Turkey Cooking and Hawaii Bowl Betting

Since its the holiday season, I won´t be talking too much about sports until after Christmas is over, except maybe for the Hawaii Bowl BABY!!!

That´s right, Hawaii will be facing Notre Dame at 8:00pm ET on Christmas Eve. So I hope that everyone will enjoy their families and a win for your Hawaii Bowl betting on December 24, 2008! As a gift for putting up with my Christmas Eve Dinner Turkey cooking tangent, you get to see my picks for the Hawaii Bowl so keep on reading.

This Christmas Eve, I´m having my family over. All of my relatives and guests are contributing to the Christmas Eve feast like a pot luck dinner but as the host, the main course is my duty.

Thus, cooking the turkey is up to me. Now, I´ve never cooked a turkey before so it will be a challenge to have a nice juicey turkey for dinner while placing a few choiced bets on the Hawaii Bowl with several sportsbooks(You can´t put all of your eggs in one basket, plus, I´m looking for a certain line).

So I´ve been doing a bit of digging on the internet and I have to say that most of these websites that show you how to cook a freaken turkey must think you are Wolfgang Puck or that Rachel Ray gal. As a fast food microwave dinner kind of guy, I couldnt tell you the difference between poaching and a bain marie.

After hours of looking and reading, I finally found the perfect site that teaches you how to cook a turkey in simply layman´s terms and with pictures to boot. No fancy recipe, just showing you how to cook the darn turkey. If you are a single old fart like me that sucks at taking directions but want to learn how to cook a turkey then got to: http://www.howtocookathanksgivingturkey.com/

Now, back to the Hawaii Bowl.

There is no doubt in everyone´s mind that Notre Dame has more talent than Hawaii but the Fighting Irish have been choking on the Bowls since 1994. On top of that, this season they have been breaking in a new coach and a new offensive line up.

So the lines makers have given Notre Dame a spread of -2 which is a blessing in disguise because the bookies are greatly overestimating Notre Dame.

So take Hawaii at +2

I am also taking the under at 45 because Notre Dame has had consistency problems running the football so I expect it to be a low scoring game.

My strategy, is to put up a 2 team parlay with one book and place straight bets with a couple of other books on the Hawaii at +2 and if I can find one sportsbook with the right line, I´m gonna take Notre Dame.

Enjoy the holidays.

Betting on the Browns was a Big Mistake

Well, NFL week 15 was a bust for me.

My last bet was on the Cleveland Browns at +15 and they not only disappointed me but they made me lose money.
I had figured that after such a losing streak and they would get some will power but I was wrong. Maybe I should get out of betting on the NFL and just stick to soccer because so far, this NFL season has been horrible for me.

On an off topic note, here is an interesting article I found about last weekend´s EPL Matches about EPL Betting and how betting on the draw really paid off for some people.

Liverpool vs Hull game recap

This match ended up being one of the better matches for this Saturday´s EPL matchups.

for Hull who were trying to advance in the overall standings it was a disappointing match with a 2-2 draw againt Liverpool FC.

In the 22 minutes of the match, Hull City came out strong scoring at the 12th minute mark and the 22nd minute mark. However, Liverpool fans were not disappointed to see their club come back from a 2-0 deficit when S. Gerrard came back with a goal followed by another goal 8 minutes later by S. Gerrard again.

I wish I had taken a parlay on the over and a draw but instead just place a wager on the draw because www.xsbet.com had the over/under for the game at 2.5.

So the top 3 seats in the EPL are now:

1. Liverpool
2. Chelsea FC
3. Manchester United

College Bowl Betting Preview

It´s December and along with the holidays, the partying, the gifts and the good is the college bowl betting. The college bowl odds are not up yet but here is a preview of what to expect for the first set of college bowls.

EagleBank Bowl - RFK Stadium in Washington D.C.

• Date/Time - Dec. 20, 08 at 11:00am
• Who - Wake Forest vs Navy
• Game Expectations - Wake Forest has Skinner who has a good completion ratio of 62.8 however, Navy has an overall good team meaning with excellent marks in rushing yards so I expect the game to be a high scoring one.

