirling , Kurt Warner will remain the starting quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals, coach Dennis Green said today. The Arizona Cardinals are the +7 point underdog at online sportsbook MySportsbook.com for this Sunday's game.
Green's comment came in a statement released by the team following an ESPN report that Green decided that rookie Matt Leinart would replace Warner as starter for Sunday's game at Atlanta.
"Generally talking about the starting lineup is not something we do," Green told the AP. "However, given the speculation that was out there we want to make it clear. We're disappointed after last week, but we still expect to be a playoff football team and we fully expect Kurt Warner to be the quarterback that leads us. That has not changed."
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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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