Best Apps For Sports

There are a wide variety of apps that you can utilize in order to get the most relevant information on sports. Here is our list of favorites.

1. ESPN ScoreCenter – Not only are scores involved with this application, but a wide variety of news stories allow users to get detailed information about injuries and other changes that could be relevant in your decision making process. As part of the ESPN network, you also get good live coverage, but unfortunately no video.
2. ScoreMobile – Anyone who is betting on sports routinely needs to have this easy-to-access app at their disposal. Minute by minute, this app updates all the scores and results. Breakdowns of the matchups and trends that might affect spreads and other relevant info is all included.
3. NBA Courtside – For basketball aficionados, the NBA courtside app offers relevant information about all the league games. Whether it includes injuries, scores, latest trades or any other kind of relevant information that make your basketball decisions easier.
4. NFL ’12 – This football app offers live updates, stats, scores and all relevant information that their website would offer. As a phone app, it is far easier to digest all the info, however.
5. Goal.com Mobile – For fans of soccer, this app is invaluable as it provides scores, highlights and a wide variety of other features to help you make betting decisions or just learn everything there is to know about the subject.
6. MLB Full Count – Even if you do not like or follow baseball, this app is tremendous for allowing you to look at detailed stats and information as it comes in.

These six apps are perhaps the best to use for any kind of betting that you might do. More importantly for enthusiasts or fans, this app is relevant for up-to-date information that is always best to have.

After climbing all the way back to .500, the Los Angeles Lakers dropped back-to-back games to the Philadelphia 76ers and Los Angeles Clippers before Sunday night’s game against the Denver Nuggets. Stuck on the outside looking in on the Western Conference playoff grid, the Lakers have a tough schedule this week with back-to-back games at Houston and San Antonio on Tuesday and Wednesday, before returning home to face the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday night. Despite showing signs, Los Angeles has still been far too inconsistent under head coach Mike D’Antoni, and it could get worse this week. Meanwhile in the Eastern Conference, the Orlando Magic will try and stop the bleeding on the heels of eight-straight losses when they visit Portland on Monday, while the Brooklyn Nets look to remain hot under interim head coach PJ Carlesimo as they go for their fourth-straight win Tuesday at Philadelphia

College Basketball Preview: Buckeyes Face Toughest Test Of Three Remaining Undefeated Teams

Each of the nation’s three remaining undefeated teams are back in action this week, with the No. 2 Michigan Wolverines set to face the toughest test as they take on Nebraska Wednesday, their final contest before back-to-back dates against No. 8 Ohio State and No. 9 Minnesota beginning on Sunday. The Wolverines opened their Big Ten season with consecutive blowout wins over Northwestern and Iowa, but will face a much tougher schedule this month, especially with their games against both the Buckeyes and Golden Gophers on the road. Meanwhile, the top-ranked Duke Blue Devils will host Clemson on Tuesday before their clash against No. 23 North Carolina State on Saturday, and the No. 3 Arizona Wildcats will travel to face Oregon on Thursday night.

NHL Sports Betting Preview: NHL Works To Get Season Started

With the NHL and its players announcing an agreement on the framework for a new collective bargaining agreement is in place early Sunday morning, both sides will have to work hard this week to hammer out the details of the new CBA and develop a working model for this season. Among the details that have yet to be determined for the 2013 season is the length, with the decision to go with either a 48 or 50 game season yet to be made. With the season set to begin as early as next Thursday there is an incredible sense of urgency for both sides to finish what needs to be done, and that includes all 30 teams getting back to work this week and preparing for the opening faceoff.

Tennis Sportsbook Preview: ATP Makes Final Stops Before 2013 Australian Open

With the 2013 Australian Open right around the corner, the ATP will make two separate stops this week with the ATP Heineken Open in Auckland, New Zealand, and the ATP Apia International Sydney in Sydney, Australia both taking place from Monday through Friday. While the majority of the world’s top tennis players continue to rest up for the tournament at Melbourne Park beginning next week, the odds for both of the tournaments taking place right now are available on the best online betting sites.

PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES (36-42) at MIAMI MARLINS (35-40)

Sportsbook.ag Line & Total: Miami -107 & 7.5 under -115

Cliff Lee is still searching for his first win of the season when his Phillies visit a slumping Marlins team to open a three-game set on Friday night.

