The New Orleans Saints are headed by coach Sean Payton who led the team to a Super Bowl title last NFL season. New Orleans is currently favored at 9/1 odds to repeat as Super Bowl XLV champions.

Here is a review of the New Orleans Saints divided into three categories: offense, defense and special teams.

The 2010 New Orleans Saints offense is led by quarterback Drew Brees. Last NFL season Brees and the Saints scored an average of 31.9 points/game and had 272.2 passing yards/game which sports handicappers are expecting the Saints to keep pace with this season since the majority of their offensive starters are returning.

Last season the New Orleans Saints defense was 20th in the NFL for points against, averaging 21.3 points/game and the Saints were 20th in the NFL at stopping their opponents running game, averaging 122.2 rushing yards against per game.

The New Orleans Saints special teams are ranked 19th in the league for field goals and ranked 4th in Kickoff returns with Reggie Bush returning the majority of the Kickoffs last NFL season. Currently the 2010 New Orleans Saints are favored at 9/2 betting odds to win the NFC conference and they are favored at -160 to win the NFC South Division.

One of the most consistently grueling divisions in football, the AFC North had the recent arrival of big names in the group, which will make things more intriguing. Here are the available odds in one of the sportsbooks and a short analysis on each team.

Baltimore Ravens (-115 odds to win)
The Ravens ranked 5th in rushing yards per game last season with 137.5 ground gains in 2009. The team went 9-7 ATS but was terrible on the road against the NFL betting lines. Baltimore will be hoping that the sudden arrival of Anquan Boldin, along with Donte Stallworth, will give Joe Flacco the tools he needs at receiver to provide a more balanced offensive attack. One part of the Ravens that makes them a no-no bet is the aging defense. Ed Reed may still be one of the best safeties in the game, but he’ll be 32- years old by the time the season gets under full swing and his speed will deteriorate. Ray Lewis is already 35-years old, and the fiery leader is already aging in dog years, a fact that was belabored last years by NFL experts. Let’s hope the defense can support its thriving offense.

Pittsburgh Steelers (+210 odds to win)
Everything that was great about the Pittsburgh Steelers has suddenly vanished. Ben Roethlisberger will miss six games to start the season with a suspension. Santonio Holmes was kicked off the plane for his excess baggage (literally and figuratively) and the Steelers have suffered a massive blow on the offensive line with the loss of a starting offensive tackle. All those issues may be more than the grizzled Steeler Nation can handle, and although the NFL division winner odds are somewhat attractive for their return, it’s unfathomable to think that this team can survive six games as a new-look team. There are serious questions about the reliability of the passing game now, but there are doubts on what to make of a rushing attack that seemed lifeless last season.

Cincinnati Bengals (+300 odds to win)
Carson Palmer and Cedric Benson led the stunning Bengals to the AFC North title last season, but sudden issues around Benson have surfaced making his season a huge question mark. Will he miss a few games? You’ll have to wait and see. What makes this team attractive is the arrival of Antonio Bryant, who will play alongside Chad Johnson. They’re eerily similar on the field, so using two flanks may not be the best option for the Bengals, but they’re getting desperate as Carson Palmer gets older. Best value on the board.

Cleveland Browns (+1500 to win)
The Cleveland Browns are run by a new manager, Mike Holmgren, who has been brought in
specifically to erase the decades of doubt and embarrassment that this team has endured. Why he thought that Jake Delhomme’s 30 interceptions over the last two years would fix that for the fans is completely unfathomable unless he has a crystal ball. Unfortunately, when you talk about Cleveland, dumb moves seem to be the norm.

It’s been a long and drawn out saga with Kovalchuk. He’s been reportedly in negotiations with the Devils and Kings, both of whom have been in and out of the picture so far. Kovalchuk has also been offered a contract to play for a KHL team in Russia as well.

Now the Kings are looking to have a clear shot at landing the high-priced talent. Negotiations have been rocky at best, with the team openly bowing out and then re-entering talks a couple of times. The problem appears to be all about money. Kovalchuk is trying to get a max deal for as long as possible, while the Kings are trying to work him in comfortably under the salary cap. As for the Devils, all has been quiet on their front. New Jersey seems out of the running for now, but nothing’s a guarantee in this bizarre circumstance.

Sports Betting features odds on both the Devils and Kings winning the Stanley Cup. Hockey betting enthusiasts can take New Jersey to win the NHL title at 16 to 1 and the Kings at 15 to 1. Clearly, whichever team that lands him will have its odds lowered.

In terms of other teams in the running for Kovalchuk’s services, only the Islanders and Flyers have been mentioned more than once or twice. It’s widely believed Kovy won’t sign with the Islanders because of its lack of contention ability right away. Meanwhile, Philly would have to create some salary space in order to accommodate the star forward.

