11/14/2008 - Leverkusen, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Bayer Leverkusen has quietly reached the top of the Bundesliga and hopes to hold off Hoffenheim and Bayern Munich when it hosts Schalke on Saturday in one of three matches between top seven clubs.
Leverkusen has been overshadowed by promoted Hoffenheim, which sits second only on goal differential, and defending champion Bayern Munich, which is just one point behind.
Bayer could make another statement this week with a win over Schalke, and prove its going threaten for the Bundesliga title.
Bayer coach Bruno Labbadia is confident his side, which finished seventh a year ago, will not get overconfident. The team's goal, however, remains the same.
"Just because we're top doesn't mean we're going to talk big," Labbadia said. "And we're not going to do ourselves down either.
"We want to beat any team we play."
Bayer could easily have a two-point lead entering the 13th week of league play, but blew a three-goal last week against Karlsruhe. Although the 3-3 draw still allowed Bayer to move past Hoffenheim, it was a wasted opportunity.
The task of holding onto the lead got harder this week when midfielder Pirmin Schwegler injured his knee in training Wednesday and will be out for the rest of the first half. The 21-year-old had played in eight Bundesliga matches and recently got called up to Switzerland's national team for the first time.
The Factory Squad, who are the second-highest scoring team in the league, still feature Patrick Helmes (nine goals) and Stefan Kiessling (five). Helmes is the second-leading scorer in Germany this season.
Bayer faces a Schalke squad coming off its first home loss of the season - and just its second loss overall. Schalke lost to Bayern Munich on Sunday, and slipped five points off the pace and sits sixth entering the weekend matches.
Former German striker Kevin Kuranyi, who was recently kicked off the national team, remains Schalke's top threat with five goals. Overall, though, Schalke is struggling on the offensive end with just 18 goals - which ranks in the middle of the league.
Bayern, which struggled a bit early in the season, extended its wining streak to five games last week. Bayern visits promoted Monchengladbach on Saturday and will be even stronger with Philipp Lahm and Bastian Schweinsteiger back.
Striker Lukas Podolski is doubtful with back problems, meaning Bayern could be down to just two healthy strikers. But if Luca Toni and Miroslav Klose avoid an injury, the third-place club should have no trouble up top.
"We want to keep working out way up the table," Bayern coach Jurgen Klinsmann said.
Hoffenheim is another club facing a top-seven team when it hosts Wolfsburg. The promoted side was on top of the league for a few weeks until slipping back to second last week. Wolfsburg, which is seventh, has been up and down but remains a team that can beat any side on any given week.
Also Saturday, fourth-place Hamburg could emerge as the league leader with a win at fifth-place Hertha Berlin, Borussia Dortmund hosts Eintracht, Stuttgart hosts Arminia Bielefeld and Energie hosts Karlsruhe.
On Sunday, struggling Werder Bremen will try to move into the top half when it hosts eight-place Koln.
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In any football or basketball game (the main sports that use point spreads) there are two teams playing against each other.
Those teams, though, are rarely exactly evenly matched – meaning that typically one team has a better chance than the other to win the game. If bettors were allowed to bet on who was simply going to win the game, smart ones would obviously bet on the better team (likely winning more than 50% of the time in the process).
If winning were that easy the Las Vegas and online sportsbooks would stop taking any bets! This is where the point spread comes in: the basic function of the point spread is to balance the likelihood of each team “winning” by adjusting the final score by the point spread. After this adjustment is made you get the Against The Spread result (ATS result for short).
Let’s look at Super Bowl XXXIX, New England Patriots vs. Philadelphia Eagles. Most people believed the defending champ Patriots to be the better team – so if betting were simply based upon which team would win the game, an uneven majority of people would have wagered on New England. But, by using the point spread, the bookmakers adjusted the terms of the bet, evening the proposition so about half the people believed the Pats to be the smart bet, while the other half considered Philly to be the smart bet.
New England Patriots -7 vs. Philadelphia Eagles
The better team, called the Favorite, is expected to win the game and must “give” or “lay” points to the weaker team. The favorite is listed with a minus sign and the number of points they are favored by (e.g., New England -7)
In the case of our example, New England must not only win the game, but they must win by more than 7 points for Pats bettors to have a winning ATS result. An Eagles bettor wins his bet either if:
There was also the possibility that the final score could land exactly on the spread number (for example, the Pats winning 28-21 when -7), which is called a “push” or “no action” and a refund is then issued to bettors of both teams.
The same game with the same point spread can be considered from the weaker team’s perspective: The Underdog (Philly in the case of our example) is not expected to win the game and thus receives or “gets” points given by the stronger team. When a game is stated from the underdog’s perspective the team is listed with a plus sign and the number of points they are underdogs by:
Philadelphia Eagles +7 vs. New England Patriots
Keep in mind that Philadelphia +7 and New England -7 is the same point spread on the same game, simply stated differently. The first is from the underdog’s perspective; the later is from the favorite’s.
Not a must, but for some a mathematical approach is insightful. You can determine the ATS winner by either:
Let’s look at the actual result of Super Bowl XXXIX: New England 24 Philadelphia 21
The favorite, New England, won the game but not by more than the point spread they were favored by (7), so the ATS result was a LOSS for Pats bettors.
Looking at it from the underdog’s perspective, Philly did not win the game, but they lost by less than the point spread (7), so the ATS result was a WIN for Eagle bettors.
Mathematically considered, 24 for the favorite Pats minus 7 equals 17, which is less than the 20 the Eagles scored, so the underdog Eagles win the ATS result (or you could figure 20 plus 7 equals 27 for the Eagles, which is more than 24 for the Pats).
Emily’s boyfriend understood the point spread and wagered $100 on the Eagles at +7. The Eagles may not have gotten a Super Bowl ring, but since they won the ATS result Emily’s boyfriend cashed his bet – giving him money to take her out to a nice dinner.
And now hopefully you understand how to read point spreads, putting you one step closer to joining the fun of sports betting.
To visit this internet sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting and World Series odds.
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