BetOnline's Blog
Posted Friday, November 28, 2008 12:13 PM
As November winds down, it is of course time for us to count
our blessings. Some are thankful for turkey, perhaps friends, family and all of
that stuff - but more importantly, we the sportsbook
customers should be thankful for UFC 92 betting.
While Dana White has put on some blockbuster events of late, including Anderson
Silva vs. Patrick Cote, and the marquee duel of Brock Lesnar and Randy Couture,
he may have outdone himself with his next pay per view lineup.
White has thrown a healthy portion of his big name stars
onto this card to kick off 2009, which may very well turn out to be the year
that he swallows all other MMA betting
promotions for good. He’s not far off either—only Affliction remains in North
America, and as far as combat sports go, outside of De La Hoya vs Pacquiao
betting, UFC
odds are the hot topic.
The de facto main event of this card is Griffin vs Evans betting,
however it could be any number of fights that White has scheduled that could
slide into the top slot. However, fans have followed the careers of Forrest
Griffin and Rashad Evans all th... [More]
Posted Friday, November 28, 2008 10:31 AM
Goaltenders
are always the focal point of championships in the NHL, and although the goalie
mask is little more than just protection, putting a creative design on it
emanates creativity and character. Plus it might just influence what team you
choose in your sportsbook
when it comes to NHL
betting.
Here’s
a list of the top five goalie masks in the league today:
Curtis Sanford,
Vancouver Canucks - Sandman
Enter
the sandman as Curtis Sanford is easily among the top five with his cool goalie
mask. Sanford has the fictional character, The Sandman, on his mask, which was
actually designed by a fan. For all of you who forgot, Sandman is the dude who
brings you good dreams by sprinkling sand in your eyes while you are sleeping.
Sanford
put his mask up for contest and the Vancouver Canucks helped by posting it on
their website. Then fans and artists submitted and one creative person came up
with the result. Good work, person. You ought to put that luck to work with
your sportsbook.
Hannu Toivonen, St.
Louis Blues - Ed Staniowski
Hannu
Toivonen decided to go down ... [More]
Posted Thursday, November 27, 2008 03:41 PM
The NBA betting season
is still young, but it is never too early to start looking at some of the top NBA MVP betting
candidates. Here is a look at the top players so far that have caught the
attention of hoops
betting players and fans everywhere.
LeBron
James, Cleveland
Simply put, “King” James has been unstoppable this
season, leading the league in scoring with 27.9 points, while the Cavaliers
have won 12 of their first 15 games. The Cavaliers have great NBA betting odds
for the championship, but they must first make it out of the Eastern
Conference, which is currently the property of the Boston Celtics. However,
with James, the Cavaliers have the only player in the league that could drag a
team to the Finals by himself.
Joe
Johnson, Atlanta
The Hawks stormed out of the gate with six straight
wins, and Johnson was their leading scorer in four of those victories. This
quick start was a boost to Atlanta’s NBA betting
chances, and Johnson will certainly get some MVP consideration. Johnson is
seventh in the league in sc... [More]
Posted Friday, November 21, 2008 12:09 PM
Now that we’re in Week 11 of the NFL season, people
across the world are planning Christmas shopping preparing their Super
Bowl parties and studying up on NFL football
lines to lay down Super
Bowl futures bets as soon as possible. Sure, it’s not as awesome as picking
the champion from the start of the season, but “I called it! I told you (insert
team here) would win it, way back in Week 11!” is still a verbal knockout when
comparing sporting wits with your friends. Depending on the NFL football odds,
there’s still a killing to be made on NFL props and futures
- however, maybe not as much as my 100-1 pre-season bet that nearly panned out
on the Tampa Bay Rays.
In any event, don’t come up short - check out our list
of 2009
Super Bowl picks, and cash in on those bragging rights!
5.
