Olympic Bet of the Day – The first medal presented is scheduled to be in ski jumping, so it’s only fitting that it’s also our first pick. Pinnacle is the only place I have seen odds for the event so far. They list two jumpers – Austrian Gregor Schlierenzauer at +243 and Simon Ammann of Switzerland at +250. You can take either of them, or take the field at -111. Amman has two firsts and two seconds in five starts this year, while Schlierenzauer has six wins in 2010 alone. My pick for today is to take both Ammann and Schlierenzauer. They’ll pay well over even money if one guy wins, and that sounds better than the field.
Sports Betting Section
MADDUX'S WINNING PICKS
MADDUX'S LIVE ODDS
SITE FEATURES
Programming note – Each day of the Olympics I’ll be posting an Olympic bet of the day. There will be some hockey, of course, but we’ll also throw in everything from biathlon to bobsled. It should be good fun, and hopefully it’s not too terribly unprofitable. The first medals will be awarded tomorrow, so keep your eyes open.
Here are eight things coming to mind tonight. Tomorrow we’re going to start our Super Bowl coverage, so we’ll get this out of the way first:
1. Michigan got the signing day miracle I was hoping for by signing Demar Dorsey. Not a bad class all in all – at least we didn’t lose anyone. Incidentally, Dorsey is an interesting example of how imprecise ranking recruits can be. Dorsey is the 12th ranked player in the country and the second best safety according to ESPNU. In contrast, Rivals has him at 167th overall, and 13th among the safeties. For the sake of my sanity I am going to believe ESPNU on this one.
News of note as we head into an uncharacteristically slow weekend of sporting action:
Minnesota Vikings’ fans are not going to be happy. The NFL has admitted today that the play in which Favre hurt his ankle in the third quarter was called incorrectly. Favre threw an interception on the play, though New Orleans didn’t score on the subsequent play. The league has now said that the play should have resulted in a penalty because Favre was hit from behind, and that the Vikings should have had a first down on the New Orleans 19. At the very least, then, they would have wound up with a field goal, and that would have made all the difference. Though I don’t disagree with what the league said, I really have to wonder why they bother saying anything now – unless they have interest in driving Minnesota fans insane.
I spend a lot of time on the Internet. A lot of time. Probably too much time. While I am spending a lot of time reading about sports, I also spend a fair bit of time looking around for good resources to learn about sports betting. As you probably know if you have looked for information for yourself, there is a lot of crap out there. Sports betting seems to attract a lot of people who are just interesting in duping people with scams, ridiculous offers, and horrible advice. If you look around, though, there is some good information to be found. Here’s a couple of things that are definitely worth a look:
There is a whole lot going on out there today, so we’ll quickly touch on a bunch of them:
1. Roger Federer – Federer closed strong last night to make the semi-finals of the Australian Open. Win or lose, it is the 23rd consecutive Grand Slam he has made at least the semi’s in. Just think about how stunning that is for a second – there are only four Grand Slams a year, so for almost six years in a row Federer has finished at least in the top four of the hardest, deepest tournaments in the year. That’s on three different types of surfaces as well, and they are spread out over eight months. I dare you to name another current athlete that has been that consistently dominant for that long. There isn’t one.
I’m watching figure skating right now. My wife is a big fan, so I have to watch far more than my share of the sport each winter. It only barely interests me, but as I watch today I can’t help but think about the betting opportunities that the Olympics bring up. Figure skating is not usually one of the sports you can bet on because it’s judged, but there are plenty of things that we can bet on, and lots of odds that are posted already. Here’s a look at three of the interesting betting storylines at this point leading up to the start of the Olympics on February 12:
Lindsey Vonn – If you don’t spend a lot of time following skiing, let me make this simple for you – Lindsey Vonn is the Tiger Woods of skiing without all the mistresses. There have been five World Cup downhills for women so far this year. Vonn has won all five of them. She is so much better than the rest of the field right now that it is almost ridiculous. Pinnacle has Vonn at -125 to win the gold medal in the downhill, and the rest of the field at +107. She also has three wins in Super G this year, and is heavily favored to win that one as well, though not by as much – she is +156 and no one else is better than +666. The trick in handicapping the women’s skiing, then, comes down to just one decision – are you with her or against her?
Hockey – I’m a Canadian. For the last year (or more) all you can hear about in the sports media up here is the Olympic hockey tournament – who will be on the team, who will be captain, can we erase the embarrassment of finishing 7th last time out? It’s endless and monotonous, but I couldn’t possibly overstate the importance to Canada of winning the gold on home soil. They are heavily favored to do so +130 at Pinnacle. The book basically has it as a two team tourney – Russia is at +260, and Sweden is way back at +698. That’s how it should turn out as well. Canada has ridiculous depth – with the possible exception of a goalie, the country could field a second team that would be a very legitimate medal threat. Goaltending is a bit of a concern in my eyes, though. So is the fact that it all just comes down to one game, and Russia has three of the four most talented offensive players in the tournament – Ovechkin, Malkin, and Kovalchuk (Crosby is the fourth). If he gold medal were a best of seven affair the Canada would win it most of the time. In a single game anything can happen.
Curling – After hockey the medal that means most to the host Canadians is the men’s curling. Canada is the world’s curling power, and we take pride in that. This tournament is, like the hockey, shaping up to be a two team tourney if things stay close to form. Kevin Martin is the skip of Canada’s team and probably the world’s best curler right now. He is at -140 at 5Dimes to win the gold. The second choice at +375 is perhaps the hottest curler in the world right now – Great Britain’s David Murdoch. Murdoch spends a lot of his time curling and training in Canada, and he recently became the first non-Canadian to win the prestigious TSN Skins Game. Martin and Murdoch have an intense rivalry – the Canadian beat the Scot in the finals of the 2008 World Championships, and the Scot turned the tables in 2009. It’s a tight contest every time they play, and either team could win, so while my heart will be with Martin, my head says that Murdoch represents far better value.
1. Only eight more months until college football season starts. Am I the only one who has started the countdown?
2. I still don’t like Nick Saban at all, but what he has accomplished is truly incredible. In seven years he has two national championships at two schools, and he mixed in a disastrous stint in the NFL in the middle of that.Saban took over a team that was just 7-6 three years ago, and has now had two amazing years in a row. As much as I hate to admit it the guy is solidly the best coach in the country. He also hurts the argument that people use in favor of guys like my beloved program’s Rich Rodriguez – that they need a couple of years to get their systems in place and let their recruits take over the program. Saban didn’t need that time.
We’ll be back with more Bowl game goodness on December 28th.
In the mean time, relax, have a great holiday, don’t eat too much turkey (unless you want to), and enjoy the season.
All the best to you and your families.
I’m back in action after spending the last few days in Vegas – just a few casual days of fun with my wife. While I was down there I obviously did the same thing I do every time I am down there – I spent as much time as I could sitting in the sportsbook. This time around it was the Venetian for the most part. While I was sitting there I spent a lot of time thinking about the difference between playing games live and playing online. Here are a few of them:
Betting News
Online Sportsbooks