So right now, it’s looking good for LA.

There are seven races remaining before The Chase begins and Jimmie Johnson is the favorite to win everything.

Johnson may not be the current leader in the driver standings, but as the reigning three-time Cup champion, he’s clearly the Cup favorite at +200. Johnson currently sits third in the standings and considering how he has totally dominated The Chase the last three seasons, he’ll likely be the Cup favorite as long as he remains in the Top 12.

The driver that has probably the best chances of ending Johnson’s championship run is Denny Hamlin. He’s tied with Johnson for the series lead in wins this season at five, and he’s right behind Johnson on the Sprint Cup futures at +400. Hamlin had a great run during The Chase last season with two wins and six top five finishes, but that was still only good enough for fifth in the final standings. That’s what happens when Johnson wins four Chase races and posts seven top five finishes.

The current leader in the standings is Kevin Harvick, but oddsmakers only have him at +900 to win his first championship. Harvick has never been consistent in The Chase that’s why he hasn’t won a championship. The last time he was in the Chase in 2008 he didn’t win a single race, and he only cracked the top five once. He’ll need a much better performance to knock off Johnson and the rest of the big dogs.

A good football tipster should get 80 – 90% of their soccer predictions right. You don’t have to know about soccer to make money on it if you sign up to one of these football betting tips websites and win 80% or more of your bets. They do work and they do return a great income.

However, the problem I have with football betting tips and the reason I added a little twist of my own is that they go for favorites mostly and consequently the odds are not great. So, on average, if you bet $100 you will win $40 but you will win $40 most of the time. Obviously, you can risk more, $1000 to win $400 and so on. Although this is a great return, one of the other reasons I do soccer betting is for the excitement as I am also a very big soccer fan and like most gamblers I also do it for the kick (excuse the pun) and the excitement!

So here’s what I do. I take 4 or 6 of the football tips I have been given by the professionals and bet on them individually as the football betting tipster suggests but I also do an accumulator with all 6. You don’t have to put much on to get a huge return. The best I have had so far is $2000 for a $10 bet on an accumulator. Obviously the more games you involve in your accumulator, the more the return if they all come in. Now, my football tipster averages 95% accurate soccer predictions so there is always a good chance my accumulator will come in. If not, I generally win at least 5 of the 6 bets so I am always up and cover the cost of the accumulator easily.

For the novices, an accumulator can be any number of bets but they all have to win for you to win the overall bet. Basically if you do a 6 fold accumulator, you bet on 6 separate games and hopefully they all come in, the winnings from the first game are placed on the next game and so on. This means there is a greater amount going on each game resulting in a greater payout. So even if the odds aren’t great individually because you have picked favourites in each game the combined 6 fold accumulator will boost your return greatly if all 6 are winners. You can of course do 4 fold or 5 fold accumulators and still win a great return.

There are professional gamblers that do this for a living and make great money for very little effort but I think the greatest opportunity here is for those with little or no knowledge of football or betting. You can sign up to a football betting tips website and take their tips and add an accumulator side bet and make a great income without any knowledge of the sport or betting and with very little outlay. So join a football betting tips website and exploit the information they are giving you and do accumulators to make an even better return on your investment.

After enjoying a bloated -700 line against Demian Maia at UFC 112, “The Spider” has lost some of his webbing, coming in at a more realistic -450 as the favorite against the mouthy ex-politician, Chael Sonnen, who currently stands as a +325 underdog.

That’s Silva’s closest line in the past few years, matching his -450 against Forrest Griffin at UFC 101.

Maybe it was his antics last April, or maybe Fedor Emelianenko’s loss to Fabricio Werdum back on June 26 proved that no fighter is invincible — including Silva. Keep that in mind if you want to try and make some money on Sonnen as the UFC heads to “The O.”

Anderson Silva -450
Chael Sonnen +325

Knowing the difference between the “favorites.” When I say favorite, there are two types: the first one is the team favored to win the match and the other favorite is in terms of the betting public. The favorite that I am talking about is the bettors’ favorite. For example, if team A is favored by many as -5 points against Team B, then Team A is the favorite, but if majority of the bettors are backing Team B to cover the spread, then Team B is the bettors’ popular picks and thus bettors’ favorite. If you cannot tell which team is favored by the betting public, then it is highly unlikely that you will win in the long run.

Watching and understanding line movement. Watching the line from the instant it opens is very important. Without reading any reports on injuries, weather etc., you can tell a lot just by watching the lines. The reports and articles are just secondary tools. So if you find a line movement that is tempting you to bet on a certain team, find out what caused the line to move. Lines can move for various reasons such as injuries, change in weather or just because of the volume of money coming from the bets.

