San Francisco will host New York at 4:30 p.m. EST on Sunday for the NFC Championship Game. The winner advances to the Super Bowl (you may have heard of that) to face either Baltimore or New England.
The 49ers and Giants advanced to the NFC Title Game thanks to incredible defensive efforts last week, o ... read more
Family and feelings are the enemy of good gambling and good writing about gambling. So I apologize for the soggy lead in this week, but I am trapped in Northern New York with my kin and only have a quick moment here in between dodging passive-aggressive barbs from my in-laws and skirting out to refill my cocktail from my depleting liquor supply to pass on this ... read more
The weather is getting colder, the hits are getting harder, and the games are getting more critical as teams ride the elevator of expectations and expanded standings. In my opinion, November is the most crucial of months on the NFL schedule because it really sets the tone for the stretch run: some teams gain momentum and find the will for a strong finish, ... read more
There were a handful of upsets in Week 9 that hopefully you avoided (and did if you took my top pick of the week) and kept you going in your survivor pool.
One game I warned you to stay away from was the winless Dolphins visiting a suddenly streaking Chiefs team. But if you looked closely at that matchup, Miami had come close to winning in back-to-back wee ... read more
In my Week 6 player props story, there weren’t too many immediate results for us to look back on – in other words I tackled a few season-ending totals for NFL players, such as 50-yard field goals for Oakland’s Sebastian Janikowski (he was two-yards shy of adding one in Week 6), sacks for Minnesota’s Jared Allen (he added No. 9.5 against the Bears on Sunday) or t ... read more
One of the most overrated angles in NFL betting is to bet on a team that is off a bye week. Most people assume that a week of rest and preparation is just what the doctor ordered for pro football players and that they will return extra focused and fresh the next week when they finally get back on the field.
The problem is that betting on NFL teams coming ... read more
We are a quarter of the way through the NFL schedule, and we have four teams — Indianapolis, Minnesota, Miami, and St. Louis — that haven’t won a game yet. It’s always interesting to watch which team stays winless the longest. Tracking futility is especially significant this year, though, since the worst team in the league will have a chance to draft Stanford’s An ... read more
If you have ever met a Winnipeger — and they are everywhere because it seems like everyone leaves the city when they are old enough to do so — you have heard about the Jets. A Winnipeg native is incapable of speaking for more than two minutes without mentioning the Jets. It’s a law.
Scoring is through the roof in the National Football League and through two weeks of the year seasoned quarterback play and horrendous defense have been front-and-center. With the lack of a traditional offseason and with a truncated training camp the thought was that teams would be a little sluggish out of the gate and that we may ... read more
This NFL season may be headed into Week 3, but that doesn't mean we can't continue to search out value in the NFL futures betting market. There have been a few early surprises this season, such as the Buffalo Bills and Washington Redskins, and some early disappointments, like the Kansas City Chiefs. The trick now is to figure out if there's any long-term value in an ... read more
Hello again readers here at Doc’s, it’s that time of year that we all love the most: football season. And of course that means I’m back to deliver my weekly Survivor Pool picks advice column for Week 1 of the NFL 2011-12 NFL season.
For those of you who may not know what a Survivor Pool is, it’s pretty simple: You pick one team per week that you are most su ... read more
You know exactly what you’re going to get from the AFC North each year:
Blood and pain.
Pittsburgh will again be a Super Bowl threat. Baltimore will again be the able challenger led by a violent defense. Cleveland and Cincinnati? Yeah, they suck just as badly as they have for the past 20 years.
In a way it’s comforting, especially as an NFL ha ... read more
The Pac-10 is no more, choosing instead to swell its ranks to 12 teams, institute a new divisional system, and implement a championship game that should keep this conference in the news well into December. It is a pretty heady time in the Pac-12. And with new promise and potential comes new expectations.
We continue our look at some NFL player props with the biggest regular-season award of them all: the league’s Most Valuable Player. We will offer some predictions for the NFL MVP along with futures odds for 2011.
And in essence, the MVP has become the NFL’s version of the Heisman Trophy. By that I mean the MVP is only going to go to a quarterback or running ... read more
by Richard Gardner | Bodog Sportsbook Manager - 7/8/2011
The Tour de France is underway over in Europe and you might be surprised how much betting interest in the race we’ve had from our players over at Bodog’s online sportsbook.
Cycling isn’t a particularly popular sport in North America. It’s had its surges in media exposure, particularly during the heyday of Lance Armstrong, who won ... read more
It is not a stretch to say that no one in baseball likes doubleheaders.
The players dislike putting forth that much effort in one day. Managers cringe at the thought of having to burn their bullpens. Umpires loathe having to sit out there for a double-dip, especially the guys that have to work the plate in one game and the field in another. The vendors and ... read more
The little guys in the saddle are important in every horse race, but they are especially significant in the Belmont Stakes. The race is much longer than the horses have ever run before, and the track is unique thanks to the very long stretch and the wide turns. If a jockey doesn’t have a good day then he can cost his horse the race.