Lee has allowed three runs or less in seven of his 12 starts this year, but is carrying an 0-4 record, while his team is just 3-9 in these dozen Lee outings. This should change on Friday facing a Miami squad that is 4-17 in its past 21 games, scoring two runs or less in 11 of these defeats. The Marlins have been outscored by 71 runs in this span, batting a paltry .191 with runners in scoring position. However, Miami Marlins ace Josh Johnson has not allowed more than three earned runs in nine consecutive starts, so run support could once again be an issue for Lee. His Philadelphia squad has usually enjoyed visiting South Beach, and although this will be the club’s first-ever game in Marlins Park, the Phils are a whopping 28-14 against the Fish in the past three seasons, including 13-5 in Miami. The Marlins are a poor home team this season at 19-22, as visitors have come in and scored 5.7 runs per game with a .346 on-base percentage.

Lee (0-4, 3.72 ERA, 1.13 WHIP) completely owned the Marlins the past two times he’s faced them, throwing a pair of complete games and allowing just one run, seven hits and two walks (with 12 K) in these 18 innings. Both of those games were in Philadelphia, but he also faced them in Miami last year, allowing three runs in six innings of a 5-3 victory. However, Lee has struggled recently, sporting a 6.30 ERA, 1.55 WHIP and .309 opponents’ BA in his past three starts. The return of 2B Chase Utley (3-for-5, HR on Wednesday) and better clutch hitting from the entire team (0-for-10 with runners in scoring position on Thursday), will go a long way towards helping Lee out.

Johnson (4-5, 3.96 ERA, 1.40 WHIP) has already faced the Philadelphia Phillies earlier this season on April 11, and it wasn’t pretty — 3.2 IP, 11 H, 6 ER. However in three previous starts against them in 2010-2011, he allowed just one earned run in 22 innings, fanning 18 and walking just five batters. Johnson has also been getting stronger as the season progresses, going 4-2 with a 2.56 ERA in his past nine starts.

MLB Odds for the Philadelphia Phillies at St. Louis Cardinals are provided by VietBet.

Philadelphia -170

St. Louis +150

Total 7.5o -115

The Philadelphia Phillies kick-off a three-game series with the St. Louis Cardinals tonight at Busch Stadium in a showdown of two National League division leaders. Game time is set for 8:15 p.m. (ET) and it will be available on MLB TV.

Philadelphia has opened-up a 4.5 game lead over Atlanta in the NL East after winning eight of its last 10 games. The Phillies did drop two of three to Seattle this past weekend, but they still have the best overall record in the Majors at 45-28. They are 28-12 at home and 17-16 on the road.

This once powerful lineup has struggled a bit this season with an average of just 4.10 runs a game. Fortunately its pitching has made up for the shortfall in production with a NL-best 3.03 team ERA. Staff ‘ace’ Roy Halladay will be on the mound tonight for Philadelphia. He is 9-3 this season with an ERA of 2.56 in 15 starts. He is 2-0 against the Cardinals with a 1.13 ERA.

St. Louis is back on top in the NL Central after a 5-4 victory over Kansas City this past Sunday as a 189 home favorite. The Cardinals are now 40-33 overall and have a half game lead over Milwaukee in the division. They are 20-20 on the road and 20-13 at home.

Sunday’s win proved costly as All-Star 1B Albert Pujols was lost for 4-6 weeks with a broken arm. His loss will certainly take a chunk of production out of a lineup that was ranked first in the NL in hitting with a team batting average of .272 and second in runs scored with 348.

The Cardinals will send Kyle McClellan to the mound tonight. He is 6-3 with an ERA of 3.96 in 11 previous starts. He is 0-2 in his last two outings; giving up 10 earned runs on 14 hits in just nine total innings of work.

Head-to-head, the Cardinals won both games earlier this season at home, but the series was knotted at four games apiece in 2010. The total has stayed ‘under’ in the last four meetings. Stick with Halladay and the Phillies in this one, as the Cardinals will need some time to adjust without Pujols in the lineup.

Have the Riders really turned the corner? They probably have to, knowing that they only have less than half the season to get into the playoffs. There is help on the way in the form of WR Andy Fantuz, who should be resigning with the team next week. However, for now, QB Darian Durant will have to live without him, something that he did in fine form last week against these same Bombers. The Saskatchewan signal caller threw for 238 yards and three TDs, and he rushed for 39 more yards in a stellar effort. He wasn’t asked to do a whole heck of a lot, but the little that he did was definitely effective in the 27-7 victory at Mosaic Stadium. Now, Head Coach Ken Miller tries to get the team’s third win of the season and the second on the road. The first was a victory at Percival Molson Stadium against the Montreal Alouettes, so this should be an easier task than that since the Als are still the favorites in the East even though they are in third place through nine games.