New Mexico Bowl - University Stadium in Albuquerque, NM

• Date/Time - Dec. 20, 08 at 2:30pm
• Who - Colorado State vs. Fresno State
• Game Expectations -
  

MajicJack St. Peterburg - Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, FL

• Date/Time - Dec. 20, 08 at 4:30pm
• Who - Memphis vs South Florida
• Game Expectations - Florida will choke

Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl - Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas, NV

• Date/Time - Dec. 20, 08 at 8pm
• Who - BYU vs Arizona
  Game Expectations -

As the lines come out, I´ll give you my best pick for free as a holiday gift! So don´t be shy about sneaking in a bet over the holidays.

Technology is great because it allows me to sneak my bets in without anyone noticing during the holidays. Now that most bookmakers have mobile betting and Live wagering, I just have to go take a pee break, no need to call I just get online with my Palm Pilot and Bam, my bet is in baby!

The fight for legalizing Internet gambling

After years of fighting the bible belt and the christian coalitions, there may be a silver lining for one online gambling venue. The poker Industry has been gaining ground in their efforts to legalize online poker according to this article, http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=4977663

Of course, its not a surprise considering that Poker has often been romanticized in movies like, "Rounders" and"Maverick" and lets not forget the TV shows where the men always have their "Poker Night". Thus, Hollywood and televsion have given people and even politician the feel that poker is not really gambling but rather a respected game of skill where one uses his intuition, intelligence and atsuce to win.

On the other hand, you have every other gambling movies that portrays any other kind of gambler from Blackjack to sports bettors and horse bettors as degenerate outlaws who would rather losse their families and jobs to place that one last bet.

I say it´s a good step towards legalzing online gambling but will the the Poker Players Alliance keep up the fight online gambling battle after online poker has been legalized?

UK Sports Programmes Wants a Piece of the bookmakers sports betting revenues

Ha ha ha, I just read an article in the Guardian, http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/nov/28/gerry-sutcliffe-gambling, where they say and I quote, "We think it is wrong that commercial betting companies make use of our sporting product without making any payment for doing so," wrote Collier."

What a ridiculous argument considering that part of the reasons as to why sports are popular is because of the betting that is going on. If sports betting was taking away their revenue, than I would understand their concerns. However, this is not the case. Sports betting is actually helping the sports franchises make money and they should be thankful for it.
The way they phrase it, I might as well say that Dell should get a piece of the money I make writing on the internet because I use a Dell computer.

Its always about everyone wanting a piece of the pie. It kind of makes me sick and the government are fine with it because if were to pass then the UK government would get to tax twice a piece of the sports betting revenues.

Ah, these clever governements never cease to amaze me.

Football Betting Bad Beats or November Miracles?

There were a couple of football games this past weekend that had football betting fans either crying foul or jumping for joy as the final gun went off. While every football bettor inevitably has some bad beats and lucky wins throughout the season, two of this past weekend’s games were much more extreme.

USC was a 24-point favorite last Saturday in Stanford, and was set to extract revenge from the Cardinal’s mammoth upset from a year ago (Stanford won in USC as a 41-point underdog). At halftime, it looked as if Stanford might upset the Trojans again, as the score was tied at 17-all. But USC came out of halftime fired up, and scored 28 straight points, meaning the Cardinal would have to march down the field and put the ball in the end zone to spoil USC backers out of a win.

With six seconds to go, after backup Stanford quarterback Alex Loukas was sacked, head coach Jim Harbough called a timeout, much to the dismay of USC coach Pete Carroll. After a 13-yard pass out of bounds, Stanford lined up for a 35-yard field goal with three seconds remaining, but Carroll apparently wanted a second-half shutout, so he called a timeout.

During that timeout, Loukas lobbied Harbough to go for the touchdown, to which he obliged. Loukas delivered with an 18-yard touchdown strike to Austin Gunder on the final play of the game, putting the final score at 45-23. USC backers just needed Pete Carroll to not call a timeout with three seconds remaining and a 28-point lead to get a win. As it turned out, Stanford backers got a November Miracle.

While the ATS verdict was put on the coach in that game, it’s much tougher to stomach a pointspread defeat because of bad officiating. That was the case in Sunday’s Pittsburgh vs. San Diego match.

