Week 2 MACtion Bet-kakke Sports Gambling Lessons and Picks

Sure, at its most basic, the return of football is its own reward. But perhaps you’re like me and looking for a way to make even the most uninteresting games have a little bit of excitement and put some skin in the game for you. Enter the glorious world of sports wagering.

Admittedly, sports wagering is not for everyone and there’s more reasons to not do it than to do it, but if you have disposable income and live near a place where this is an option, then combining making some dollar bills with watching some football isn’t a bad way to spend your time. You haven’t truly lived until you have been on pins and needles for a mid-week SunBelt game where a final drive is going to determine whether it’s a backdoor cover or a perfect weekend.

Each week this season, we’ll give you a little gambling lesson and your Mid-American Conference odds, all for entertainment purposes, of course.

Lesson #2: The Teaser

We talked last week about the basics of sports gambling like point spreads and parlays. There’s a special kind of parlay we’ll talk about this week where you get to have a small advantage by moving the line. Most sports books online and brick and mortar will offer teasers for the larger sports (basketball, college football, pro football). For our purposes, we’ll be sticking with college football.

First up you need to decide how many points you want and what ties will do. Say you take a 6-point teaser, it means the underdog gets an additional 6 points to the spread, the favorite gets 6 fewer points needed to cover, the over would get 6 fewer points to cover and the under would get 6 more points to cover. So let’s take a look at Ohio/Purdue.

Currently the Boilers are 3.5 point favorites and the over/under is 56.5. With a 6-point teaser now you can get Ohio at 9.5. Or Purdue aa 2.5 point underdogs. Think it’s low-scoring? The under is now 62.5 and the over is now 50.5. So you see how that can be a beneficial pick.

There is a ton of conversation about whether or not teasers are a good option. For me, it’s one of many tools you can use to build your bankroll especially in a weekend where there are several games where you feel teams on a touchdown or so line won’t necessarily get blown out. The return isn’t as good as a traditional parlay, but gives a little bit of a cushion for the oddities of college football (or pro ball if you choose to go that way). Make sure you look at the payouts in your book and decide whether a push will win or reduce your payout. The odds pay accordingly for those situations.

Let’s go to Week 2...

Week 1 Results

FEARLESS LEADER’S WEEK 1 MAC SELECTIONS:
Minnesota Golden Gophers (-24) LOSS
Elon Phoenix (+42) WIN
Central Michigan Chippewas (-31) LOSS
Eastern Michigan Eagles (-12.5) WIN
Northern Illinois Huskies (+3.5) WIN
Clemson Tigers (-39.5) WIN
Akron Zips (+30.5) LOSS
Ball State (+6.5) WIN
Bowling Green (+17) LOSS
USC Trojans (-26.5) LOSS
Marshall (-2.5) WIN

WEEK 1 BONUS PICKS
Ohio State/Indiana over 56 WIN
LSU -13.5 WIN
Maryland +18.5 WIN

I told you I was feeling good about week 1 and we backed it up. 3-0 on the bonus picks and 6-5 on the MAC for a Week 1 total of 9-5. Is that something you might be interested in? This week we’re doing even better.

Week 2 MACtion Lines

This week we see five FCS/FBS matchups, which means we’ll get late lines if any at all. This post will be updated with those lines if they are released. Likely Saturday morning. Outside of that, it’s mostly road dogs this week for the MAC, except for road favorites Toledo and home favorites Ball State. We’re going 7-0 this week. Time to get rich, kids.

Ohio University Bobcats @ Purdue Boilermakers (-3.5)
UAB Blazers @ Ball State Cardinals (-14.5)
Buffalo Bulls @ Army Black Knights (-16)
Western Michigan Broncos @ Michigan State Spartans (-7.5)
Eastern Michigan Eagles @ Rutgers Scarlet Knights (-5)
Central Michigan Chippewas @ Kansas Jayhawks (-5.5)
Toledo (-9.5) @ Nevada

Fearless Leader’s Week 2 Bet-kakke Picks

We’re running and gunning after a 9-5 Week 1 with 7 MAC selections and three bonus picks this week. Bonus picks went 3-0 last week so do with those what you will. Always be cashing and let’s make some money...

Ohio (-3.5)
UAB (+14.5)
Army (-16)
Michigan State (-7.5)
Eastern Michigan (+5)
Kansas (-5.5)
Nevada (+9.5)

BONUS PICKS
Arizona State -3.5
Idaho/UNLV over 70.5
Boston College -1.5

10-0 my beautiful babies. Let’s do it.