Carolina Panthers
A rugged defense and a high-octane offense have the
Panthers sitting at 8-2 in a tough NFC South. In that respect, Carolina is very
unconventional. Tough defensive teams generally utilize clock control and run
methodical offensive schemes, however the Panthers love to take to t... [More]
Posted Thursday, November 20, 2008 03:58 PM
Come
December 6 in Las Vegas, Oscar
De La Hoya vs Manny Pacquiao will likely be the biggest pay-per-view boxing
event in the history of the sport. Both fighters are legends in the sport and
the fight will be an absolute classic.
Manny Pacquiao
Born: December 17th,
1978
Place: Kibawe,
Bukidnon, Philippines
Manny
Pacquiao is widely regarded by pundits and online
betting sharps to be the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. He has
tore up any boxer in his path including a complete destruction of a who’s who
in Mexican boxing history. But his upcoming fight on December 6th
figures to be his most difficult challenge to date: Oscar De La Hoya serves as
a big step up in weight for Pacquiao as the fight will be at the 147-pound
weight class.
For
Pacquiao, this is a step up in two weight classes and a lot of people who bet on sports aren’t sure that he’ll be
able to handle that. For his weight class, Pacquiao has an uncanny combination
of power and speed but both of those might not factor since he’s fighting a
bigger fighter with more weight. Sports book odds
list Pacquiao as a huge underdog for t... [More]
Posted Thursday, November 20, 2008 02:01 PM
NBA betting players
strive to find the best value for their sportsbook bucks,
and now that the hardwood season has tipped off, hoops betting
sharps can make a more educated selection in their NBA picks. Here is a look at
some teams with solid NBA
betting value, and some others that may be a bit overrated by online wagering
odds.
Best
Value:
Phoenix
- +1800
The Suns are still getting used to Terry Porter’s
halfcourt system after playing under Mike D’Antoni’s uptempo game for five
years. But the Suns still have Steve Nash at the point, and Amare Stoudamire
looks like he is ready to take his game to the next level under the tutelage of
Shaquille O’Neal. Phoenix will remember how to score points; if they can play
defense, the West will be even more interesting this year.
San
Antonio - +2000
Yes, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker are out, and the
bench is not producing, leaving Tim Duncan to carry the team on his 32-year-old
shoulders. But the Spurs can still play defense with the best in the leagu... [More]
Posted Friday, November 14, 2008 11:20 AM
As another NCAA football betting
season is winding down, and the world of online
sports betting is eagerly awaiting BCS odds, it’s time to reflect on what
makes college sports so darn exciting: Underdogs. Cinderella stories are the
very reason people turn out in droves for NCAA basketball betting
every March, and are the incentive to lay down big money on wacky NCAA spreads
throughout the year, on the off-chance some unknown team might cover.
Surprise stories are what arguably make college
football betting more exciting than NFL football betting
- every year new teams crack the Top 25 or upset big-name schools.
Let’s take a look at the top five surprises from this
NCAA football season!
5. Penn State
When your coach is calling plays from the press box and
coordinating practices from a golf cart, it generally means your team will be
in trouble. However, Joe Paterno has looked every bit the winningest coach in
NCAA football history this season, digging the Nittany Lions out of Big Ten
squalor and vaulting them into BCS title contention. A loss, and failure to
cover ... [More]
Posted Friday, November 14, 2008 10:56 AM
The NCAA basketball season is preparing to tip off with
their preseason invitational tournaments, which means college hoops betting
action on offshore
sportsbooks will be starting to heat up. Here is a look at the ten players
you should keep an eye on this season, and surprisingly, it is not loaded with
freshmen as recent history suggests.
Tyler
Hansbrough, North Carolina
After winning national Player of the Year last season,
the power forward could have easily jumped to the NBA. But he decided to come
back for his senior season, and the Tar Heels are now the NCAA basketball betting
favorite to win it all, even though he will probably miss the first few games
of the season with a shin injury.
Stephen
Curry, Davidson
The sharp-shooting junior guard will be playing more point-guard this season, which means the ball
will be in his hands more often as he prepares for the NBA. The Wildcats have
better college
basketball odds than ever before, and Curry, who is coming off a
26-point-per-game season, will be the one to lead them.
