East Coast Gambler

I stayed away from a football picks contest against individuals for a while, but since I’m not doing a fantasy football league I figured I might as well.

Meet The Turd.  He’s an Ohio State Buckeyes fan and borderline obnoxious about it.  I’d probably be the same way if I didn’t grow up in a city with 9 professional sports teams and zero major college sports teams or go to a minor Division 3 school.

We’ll be going head to head with 5 weekly football picks.  This week we both happened to choose all different college football games, but we may mix NFL as the seasons go on.  All picks will go up on Friday for those that want some time to process.  I rarely bet that many games at once, so keep an eye on twitter and tumblr on game day for my picks.

All lines are courtesy bet revolution at the time of the writing of this post.  Of course, the lines may move.

ALSO: remember that you can still get a free $10 bet with Bet Revolution. Click this link and enter code EAST10

On to the picks where you’ll notice we both pick a lot of home favorites.
The Turd
MICHIGAN over Connecticut -3
NEBRASKA over Western Kentucky -37.5
Purdue over NOTRE DAME +11
CLEMSON over North Texas -27
FLORIDA over Miami (ohio) -36.5

Marc
TCU over Oregon State -13.5
NOTRE DAME over Purdue -11
ALABAMA over San Jose State -37.5
OKLAHOMA over Utah State -33.5
AKRON over Syracuse +7.5

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I’d like to welcome Bet Revolution as my new sportsbook sponsor.  This is a perfect time to have a new sportsbook partner with football season right around the corner.

Click image to see highlights more clearly

Here are a some of the things I like about Bet Revolution.

• Look: Bet Revolution looks good, is easy to navigate and is very customizable. A favorite feature is ability to add my own RSS feeds into my home page news feed.  I love that I don’t have to navigate away from the site to research games.
• Social: They’re on various social networks, trying to build a community.
• Customer Service: Customer service is quick to answer any questions. I had an issue with a bet and received an email response quickly.  Reps were also available by phone, skype and chat but I chose email to see how long response would take.  I was pleasantly satisfied.
• Email confirmation: I also like that I can opt to receive email confirmation for bets made.  I multi-task often so it’s nice to have confirmation.
• Easy signup: Signing up took less than a minute.  That’s always nice.

As part of this change Bet Revolution is offering a $10 free bet to all ECG readers. All you need to do is enter the promo code: EAST10 to get your free bet.

The best reason to join bet revolution is because they will pay more than actual.  They will round up all bets to the nearest dollar.  I was testing the service last week and I had the Royals +190 over the Yankees (Damn AJ Burnett) and was paid for a +200 bet.  I’m all about getting paid more than expected.  I inquired about payouts would continue this way.

I’m looking forward to working with bet revolution.  If you have any questions feel free to comment or email me eastcoastgambler (at) gmail (dot) com.

On a side note, we can all look forward to another season of JMP’s football picks.  I can’t wait, Hard Knocks starts next week.  Go JETS!

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It seemed as if the state of New Jersey was going to fight to get sports betting legalized a few months back.  Well, today Governor Chris Christie decided not to move the efforts forward.

“At this time, given the unprecedented economic crisis and other challenges facing the state, the governor has determined that the state’s limited resources would be better utilized by focusing on other, more immediate issues facing the citizens of New Jersey,” (Jeff) Chiesa wrote.

A Christie spokesman, Michael Drewniak, said “there were just too many steep legal hurdles to clear, and it would at best be a legal long shot.”

I’ll never understand politics anywhere, let alone New Jersey.  New Jersey is in dire need of income to keep balancing its budgets, so it seems strange that the state is turning away from a possible new income stream.

I expect this to be looked at by the state again in the near future.

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I was checking the 2010 NBA Draft Prop bets last night and found some interesting opportunities and figured I’d share them.  I love the NBA draft because it’s right after the end of the season and followed closely by free agency.  This is the time where the losing teams get ready to turn things around for next year.  I find building the team as much fun as playing the season.

Odds are from sportsbook,com.  click any prop to get to sportsbook.

2010 NBA Draft – Derrick Favors – He will play his first NBA Regular Season Game for
Nets -200
Any Other Team +150

2010 NBA Draft – Wesley Johnson – He will play his first NBA Regular Season Game for
Twolves -130
Any Other Team -110

2010 NBA Draft – John Wall – He will play his first NBA Regular Season Game for
Wizards -1000
Any Other Team +550

2010 NBA Draft – Evan Turner – He will play his first NBA Regular Season Game for
76ers -300
Any Other Team +200

Wesley Johnson – Over/Under Draft Position
Draft Position
Over 4.5 (+140)
Draft Position
Under 4.5 (-190)

DeMarcus Cousins – Over/Under Draft Position
Draft Position
Over 4.5 (-180)
Draft Position
Under 4.5 (+130)

Read the rest of this entry →

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I present you with odds to win the FIFA World Cup that begins this week.  I know less about national teams than I do about the specific leagues, which isn’t much.  Because of my lack of knowledge here I would stick with the favorites, but that’s no fun.

The USA at 80-1 could be fun, but no team from this side of the world has ever won the World Cup so I don’t see that as a reality.  Here are the odds from sportsbook.com all based on a moneyline of 100.  For example Argentina is 6.5-1.

Algeria +75000
Argentina +650
Australia +17500
Brazil +450
Cameroon +12500
Chile +8000
Denmark +12500
England +700
France +2000
Germany +1200
Ghana +12500
Greece +25000
Holland +900
Honduras +100000
Italy +1600
Ivory Coast +5000
Japan +60000
Mexico +8000
New Zealand +250000
Nigeria +15000
North Korea +200000
Paraguay +10000
Portugal +2800
Serbia +5000
Slovakia +40000
Slovenia +50000
South Africa +15000
South Korea +30000
Spain +375
Switzerland +30000
USA +8000
Uruguay +12500

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Yesterday, Disney announced that they would be closing most of the ESPN Zone restaurants across the country.

It’s unclear what has prompted Disney to close the establishments, although the bars may well be a casualty of the recession. A poll released in March by AlixPartners found that 30% of consumers planned to eat out less frequently, and spend less per meal than they did the year before.

I understand why people would shy away from a bar/restaurant that charges a bit more for average bar food and drinks.  I happen to like the ESPN Zone’s that I’ve been to and there’s always something inside me that wants to install a TV in my bathroom after every visit.

Specifically, I’ve had a great time at the Las Vegas location inside of NYNY.  The NYNY sportsbook is almost non-existent, so I have to imagine that MGM will find another name to slap on the ESPN Zone and re-brand it as something similar to Legasse Stadium at the Palazzo.  I’m thinking that MGM’s relationship with the Light Group will come into play here, but I’m not sure how just yet.

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