When doing some serious tennis betting, sports bettors do so most often by way of the money line. In the early rounds of tennis tournaments like the Australian Open, ranked players are often up against unranked players. In these early rounds, sports betting sites typically list the ranked player to win in straight sets vs. not winning in straight sets. Thus, the bettor believes either the ranked player wins the match in two sets or they do not. The bettor wagering against a straight set win will find their bets paying out if the ranked player wins two sets to one, or even loses the match. The listing for an early round tennis match typically looks similar to the following:

Serena Williams to win 2-0 -400

Serena Williams Not to win 2-0 +275

In this sample tennis line, the bettor believes either Serena Williams will win in straight sets or she will not win in straight sets. If betting the not side of the tennis match, the bet pays if Serena wins 2-1, or if she loses either 2 sets to love, or 2-1. The winning side pays only if Serena takes down the match two sets to love.

The win side of this money line is listed at -400. This means that a player will win $100 for every $400 they have wagered on the match if they wind up on the winning side of the tennis match. On the other side of the equation, the NOT side of the tennis match is listed with a money line of +275. The +275 money line listing means that a bettor will win $275 for every $100 they wager. One can deduce that the most likely outcome, according to the odds makers, is that Serena takes down the early round match in straight sets.

They won’t win 100 games this year, and they won’t sneak up on anybody like the did last year, but they’ll take home at least 92, 93 games and run away with the division again. Where they go from there is up to how much they learned from the massive disappointment that was their 2008 postseason.

Why the confidence in the Halos? They have everything they need…again. Santana, Lackey and Weaver anchor a strong, confident starting crew. Proven, experienced leaders in Torii Hunter, Vlad Guerrerro and Chone Figgins return. We lose Texeira but pick up Abreu…wouldn’t have made that trade but at least they filled the power gap. And don’t forget Gary Matthews Jr., the always entertaining wild card.

But most of all, I strongly believe the Angels have something to prove. Check out the latest mlb baseball odds if you don’t believe me. They barreled through the season and went out with a huge whimper. Vlad’s been dismissed in the playoffs, and I get the feeling he’s tired of coming up short when it counts.

In any event, what else do we have to be excited about here in the AL West? The A’s? Nomar’s on board, that would’ve been helpful about seven or eight years ago. Although I don’t completely discount Beane’s ability to work wonders here, he’s been doing it for years (Billy Koch for Keith Foulke anyone?), but let’s be real, even low budget teams with big hearts and smart GM’s go through rebuilding. 75-86 in 2008, and unfortunately for them, it ain’t gonna get much better. Look for a repeat in the record in 2009.

The Rangers? The closest they’ll get to the spotlight this season, they already experienced before training camp when A-Rod admitted to using the juice when he was playing for them. That doesn’t bode well for your prospects in 2009. Seriously, though, let’s be honest, the Rangers are paper thin. Like any expreinced soccer betting player will tell you, their best player is Michael Young and their best pitcher is Kevin Millwood. That won’t raise any eyebrows. Oh, I forgot, Omar Vizquel is here…he can join Millwood in the group of players that were relevant 10 years ago, too.

And, of course, how about the Mariners? Welcome back, Griffey. Welcome all the way to last place.

You want a safe sports gambling experience this year? Put your money on the Angels making it back to the playoffs as a division champ.

On Sunday, March 15, we’ve got a great college basketball betting opportunity with Dallas at Los Angeles. Recently, owner Mark Cuban voiced his disappointment with his teams play of late (or this year as a whole), but don’t expect that to fire the team up enough to convert raw emotion into that many w’s. I think it’s safe to say we’ll see a double-digit line in favor of the Lakers, and I’d still be comfortable taking Kobe’s boys in a blowout. The Mavs are headed in the opposite direction, they know they don’t have a chance this year and are just waiting for Cuban’s other shoe to drop. What a sorry state of affairs for mega stars Dirk and Kidd. These guys deserve better. The Lakers, on the other hand, recently lost their final hopes of tying the Bulls 72-10 record (yeah, right) but every team has a couple valleys during the year. Rest assured, they will be the team to beat out West come playoff time, even if my pick is still the Spurs to get to the Finals.

And, get ready for the online sportsbook betting season clash of the titans on March 17, when the Magic visit the Cavs. I’m still not sold on Cleveland’s depth, but seeing as it hasn’t seemed to handicap them too much this season so far, I’m teetering on the brink of changing my view on the Celtics making it to the Finals. I think we’ll see a LeBron explosion come playoff time, perhaps equaling anything you’ve seen from Jordan throughout the years. But as for this game, expect a 5-6 point line in favor of the Cavs. It’d be a close call without the line on neutral ground, but with this game in Cleveland, I’d take the Cavs with any line lower than 7. That home record is one they might actually set. Nobody’s really threatened since the Bulls in 1995 (thanks again Hue Hollins).