And then there’s Winnipeg, which is just hoping that its two game lead in the East doesn’t get trimmed to one this week. The Bombers still have plenty of games to play against their East Division foes, and this is going to be a huge stepping off point to potentially put the Alouettes three games in their rearview mirror with just eight to play. QB Buck Pierce hasn’t played all that well this season in truth, but he has stayed healthy and hasn’t done anything to really cost his team games. He went 20-of-28 last week, but he only had three completed passes for more than 15 yards, and only two of those ended up actually getting thrown more than two yards in front of the line of scrimmage. RB Fred Reid was grounded thanks to the fact that Winnipeg spent the entire game trailing, and as a very predictable result, the team never reached the end zone. This Bombers defense is solid under second year Head Coach Paul LaPolice, but it’s not so good that the offense can’t score and still win games.

Last week, the oddsmakers were totally off base when the Riders were underdogs at home. Now, they’re off base that they’re underdogs on the road. Even though these two teams are polar opposites in the standings at 7-2 and 2-7, there’s no doubt in our minds that Saskatchewan truly has the better team. It’ll show for a second straight week on Sunday.

Free CFL Pick: Saskatchewan Roughriders +5.5 @ Bookmaker Sportsbook

The Cleo Lemon experiment is finally said and done with. The former Miami Dolphins backup (and part-time starter) was supposed to be the savior of this franchise, and he was definitely taking steps in the right direction to help out his cause. However, after last week’s dismal first half against the Leos in which he generated six two and outs, Head Coach Jim Barker decided to let him go. However, QB Dalton Bell didn’t do much better, turning the ball over five teams, four via interceptions to kill any chance that the team had in the second half. One would like to think that cutting Lemon means that QB Steven Jyles is coming off of the nine game injured list to be the team’s starting quarterback this week. Jyles has had cups of tea in a number of CFL cities in his career, mostly as a backup, but it is clear that he is the only man that can get the Argonauts to the playoffs this year. He’s mobile and has no hesitation about using his legs quite a bit, something that the Lions really haven’t seen a lot of this year.

BC is in better form right now at 3-6, and it is a game up on the final playoff spot in the league. A win parlayed with a Saskatchewan loss on Sunday would put Head Coach Wally Buono’s team two games up with eight to play on the field for that last spot, and it would move the squad within two games of the Calgary/Edmonton loser and within a game of the Hamilton/Montreal loser as well. A loss, and any chance of hosting a playoff game at the newly rebuilt BC Place would go down the drain once and probably for all. QB Buck Pierce has played well of late, and he is probably just two weeks away from becoming a 3,000 yard passer if he can stay healthy. Sure, we’d like to see him completing more than 57.1 percent of his passes, but we love the passing yard average of over 270 yards per game, and a 12/7 TD/INT ratio is respectable. The running game should get a boost this week with the return of RB Jamel Robertson, a man who really made a name for himself playing with these Argonauts.

We tend to think that the Argos are going to have something in the tank for this one if Jyles ends up taking snaps. The former Winnipeg Blue Bomber knows what it takes to win games, and though he doesn’t have a sparkling history, he can pull off games like this. Giving us eight points is an awful lot for a CFL game, and we plan on taking full advantage of that.

Free CFL Pick: Toronto Argonauts +8 @ Bookmaker Sportsbook

Edmonton has really been slumping of late, especially offensively without the use of WR Fred Stamps. Stamps was one of the four import receivers that were left out of the lineup two weeks ago against the BC Lions, and it definitely showed. QB Ricky Ray had zero chemistry with his receivers whatsoever, and his offensive line was a train wreck. Ray and backup QB Kerry Joseph were sacked a combined eight times, and the former New York Jets backup tossed three picks as well. At one point in the first half, Ray had a 31 yard completion under his belt, but the team still had -3 yards of offense. Now, after three straight losses and a combined just 21 points scored in those three games, Edmonton has to hope that it can get the ball in the end zone a tad more often… Of course, one score would be more than what we have seen of late. If the Eskies don’t score a TD in the first three minutes of the Battle of Alberta, they will have gone over three straight games in game time without logging a major.

Finding the end zone has been no problem for the Stampeders of late. They have scored 38, 45, and 32 points in their last three games, and they finally are looking like a side that should be contending for the Grey Cup this year. This 6-2 record probably isn’t all that deserved, as the argument could still be made that this was a team that could have easily been 1-4 or 0-5 through five games, but in fairness, none of the losses came by more than five points either. That five point loss was right here at McMahon Stadium just six weeks ago to these Eskimos. You can bet that payback will be the theme going into this two game home and home set between these provincial rivals. QB Henry Burris, who drew the ire of many in Calgary at the start of the season, has officially returned as one of the elite signal callers in this league. Last week, he went toe to toe with QB Anthony Calvillo and the Montreal Alouettes, throwing for over 400 yards and coming up with nearly 450 total yards of offense and four score on the day to lead the team to a well deserved 38-31 triumph.

