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Saints 6 Point Underdog to 2-6 Steelers
SoFLPhillyFan
Posts: 3,931 ✭✭
in Sports Talk
Not a betting man so I don't look at the line very often.
Sure you get points for being in Pittsburgh and recent SB champs, but how often does a 2-6 team give points to a 6-2 team?
Sure you get points for being in Pittsburgh and recent SB champs, but how often does a 2-6 team give points to a 6-2 team?
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<< <i>Not a betting man so I don't look at the line very often.
Sure you get points for being in Pittsburgh and recent SB champs, but how often does a 2-6 team give points to a 6-2 team? >>
An interesting game so far - tied 17-17 at the half.
<< <i>Not a betting man so I don't look at the line very often.
Sure you get points for being in Pittsburgh and recent SB champs, but how often does a 2-6 team give points to a 6-2 team? >>
Firstly, nobody beats the bookies in the long-run, and that means NOBODY. It is important to remember that even if finding those "hidden" pockets of information and thinking that could give a betting edge over the books, even if it did, a "handicapper" would still lose money anyway in the long-run. The bookies with their vig can have a margin of error, make mistakes, and still win the player's money. Betting sports against a bookies odds is nothing more than playing random numbers with the bookies house edge always eventually taking every player's bankroll. Sports betting is a sucker's game - plain and simple.
Trying to keep this post as short as possible, there are a number of factors which go into making a betting line in the various sports. For example, possibly the Steelers are expected to "rebound" off recent poor performances. Those odds of a possible rebound can be and usually are reflected in the point spread. Suffice to say, the bookies know these factors overall, better than their customers do.
There was a study done some years ago which took all the bookies football odds over a long period of time, and the favorites beat the spread 49.9% of the time and the underdogs beat the spread 50.1% of the time - just shows how accurate the bookies are in the long-run.
Actually once someone has been a sports bettor for awhile, it's not that difficult to formulate betting lines, and be fairly close to the bookies betting lines.
Of course every addicted sports bettor believes they are a handicapping "genius" when the ball bounces their way and the momentum of a game swings in their favor to beat the odds line. But sooner or later over time, that "luck" evens out and a player in the long-run is basically stuck with laying between 2% to 4.5% vig against what are in reality even money betting propositions.
Flipping coins and calling heads or tails is basically exactly the same thing as betting with bookies and playing favorites or underdogs against the spread. When flipping coins with another gambler for a $100 bet, a gambler wins $100 if calling it right, and loses $100 if calling it wrong. However with a bookie, the gambler wins $100 if calling it right but loses about $102 to $105 or more when calling it wrong. Paying that extra 2% to 5% for each wrong call, is a recipe for the eventual annihilation of a player's bankroll.
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Thanks Steve.
Just thought it was strange, but the Saints have not yet received any respect for their record.
Anyway 6 points isn't much when you're playing in Pittsburgh, but I figured the Steelers would be the underdog.