There are lots of different types of bets that you can make on the NHL within most online sportsbooks and it’s recommended you learn about each one of them. We’re going to briefly take a look at the common NHL bets that you will generally make as a bettor.

A straight wager is when you simply pick one of the teams to win. Since there are no ties anymore in the NHL you don’t need to worry about that happening. In 99% of the games in the NHL there will be a clear favourite which the odds will reflect although you’ll also rarely see some games with the same odds.

You can bet on the goal-line in the NHL which is where you need to bet on a team to win the game by 2 goals or a team not to lose the game by two goals. The spread is always -1.5 in goal-line wagers so you don’t need to worry about a tie. You’ll often have excellent odds when betting on a team to win by 2 goals and not so great odds when taking the underdog not to lose by 2 goals.

You can also do some NHL Betting on the over/under of the games in the NHL and you can also bet on team totals for every game. The sportsbook will post a total such as -5.5 for instance, and you need to decide whether the goal total in the game between both teams combined with be over or under that total. In this example if the game has 6 goals or more then the over wins and if the game has 5 goals or less the under wins.

If you want to bet on a group of teams on one ticket then this is called a “parlay” online and you can pick 2+ teams on the same ticket. The payouts can become really big with parlays so they are worth the risk when you’re betting. A $5 parlay on a 5-6 gamer will often pay a couple hundred bucks, so as you can see it’s worth the $5.

Most players only sportsbook guys allow for people to bet on all sorts on props during NHL games which include such bets as who will win the 1st period, 2nd period, 3rd period, who will score first and many other types of bets. Prop bets can be difficult to win and you’re going to be relying a lot on luck so I would stick to the more traditional bets.

It’s easy to run down the list and use it as a gauge for whom to bet on for any specific matchup (does anyone actually do this?) The Braves are #7 but the Tigers are #9, so the Braves must be the team to bet. What a horrible approach.

First of all, you know as well as I do there are a million other things to take into account besides what one Internet site decided the order of teams should be this week. Where is the game? Is it a hitters park or a pitchers park? And…who’s pitching? How have these teams fared against the opposing pitcher in the past? How has the team been hitting over the last few games? What are the weather conditions? Oh yeah, what’s the line?

Not to mention that these lists are put together mostly by sports journalists of questionable knowledge to begin with. Some may even be worldcup betting fans. Yes, I’m talking about every single one of them. Just because you research the game for your job and fill four hours of game-time talking about steroids doesn’t mean you’re qualified to rank the teams.

These things are put out there simply for clicks and entertainment value. You can tell there’s no real serious thought behind them by the comments they leave. They’ll float one vague statistic and expect you to believe that justifies their decision. Sometimes all you get is a quote from the manager…how is that helpful?

They might be good to spark conversation, but as a gambling aid, they’re totally worthless. Think about it, do you actually use what some of these guys are blabbering about on television toward how you bet on games? Please don’t tell me you do. OK, so now that we’ve cleared that up, you realize these same amateur experts – many old ballplayers – are the same ones putting their two cents into these power rankings each week?

Do yourself a favor and don’t even look at them when you play at online vegas. Even if you’re an experienced gambler, the order can seep into your subconscious and have negative effects on your decision making you won’t even know are happening.

When I bet on football, I rarely bet on my favorite teams. There is a strong possibility that I bet with my heart, as opposed to my convictions when considering placing a bet on my favorite teams. When betting on football, logic, reasoning, and statistics are the benchmarks and indicators for the wise.

In fact, when I remain focused, I enjoy a tremendous amount of success when betting on football – most specifically college football. Providing I do my homework, and do not get too crazy on my “upset picks of the week” or my parlays, I usually net out a profit. When betting college ball, I find the football betting public is the best indicator for where my money is going. I have found that supporters of some teams have it spot on when betting their teams, while others are wrong all the time. I look for teams whose fan base has it consistently right or consistently wrong and I tend to bet those teams all season long. Some of the teams I look to bet weekly are as follows:

Navy – The betting public cannot seem to figure them out. When the money goes against them, they win. When the money is with them, they lose. The betting public gets it right about 30% of the time over the past few seasons. If your money is on Navy, mine is against them.

By comparison, the college football odds of Auburn and Alabama fans seem to have it right. Each of these teams seem to have a smarter football betting culture about them, as the public has got it right nearly seven out of ten games over the last few years. So while I go against the grain with Navy, I am likely to hop on the bandwagon when it comes to Auburn and Alabama, as their fan base seems far more realistic when it comes to football betting.