Panthers, Canucks swap players, pick

Hockey Betting Lines

06/25/2010 - Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Florida Panthers dealt defenseman Keith Ballard and forward Victor Oreskovich to the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for the 25th overall pick in this year's draft along with forwards Steve Bernier and Michael Grabner.

Ballard posted eight goals and 28 points in 82 games for Florida a season ago. A five-year NHL veteran, the 27-year-old Minnesota native has notched 33 goals and 149 points in 397 contests with Phoenix and Florida.

Oreskovich had two goals and six points in 50 games during his rookie campaign.

Bernier, an expert defensive forward, tallied 11 goals and 22 assists in 59 games for the Canucks last year. He's connected for 71 goals and 144 points in 317 career games with San Jose and Vancouver since 2005.

Grabner picked up five goals and six assists in 20 games during his first NHL campaign.

The Panthers used the pick, their third in the first round, to select center Quinton Howden from Moose Jaw of the Western Hockey League.

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What Is the Point Spread?

What are Sports Betting Point Spreads?

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.

How to Read Point Spreads

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:

To visit this internet sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting and World Series odds.