07/03/2009 - Wimbledon, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Second-seeded Serena Williams and third- seeded Venus Williams will square off in Saturday's ladies' final at Wimbledon, where Venus topped her younger sister in last year's third all- Williams finale at the All England Club.
Venus bested her fellow former world No. 1 sibling Serena 7-5, 6-4 in last year's final, as Venus nailed down a second straight and fifth overall Wimbledon title. Saturday will mark the fourth all-Williams Wimbledon final, with Serena holding a 2-1 edge thus far.
Serena and Venus will meet for a 21st time, as the superstar siblings have split their first 20 matchups. Serena is 4-3 when they've met in Grand Slam finals. They've split two matches this year, with Venus winning a semifinal in Dubai and Serena taking a semifinal in Miami.
The 10-time major champion Serena will appear in her 14th career Grand Slam final (10-3). She captured Wimbledon titles in 2002 and 2003 by beating her big sister in finals and was the runner-up here in 2004 and last year.
The 27-year-old Serena owns 33 career singles titles, including this year's Aussie Open crown.
The 29-year-old seven-time major champion Venus, like Serena, will also appear in her 14th Grand Slam final (7-6), including her eighth at the All England Club (5-2). She owns 41 career titles, including ones in Acapulco and Dubai this season.
Venus, who hasn't lost on Centre Court since 2004, has won 35 straight sets at the world's most prestigious tennis event. The tall American is 68-9 all- time on grass overall, including 64-7 at Wimbledon.
The mighty Williams sisters have combined for seven of the last nine Wimbledon titles, and at least one of the sisters has appeared in eight of the last nine championship matches here.
In Thursday's semifinals, Serena outlasted fourth-seeded Russian Elena Dementieva in an epic three-setter and Venus destroyed top-ranked Russian Dinara Safina, dropping only one game in the process on Centre Court.
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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.
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