The Vegas lines are pretty amazing, especially the over/unders. There might be an over/under of 219.5, and the first half score is 32-60, and sure enough, in the second half the score will climb right to that damn over/under like a bullseye. You can't beat Vegas. I used to handicap the lines. I mean, you can track Vegas' performance for different teams. I remember one year my betting site was significantly underestimating the Hornets' scoring, something like that. I'd bet on Vegas' performance rather than on the teams' performance, coz they're gonna beat me betting strictly on teams.
Players were talking of this Cavs game as a trap game. I think they consciously overcompete and run up the score.
please excuse my ignorance but can someone explain to me how this works? what does that mean, 12.5? you bet if we'll win by more or less than 12.5 points?
Yeah, you can bet that Rockets cover it or not. If you bet they cover the spread, and then the Rox win by 13, you get money. If the Rox win by 12, you lose money. It's just to equalize the games and make them appropriate for betting.
The Rockets are -12.5, this means they are favored to win by 12.5 points. The Cavs are +12.5, this means they are expected to lose by 12.5 points. If we win by more than 12.5 points, the people betting on us win. If we win by less than 12.5 points or lose, then the people betting on Cleveland win.
You know what would be a great idea is for a few people to band together and follow one Vegas bookmaker, to reduce the work. Every game, track the wins and losses of the bookmaker, not the teams. For example: When Vegas picks the Rockets to score more total points than its opponent, Vegas' record is 7-10. Then you just vote against Vegas in those situations. If you track Vegas' numbers on every team, with spreads and over/unders, you can isolate areas of Vegas' weakest performance and vote against them in those spots.
Great idea. Or just follow an online bookie and have a software to parse all of their lines, then parse the results later and have a stat showing the % of cover or not. I would imagine it'll come close to 50% though.
This. I could see us winning by less than 12.5, but I don't think that will happen. We win by 20+ tonight.
Well, they did manage to split us fairly evenly on CF: 26-22. Evidently non-Clutchfans are less optimistic about the Rockets covering 12.5 (me too).
Here's my brief write up from the NBA gambling thread in the dish: Rockets -12.5 Cavs have been playing well minus their three best players, but that's been at home. I think reality will catch up to them tonight and they'll be blown out hopefully. Spread is slightly higher than what I would expect, but seems about right given that Houston was favored by 7.5 against the Jazz last game. Houston just has to make sure to cover the 3 pt line well and not let the Cavs out work/out hustle you and I think they'll be fine. C'mon robbie380, have a little faith in the Rockets. Let us know what you finally decided to do. Edit: I forget to mention that the Rockets need to neutralize or contain Tristan Thompson. If not, he could be a spread killer. Sounds crazy, but he's stepped up his play since Irving and Waiters have gone down. Also, keep Zeller off the glass.
On the first page I said I would bet them. Put my largest wager of the weekend on the Rockets based on this thread. This took some of the sting away from watching Indiana not cover. We had them at - 21.5.....that damn hook got us. Would have had a perfect day without that!
Good job, I wasn't sure based on your earlier response if you actually made the bet or not. This was one of my few winning plays today.