When is the last time you sat down and analyzed a Major League Baseball team’s defense? The answer is likely either a long time ago or never. The average sports bettor thinks a lot about defense when analyzing a football or basketball game, but I’m convinced that most people don’t think nearly enough about defense when it comes to baseball. It may not mean as much ... read more
Since we may not see any NFL transactions for months, depending on a June 3 court hearing on the lockout, and with the draft still fresh in everyone’s memory, let’s take a look at one of the few NFL player props out so far this year: the 2011 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year (check back at Doc’s for a story on the Offensive Rookie of the Year as well).
The NFL is a copycat league. If a team has even a modicum of success, however fleeting or trivial, it seems like the rest of the league immediately enters an unsanctioned race to mimic Said Team’s path to success.
The Cover-2. The 3-4. The audible attack of Peyton Manning. The blitz-crazed schemes of Pittsburgh, Philadelphia or the New York Giants. Zone b ... read more
by Richard Gardner | Bodog Sportsbook Manager - 4/7/2011
The Baltimore Orioles have been a bad team for a long time. The last time they won 70 games was 2006. The last time they had a winning season was all the way back in 1997. Trapped in the AL East with the free-spending Yankees and Red Sox, making the playoffs has been a challenge to say the least.
Anyone who seriously follows professional football understands that championship teams are built around a strong offensive and defensive line. Yet, when it comes to the NFL Draft, much of the focus revolves around the top prospects in the offensive skill positions.
This year’s crop includes Blaine Gabbert and Cam Newton at quarterback, A.J. Green and Julio Jo ... read more
Every year there are teams that are surprisingly strong at the NCAA Tournament. They might not get a whole lot of attention coming in, but they are ready to play, they are talented, and they make some noise. Obviously it’s not always easy to see these Cinderella teams coming -- if it were then they wouldn’t be surprises. You can make a guess about who will come th ... read more
If you weren’t sure, the Philadelphia Phillies are pretty good.
Philadelphia made the most daring and surprising move of the offseason when they usurped Cliff Lee from the Rangers and Yankees. Lee has become the final piece to what is potentially one of the best starting rotations in recent baseball history and has automatically made the Phillies one of th ... read more
For those of you that have been kicking it with the Tea Party/mountain folk in the hills of Tennessee over the last few months, I am here to remind you that the NCAA Tournament has actually expanded this year. The Big Dance will now feature 68 teams, with four at-large squads taking on four automatic qualifie ... read more
Is betting on the Super Bowl coin toss one of the most inane bets out there? I certainly think so, but it’s also one of the most popular Super Bowl bets there are (hey, bettors want to start the game off right and reinvest their winnings), and that’s why Bodog has had odds up on the Super Bowl coin toss, for example, since well before the 2010 NFL season even beg ... read more
After a very long, often brilliant season we finally have our Super Bowl matchup set. After everything that has happened, it’s interesting to note that this is one of the more predictable finals we have seen in a while. The last five years we have seen at least one Super Bowl team that could be called a surprise. This year, though, both teams came into the season ... read more
I’m guessing not a lot of prognosticators had Dec. 5 circled as a critical juncture in the trajectory of the 2010 NFC South.
But when Atlanta hits Raymond James Stadium at 4 p.m. on Sunday to face Tampa Bay, the division is going to take a significant swing one way or another. This game is not only a crucial one for both of the teams involved, but also it ... read more
The Miami Heat are not going to finish the NBA season 82-0. They have lost four of their first 10 games and the so-called Miami ‘dream team’ is in third place in the Southeast Division.
How can this be happening with all that talent down there in South Beach? Dwyane Wade was joined by Chris Bosh and LeBron James this offseason to form arguably the most ... read more
It has been a very strong year for the Public Action Report, and this past week was no exception. Three of the six games that were identified wound up being winners, so there would have been a slight loss betting all games against the spread. It was straight up, though, that the report shone - the three underdogs that covered were all upset winners - Wisconsin, M ... read more
I’m thinking your Survivor Pool was pretty static last week as there really weren’t any big upsets in Week 3 in the NFL. New England over Buffalo, Baltimore over Cleveland and Minnesota over Detroit were the three big favorites last week – I recommended the Ravens as my top choice – and all three won pretty easily. Perhaps the New Orleans Saints losing to Atlan ... read more
A – Arian Foster. He was undrafted out of Tennessee and probably undrafted in your fantasy football draft. Foster who has been cut once by Houston and spent most of a season on a practice squad, exploded for 231 yards and three touchdowns for the Texans in a romp over Indianapolis. Even the most fascist fantasy scoring system rewards a day like that.