Normally speaking, when two teams meet just over a month apart, there isn’t that much of a difference in the point spread. However, this time around, Edmonton is a dog by six more points than it was the first time around (and the first time, it won!). It’s definitely justified though, and unless Stamps gets back in the fold, we just don’t see how the Eskimos are keeping up with the Calgary offense, even off of its bye week.

Free CFL Pick: Calgary Stampeders -9 @ Bookmaker Sportsbook

This is a crucial game for the Alouettes if they hope to close this two game gap in the East Division that the Winnipeg Blue Bombers have built up. Winnipeg has a tough duel on Friday night against the Saskatchewan Roughriders, but it is still favored by a few points in that affair. Reasonably, we still know that there are three meetings between Winnipeg and Montreal to be played, but a loss in this one would leave the Alouettes needing all three of those games in all likelihood just to tie up the Bombers in the East Division. On top of that, a loss would drop the Alouettes into third place in the division behind Hamilton. QB Anthony Calvillo is definitely back in fine form, and he proved it last week by throwing for nearly 400 yards and three scores against the Calgary Stampeders on the road. Unfortunately, a 10-1 lead was squandered in the second half, and Montreal ended up dropping 38-31 in spite of a feverish attempt at a last second TD to tie the game. The defense is going to need to be significantly better than it was last week, allowing QB Henry Burris to account for almost 450 total yards of offense and four scores.

Meanwhile, Hamilton has been hoping to become a legitimate Grey Cup contender once again for years, and it has been falling short year after year. This might be the last chance that the team has of capitalizing on a golden opportunity. There is a big difference between being a 4-5 team, two games behind second place in the East and being in front of Montreal by virtue of a season tiebreaker. QB Kevin Glenn is coming off of his best game of the year, as he threw for 351 yards and two scores against the Blue Bombers in last week’s loss. Unfortunately though, it marked the third straight game in which the team allowed at least 30 points, and the fifth straight in which it allowed at last 26 points. Now, the most feared offense in the league is coming to town, and though this unit did okay at somewhat managing Calvillo and the Alouettes, we have to believe that they will have to be held below that 26 points that they scored five weeks ago for the hosts to win this clash.

This is a tough call. Calvillo clearly wasn’t himself the first time around when these two teams met after his eye injury, but this time, he is clearly fine. Still, playing in Hamilton has been tough over the past few years for the Alouettes, and we tend to think that they fold under pressure once again this week.

Free CFL Pick: Hamilton Tiger-Cats +2.5 @ Bookmaker Sportsbook

With the Winnipeg Blue Bombers still playing at a very high level, it is clear that Head Coach Marc Trestman and company have their work cut out for them to repeat as East Division champs for a fourth straight season. Still, QB Anthony Calvillo is going to be the first quarterback to reach the 2,200 yard mark in the league this week, and he’ll likely be the first to reach 2,400 as well. RB Brandon Whitaker missed a game due to injury and has played in one fewer game this year than half of the rest of the league, yet he is still 70 yards ahead of the rest of the field in the rushing department with 566 yards. Perhaps even more impressive though, is the fact that WR Jamel Richardson has been out of the fold for a game, yet he and WR SJ Green are both in the Top 5 in the league in receiving, and they could be No. 1 and No. 2 by the time this one is said and done with. Montreal has its work cut out for it, but it definitely still in the cream of the crop in the East Division.

And then there is Calgary, which isn’t playing tremendous ball right now, but it still is doing better than a heck of a lot of the other garbage in the West Division. The Edmonton Eskimos have fallen off the face of the earth, the BC Lions haven’t been able to get out of their own way, and the Saskatchewan Roughriders have the worst record in the league and just fired their head coach. Still, QB Henry Burris feels like he should have a heck of lot more than 2,044 passing yards right now, and RB Joffrey Reynolds feels like he should have more than 339 rushing yards. The defense for the Stamps has definitely had some up and down moments, but it looks absolutely nothing like the unit that ranked No. 1 in the league in each of the last two seasons. There is definitely work for Head Coach John Hufnagel and company to do if the Stampeders hope to make it back to the Grey Cup once again this season, and a win in this one against arguably the best side in the league would be paramount for the success of the club.

We still believe that Montreal is head and shoulders above the rest of the league at this point. If there was truly anything wrong with AC in the past, those problems are said and done with the bye week being a distant memory. Stick with the Alouettes to take care of arguably their hardest fixture left of the season.

Free CFL Pick: Montreal Alouettes +1 @ Bookmaker Sportsbook