Learning to spot trap games. These are games with lines that look too good to be true. These games will always have a side that is heavily favored by the public and often the public will lose this bet. It is important to learn to spot these lines and bet on the opposite side or avoid betting this game altogether. For example, if you see a 6-0 college football ball team playing a 0-6 team where the 0-6 team is favored by 2 points, it is usually a trap. That is just a very simple example but there are many forms of traps and you must learn to spot them.

Being selective with the games. You cannot win in the long run if you try to bet as many games as possible. Your goal is to eliminate as many games as possible and bet only the select few games where you manage to find an “edge.”

Finally, the best asset to beating the point spread consistently in the long run is inside information. Usually, you can get good information if you have friends in the team staff or if you are friends with players. Sportsbooks have the best inside information and therefore having connections with some sportsbook staff is a major asset.

The official fight odds have not yet been released but it is expected that Pacquiao be instilled as a -400 boxing betting favorite in this bout.

Pacquiao will have sizeable advantages in hand and foot speed while Margarito will be the much bigger man in the ring. The size differential might not have quite the impact that one might expect after Pacquiao proved that he can handle a bigger fighter with his annihilation of 5’11” Oscar De La Hoya. The Manny Pacquiao vs. Antonio Margarito fight odds give Pacquiao a 80% chance of winning on the boxing betting moneyline.

Margarito has not shown that he can handle world-class fighters with great speed after he was pummled by the much faster Shane Mosley. Antonio never stops coming however, and Pacquiao has shown a vulnerability to Margarito’s best punch, the uppercut.

A point spread is set by oddsmakers to give both teams an equal chance of winning (at least in theory). It’s much more complicated than that though.

In sports, when two teams play against each other, one team is usually better than the other. If all you had to do was pick the winner then it wouldn’t be that difficult because all you’d do is bet on the better team. However, since there is a point spread involved, this makes it much more equal.

Let’s take a look at a real world example that will help us at understanding sports betting odds. If you were to look online or in the paper, it might look like this:

(112) Atlanta
(113) Cleveland -11 -110

The numbers in parenthesis identify the game. They are used by the sportsbook to keep track and mean nothing in betting terms. Atlanta and Cleveland are the two NBA teams playing. The -110 means you would need to risk $110 to win $100. The -11 is the point spread that Cleveland is favored by and the -110 are the odds for the point spread (risk $110 to win $100).

If you bet on Cleveland and they win the game by 12 or more points then you would win your bet. However, if they win by 10 or less (or lose), then you would lose your bet. The same goes for Atlanta. If you bet on Atlanta and they lose the game by 10 or less (or win the game out right) then you would win your bet. If they lose by 12 or more then you would lose your bet. However, if Cleveland wins by 11, then the game is a push and all bets on both teams would be refunded.

The standard odds for a point spread are -110, as shown above. This means you would risk $110 to win $100. Although you can bet any amount, it’s just that $110 to win $100 is simple to calculate. You can bet any amount but you’ll still get 11/10 odds.

It’s important to know when it comes to understanding sports betting odds that the extra money you have to put up (the $10 between $110 and $100) is called the vig/vigorish or juice. This is basically the sportsbooks commission if you lose the bet. If you win the bet, then you’ll get your original wager back, $110, along with the $100 that you won. If you lose the bet, then you will lose the original $110 that you risked.

The vig/juice and point spreads can vary from sportsbook to sportsbook and from game to game, so it is extremely important to shop around at different sportsbooks to make sure you’re getting the best price for the game you’re wanting to bet. This is a very important aspect when it comes to understanding sports betting odds.

Individual Winner Wagers
This is a bet on who will win a race. It is possible to bet both ways. The latter is a lower paying bet. Individuals who bet in this manner are eligible for 1/5th of the winning odds if the driver places in the top.
Another bet of this type is the Top Scoring Constructor. This wager is on which constructor will accumulate the most points at a particular race. The Top Score Constructor bet is a pretty common one.

Championship Bets
There are several f1 bets of this type that can be made. A person can wager on who will win the World Drivers Championship. It is also possible for individuals to bet each way. However, if a person who does the latter, their payouts will be less. Many times, this amount is for 1/3 of the win odds. A person will win that amount if their driver comes in first or second place. It is also possible to bet on the Constructors championship (Formula 1 World Constructors Championship). However, individuals can only bet one way.

Podium Finish
This wager is on a particular driver finishing in the top 3.

Points Finish
This is a wager that a driver will finish in the top 8.

Fastest Lap Time
This is a bet on the driver who has the fastest lap of the day.

Safety Car
This bet is on whether or not the Safety car will be needed.

Number of Finishers
This is a wager on how many cars will complete a race.

Winning Distance
This allows individuals to bet on how far ahead the winner will finish. It is measured in seconds.