Luke
Harangody, Notre Dame[More]
Posted Friday, November 14, 2008 10:55 AM
UFC
91 is just around the corner and sportsbook odds are
already up. If you are an online betting
sharp and you are still evaluating your Lesnar vs Couture pick,
here’s is a bio of both fighters to give you some insight before you plan your bet online.
Brock Lesnar
Age: 31
Born: Webster,
South Dakota
Brock
Lesnar’s Mixed Martial Arts roots date back all the way to high school where he
was a wrestling stud. He finished his senior year 33-0 and his impeccable
record earned him a scholarship at Minnesota University. Lesnar quickly became
the NCAA Wrestling Champ. Given his wrestling prowess, he caught the eye of the
World Wrestling Federation and spent a number of years that. After that, he
decided to try out for an NFL roster spot, but fell short.
Lesnar
got into MMA in 2007 with K-1 Grand Prix and pummeled his first contestant, Min
Soo Kim. The referee had to stop the fight in just over one minute. Very
quickly, Lesnar then moved to UFC and although he lost his first fight by
submission, he bounced back with an impressive decision win over Heath Herring.
Lesnar
may have only had three MMA fights but he... [More]
Posted Friday, November 07, 2008 12:29 PM
Now that Donald Trump’s Affliction, and Kimbo Sli…err, David
Marshall’s EliteXC have crumbled, the only MMA betting game in town
is the Ultimate Fighting Championship. While many wanted to see the
braggadocios UFC president Dana White be usurped by smaller, up and coming
promotions, the balding mastermind seems to have conquered the MMA world.
Despite the dramatics, UFC betting and MMA as a
whole are still in their infancy, and stars are still being born. Just as
professional wrestling and boxing did as they were beginning to appeal to the
masses, MMA has turned to gimmicks - nicknames - in order to market their
fighters individually.
You’d think that since MMA betting is still brand
new in the grand scheme of things, that there’d be plenty of awesome nicknames,
right? Look at early boxing handles - “Manassa Mauler” Jack Dempsey, “Brown Bomber”
Joe Louis - awesome stuff. After all, if you’re just starting out, every
nickname in the world is available to you. However, MMA seems to have missed
the boat when it comes to moniker, producing some of the lousiest epithets in
all of sports.
Let’s all point and laugh at the five worst nicknames in
mixed martial arts…
5.... [More]
Posted Thursday, November 06, 2008 02:39 PM
With
the college basketball season right around the corner, what better time than
now to do our conference predictions according to the sports book odds
that we have posted. Even though there are seemingly thousands of conference in
NCAA basketball, many a sportsbook already
has odds for all of the major ones that we like to bet on.
For
those of you who like to bet favorites, underdogs or just bet online in general, here’s a breakdown
of the major conferences:
ACC -
Atlantic Coast Conference 2008-09 Betting Odds
It’s
pretty much North Carolina along with Psycho T, Tyler Hansbrough and everybody
else. That’s how good North Carolina is this year. They are a -285 favorite
while the next best team, the Duke Blue Devils, is +285. Just to give you a
taste of what that really means, in none of these other college
basketball conference odds do you have to lay money on any team to pick
them to win it - everyone else in every other conference is an underdog.
... [More]
Posted Thursday, November 06, 2008 12:51 PM
There are only two races left in the “Chase for the
Sprint Cup”, which means only a couple of opportunities for offshore betting players. As the Chase
heads into Phoenix this weekend for the Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500, and NASCAR betting
has Jimmie Johnson as a solid favorite to claim his third straight
championship. However, NASCAR odds
are also telling online
sports betting players not to count out the hard-charging Carl Edwards, who
has pulled off back-to-back wins in recent weeks.
Phoenix
- Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500, Sunday, 3:45 PM ET
Johnson carries a 106-point lead into this race, where
he is the defending champion and NASCAR betting
has made him a +400 favorite this week. The No.48 driver also won this year’s
spring race, and he has a phenomenal 6.0 average in ten races at Phoenix. It is
no wonder that NASCAR
betting favors Johnson, who is looking to bounce back from a poor run at
Texas last week. Meanwhile, Edwards has ... [More]