European Bookmakers listed the Steelers as 4.5-point home favorites against the Chargers. Pittsburgh was making their winning drive with under a minute to play when Willie Parker found the end zone with a four-yard touchdown run, which would have put Pittsburgh ahead 15-10 with an extra point. The touchdown was called back on a holding penalty.

That was the thirteenth penalty called on the Steelers, with just two being called on San Diego. “"No, I have never seen a game ended with 13-to-1 in penalties [the official tally was 13 against the Steelers, two against the Chargers], but I am not answering questions about the officiating," said head coach Mike Tomlin.

After the touchdown was called back, Tomlin immediately put in his field goal unit, which came through and the Steelers had an 11-10 lead with a few seconds left to play. After the kickoff, San Diego tried one last gasp to reach the end zone via a number of laterals, but one of those tosses resulted in a fumble, which safety Troy Polamalu returned for a touchdown. But again, the officials overturned the score.

Official Scott Green admitted the mistake after the game ended, “"We should have let the play go through in the end, yes," Green said, "It was misinterpreted that instead of killing the play, we should have let the play go through."

While it was a tough pill to swallow for Steelers backers, it was a lucky win for San Diego supporters.

Reduced Juice Sportsbook or Big Bonus Sportbook part 2

Ok, I've been asked to go into more details about the last article I wrote about reduced pricing sportsbooks so instead of just editing it, I just rewrote it for your viewing pleasure.

When it comes to sports betting, players are constantly bombarded with hundreds of e-mails, flyers, mailers and so on from sportsbooks all over the world. Of course, since we are talking about a billion dollar industry with a yearly growth of 6.5% it´s normal that every sportsbook out there wants to get a piece of your action.

The question remains though as to which sportsbook should one choose over another and more specifically, the type of sportsbook which will best fit your sports betting needs.

A sportsbook can pretty much be categorized into two categories.

1. Full Juice (Big Bonus) Sportsbooks
2. Reduced Juice (Discount Pricing) Sportsbooks

The Full Juice Sportsbook is considered the norm and is the most widely used type of sportsbooks out there.

The Reduced Juice Sportsbook also known as a Discount Price Sportsbook has risen in popularity in the past few years because it charges the players less money to place a bet.
Seeing the advantage of a Reduced Juice Sportsbook, why would a player choose a traditional, Full Juice Sportsbook over saving money with a Reduced Juice Sportsbook?

It all depends on the type of bettor you are.

A regular sportsbook will usually offer a 10 cent line meaning that they get charge 10 cents for every dollar a player bets. Since they make more money with each bet, they can afford to give bigger incentives to their players like giving them a big sign up bonus which usually varies from 20% to 100% bonus. These types of bonuses usually attract recreational betters who are just looking to bet on a few games and then take a payout.

A reduced juice sportsbook however will charge the player less for placing a bet with them. For example, XSbet.com has its NFL sides starting at -105 meaning they will charge you 5 cents for every dollar you bet. Since the Reduced Juice Sportsbook makes less money off of a player, it cannot give it big bonuses to attract new players. These types of sportsbooks are best suited for a serious or professional bettor who knows he will bet often and is looking to save money on the long run.

So if you are the type of bettor that will only place 20-30 bets during the NFL season, then you will more than likely choose the bigger bonus because if you win at the end of the season, you will probably end up cashing out more money due to the bonus.

On the other hand, if you have a bettor that places 20-30 bets a week, then this bettor will probably choose to go with the Reduced Juice Sportsbook because in the long run, they will save more money because they get charge less per bet.

So to recap, a Reduced Juice Sportsbook is like the Sam´s Club of sports betting where the more you but the better the value while a Full Juice Sportsbook is the Kroger of sports betting where you get a great deal for your purchase as long as it´s not an everyday item and you get it on sale.

Sportsbook Conspiracy Theory or Just a bad Judgement?

Last Sunday Night´s NFL football game with the Steelers and the Chargers ended up with many angry NFL and and sports betting fans as well.

It was pretty obvious that the Steelers were going to win the game as per the point spread on that game being Steelers at -4 to -5. However, when Troy Polamalu returned an errant lateral 12 yards for an apparent touchdown on the final play and the the play was overturned it destroyed any chance of a bettor winning his bet on the Pittsburgh spread.

