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Horse Race Betting – Uncle Mo The Early Favorite To Win This Year’s Derby

Apr 6

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lj-smithHistoric Churchill Downs will once again be ready for the most prestigious event in horse racing this May 7, when the 2011 Kentucky Derby goes for its 137th running. Once again, 20 of the finest three-year-old thoroughbreds in the country will get the call to post for the annual “Run for the Roses”, and while everything from post position to how the horses fare in the sports betting races leading up to the Derby will factor heavily in the outcome, there are still a couple of favorites that have separated themselves as legitimate contenders already.

If the 2011 Derby was run this week, the undoubted favorite would be Uncle Mo, a Todd Pletcher-trained horse that was last year’s Juvenille Champion, and is unbeaten in four previous starts. Ridden by John Velazquez, Uncle Mo won’t debut as a three-year-old until this coming sports betting bonus weekend at the Aqueduct in the Wood Memorial.

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March Madness Betting – Panthers Have All The Tools To Make Deep Run In NCAA Tournament

Mar 9

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lj-smithThe top-seeded team in the nation’s toughest conference will have the best shot at winning this year’s college basketball betting March Madness tournament. The No. 3 Pittsburgh Panthers enter the 2011 Big East playoffs as the top seed, and will get some much-needed rest through the tournament’s first two rounds to gear up for when it matters most. Despite some sloppy play down the stretch, the Panthers have all of the tools to not only win a conference championship, but also make some noise in the national title tournament, and it begins on the boards.

Pittsburgh finished sixth in the nation in rebounding with an average of 40.3 boards per game, which was also a big contributor to finishing third in assists. The Panthers moved the ball efficiently, registering an average of 17.5 assists. Ashton Gibbs and company flexed their muscle with a couple of double-digit wins over South Florida and Villanova to close out the season on top of the Big East, and will undoubtedly carry that momentum over to the conference tournament. Gibbs averaged 16.4 points per game to lead the Panthers, while senior forward Brad Wanamaker finished second on the team in both scoring and rebounding with averages of 11.9 and 5.3 respectively. Pittsburgh outré bounded their opponents by an average of 11 per game, and that will be the key when the sports betting Madness begins.

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How To Predict A Turnaround Team

Aug 21

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baseball_firstbaseBefore the start of every season, MLB betting handicappers try and predict which teams will rise from obscurity and turn their fortunes around. One such example of this was the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays who got off to a hot start and made it to the World Series. Since then they have made the playoffs in back to back seasons. Baseball betting fans base the premise of a turnaround team on a number of factors and today we will be looking at each.

  • Offseason Moves – Baseball teams have shown immaculate turnarounds based on making one or two key acquisitions during the offseason. One such example was the 2009 New York Yankees. They went from missing the playoffs for the first time in over a decade in 2008, to winning the World Series in 2009.

How they did this, was that they acquired two of the best pitchers in baseball at the time to anchor relatively overhauled starting rotation. As well they acquired one of the premier bats in the league as Mark Teixeira took over for an aging Jason Giambi. The three moves paid dividends as the Yankees not only returned to the post season, but also to the post championship parade.

  • One Run Games – The majority of teams that are on the cusp of turning their fortunes around are those that lost a high percentage of one run games one season. For instance since 2004, 32 teams have had a 60 percent win or loss ratio in one run games. However, of those 32 teams, 14 that had 60 percent losing efforts, bounced back the following season to win the close games.

Since 2008, four of the teams taken in the 2004 survey, the Tampa Bay Rays, San Diego Padres, Atlanta Braves and Seattle Mariners have all been turn around teams. Of the four, only the Mariners have yet to make it to the post season.

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PayPerHead.com launches new pricing, a new site, and a new campaign featuring Soprano’s Johnny Sack

Aug 18

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PayPerHead.com, an online sportsbook service provider for local agents, today unveiled a new campaign featuring Vince Curatola, Johnny Sack of The Sopranos fame.

The campaign leads with Vince asking “Five bucks per head, that’s what I wanna pay…” and the website, featuring video and voice overs by Vince, walks you through the product, the process and the competition.
“Five bucks a head is really an industry first given our level of service,” a spokesman from PayPerHead.com explained. “And we very carefully and in great detail delineate on the website exactly what you get and at what price level at PayPerHead versus the other serious players, such as Book ‘em Direct.”

And what you get is a lot, including not only the traditional online per head sportsbook but an optional casino, live poker, in game live betting, mobile betting, tools for managing players and their funds, layoff and scalp accounts, even a “sharp check.” “We have the sharpest lines out there and one of the most experienced stages anywhere offshore,” the spokesman said, “so if we start seeing sharp action from one of your players, we can give you a heads up. What you want to do with him is up to you.”

The choice of Vince Curatola was an interesting one. “We always liked Vince’s character on The Sopranos, as John “Johnny Sack” Sacramoni,” the PayPerHead spokesman said. “He had a certain style, classy, but not over the top; there’s a calmness and authority about him that we really admire.  He brings that serious business demeanor to PayPerHead.com, the first sportsbook-service to EVER feature any kind of celebrity in its marketing.”
With post-up books like BetUS, Sportsbook.com and SportsInteraction stopping taking US players, Bodog and others struggling with “Ecom” processing problems, the street scene is heating up and players are posting daily in forums looking for a “local out.” Players want the huge selection of markets, including live in-game betting, and the convenience of anytime betting online or via their mobile, but more and more say “they want to bet online but prefer to settle in cash on Monday.”

Is this the future of online sports betting? Quite possibly. And with firms like PayPerHead.com investing in marketing in an unprecedented way (celebs, who’d have thunk it?!) and in product (they also offer live poker, casino and in-game betting), expect to see this sector grow significantly this season.

For more information, see PayPerHead.com.