A – Al Michaels. In a previous life the NBC commentator must have been a degenerate gambler. Always mindful of the point spread and willing to discuss it on the air, Michaels apparently even follows preseason football point spreads. His reaction along with color commentator Chris Collinsworth was almost as stunning as the shocking ending in the San Francis ... read more
A – Al Michaels. In a previous life the NBC commentator must have been a degenerate gambler. Always mindful of the point spread and willing to discuss it on the air, Michaels apparently even follows preseason football point spreads. His reaction along with color commentator Chris Collinsworth was almost as stunning as the shocking ending in the San Francis ... read more
It’s amazing how much things can change in the NFL - even when games aren’t being played. Back in February I wrote an article looking at my Super Bowl picks for the upcoming season. Since then we’ve seen the NFL Draft, free agency, more trades than we are used to, some injuries, a couple of holdouts, a few suspensions, and all sorts of other changes. Looking b ... read more
We’ve already given you our look at the 2010 passing yardage leader here at Doc’s, so now let’s take a gander at the guys who catch those balls and try and project the best value bet on the player with some NFL predictions the most receiving yards in the league this season.
And unlike with the quarterbacks, there is one player who is the overwhelming favor ... read more
Never have we seen a situation quite like this one. In January QB Jeremiah Masoli led the Oregon Ducks to the Rose Bowl. Neither he nor his team had a good day in Pasadena, but he showed enough last year that he was a logical, strong Heisman Trophy contender heading into his senior season. But then things really went to hell.
The NBA season is still a long way off, but I obviously can’t help but be intrigued by the same thing everyone else is - the bizarre collection of star power that has gathered in Miami. What makes sports betting so challenging and satisfying is that you are constantly presented with new problems and situations - puzzles really - that you haven’t seen before and hav ... read more
The Heisman Trophy futures have been posted, and they give us a lot to think about. Anyone who pays attention to the Heisman process knows that the winner very often isn’t being talked about at all right now. That makes it even more fun to speculate and look at the odds that are available. 5Dimes has odds listed for 26 different players. Here’s a look at 10 of the ... read more
Brett Favre just couldn’t handle being out of the news. Maybe it was all the attention everyone is paying to where LeBron James will play next year. Or maybe he was jealous because Phil Jackson, the second most diva-ish retirement fiend behind Favre, has been gaining headlines surrounding his indecision (although he re-signed with the Lakers yesterday). Or perhaps ... read more
Our second team-by-team NFL schedule breakdown focuses on the second-place team from last season, the Indianapolis Colts. And other than death and taxes there seems to be one sure thing in life: Indianapolis winning at least 12 regular-season games, as it has done for a record seven seasons in a row.
In reality, the Colts haven’t lost a regular season game ... read more
Has one player in NBA history ever controlled who his head coach would be more than LeBron James? Sure, Magic Johnson supposedly orchestrated Paul Westhead’s firing in the early 1980s and got him replaced with Pat Riley, but Magic was at least going to be a Laker for a while. The Cleveland Cavaliers don’t even know if James will be on their roster next year. Thus ... read more
It’s time to make some World Cup group stage predictions with the start of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa just three weeks away. Be sure to check Doc’s Sports homepage each day leading up to the World Cup as we will be previewing many of the games in the tournament (with free betting picks, as well) and we will cover the tournament from every possible angl ... read more
A - Ainge, Danny. Boston's GM learned a lesson he should already have known this week - you can't get away with anything in an era when everyone is watching everything you do. On Monday Ainge was having some fun at his team's game against the Cavs, and he threw a towel in the air to distract J.J. Hickson on a free throw attempt. It turned into a much bigger deal t ... read more
The NFL Draft is in the books and there were, as always, plenty of successes and failures. As always, we won’t be able to accurately assess how each organization managed until about three or four years from now, but based on value, addressing need, and overall talent hauled in I have put together my 2010 NFL Draft grades.
Despite the lack of NBA Draft lottery talent and the biggest-named teams, there are still a whole lot of reasons why this Final Four is at least as interesting as several we have seen before. At or near the top of that list is the set of coaches that are leading their teams into Indianapolis. There's a bit of everything here - from the legends to the future star. ... read more
Northern Iowa did more than just pull off a miracle on Saturday night - they also exploded a stunning number of March Madness brackets. The stats are beyond belief - 98 percent of the 4.8 million people who filled in a bracket on ESPN.com had Kansas in the Sweet 16, almost 60 percent had them in the Final Four, and more than 40 percent had them winning it all. The ... read more
This could end up being a banner year for the Eastern Conference. It looks like the requirements to get into the playoffs in the East have just gotten a little stricter. Currently, the top eight teams in the East are all at least .500 ball clubs. That is something that could not have been said the last few years at the end of the regular ... read more
I've analyzed the last five years of the mid-February mid-major hoops orgy known as Bracket Buster Weekend to see if I could establish any useful betting angles or trends. Instead of working over every single "official" Bracket Buster game I squared my focus on the ones that featuring the mid-major conferences that were routinely wagered upon. That includes the ... read more
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