I lost money on that game and so did several thousand other bettors. All because of a misinterpreted play.

Sure they was a lot of confusion when the little man in black and white strippes got in huddle in the middle of the field to talk about which play was what. But in the end, sportsbooks ended up winning at least 20 million dollars. People have been killed for a lot less.

Perhaps someone should keep these referrees in check for a few months to see whether their spending habits have changed any.

Reduced Juice Sportsbook or Full Juice Sportsbook?

Recently, I´ve been asked by some people about the difference between a full juice sportsbook, like www.betjamaica.com and a reduced juice sportsbook like www.xsbet.com. So let me explain the difference between the two.

It´s all in the pricing as in how much the sportsbook will charge you to place a bet with them.

A regular sportsbook will usually offer a 10 cent line meaning that they get charge 10 cents for every dollar a player bets.

A reduced juice sportsbook however will charge the player less for placing a bet with them. For example, XSbet.com has its NFL sides starting at -105 meaning they will charge you 5 cents for every dollar you bet.

With this in mind, why would anyone not bet with a reduced juice sportsbook instead of a full juice sportsbook? It all depends on the type of bettor you are. A full juice sportsbook is able to give out bigger deposit bonuses and benefits for using their service because they charge more per bet while a discount price sportsbook is not able to do that because it is already giving you a big discount.

So if you are the type of bettor that will only place 20-30 bets during the NFL season, then they will more than likely choose the bigger bonus because if they win at the end of the season, they will end up cashing out more money due to the bonus.

On the other hand, if you have a bettor that bets 20-30 bets a week year round, then this bettor will probably choose to go with the reduced juice sportsbook because in the long run, they will save more money because they get charge less per bet.

Another way to put it would be to call a Reduced Juice Sportsbook a Sam´s Club and a Full Juice sportsbook a Kroger. You get more for your money.

CONCACAF World Cup Qualifier Update

The World Cup is one of the most prestigious sporting event in the world which will take place in 2010. Right now, teams all over the world are fighting to get a spot in the World cup.

Currently, the teams in the CONCACAF football league which includes the United States are all competing to clinch a spot in their upcoming contest.

The United States are the biggest favorites at a 10:1 odds.

So lets root them on!!!

I also found this website that keeps pretty good articles about football(soccer) called www.xsbet.com where you can also bet there in a betting style called, asian handicap.

That style of betting is not popular in the US due to the sports not being too popular yet but it will probably pick up as more Americans get into the sport of soccer.

2008 olympics

Today is a beautiful sunny day in Costa Rica and I'm looking forward to the Olympics. Especially since my pitiful attempt at understanding soccer didnt work very well I think I'll watch the olympics instead.

France is the team to bet on for the UEFA 2008

Did I mentiono that I live in Costa Rica? It's a small Central American country above Panama and below Nicaragua. Being a Latin country, Soccer or rather football is king.

Well right now it's the rainy season or "winter" as they call it here. So here I am stuck inside the house with nothing to do except browse the internet and trying to find a nice european football team to root for.

I've decided to go for France. Why? well for one thing, even though I am asian I do have some French background. It's a long story that I'll tell you about some other time.

Anyway, I like the French Football team because:

1. It has made it in the UEFA playoffs, which comes up only every 4 years, 3 times and won it twice. Once in 1960 where it lost and in 1984 and 2000 where it won the cup. And did I mention that the UEFA cup has only been around since 1960? That means that they are 2 in 11 which I must say is pretty good and the country with the best record so far. Ha ha ha I love a winner and if I was confident about my sports betting skills, I'd put my money on them.
2. After doing so research on soccer(I'm still trying to figure out the rules by the way) I found out that their team stats are simply amazing and are 2nd below Italy.

cheers

What about soccer or rather football|?

One thing that I am passionate about is sports. I love American football and I never can get enough which does cause a problem for me afgter the football season is over.

So I thought to myself, why not try to get passionate about soccer. The majority of the world population watch soccer enough to have riots, threaten referrees and players and heck, even bet on it. So there's got to be something to it.

So now my goal will be to learn all that I can about football(soccer) and and see if I one day I can reach a level where I'll paint my face, wear the gear and get in a football brawl.

I think that right now is a perfect time to start since the Euro 2008 cup is coming up in July.