All-Sports Expert Betting Tips to Help Win Cash this Week 5/16/2016

by Dave Schwab - 5/16/2016

The conference finals for both NBA and the NHL playoffs offer some of the most exciting basketball and hockey betting action of the year. This makes it a great time of the year to try and build your betting bankroll heading into the summer months. However, sometimes it takes a few exclusive sports betting tips to actually tip the betting odds in your favor.

Doc's Sports has become a great source of exclusive sports betting information behind an experienced team of expert handicappers. With the use of Doc's Unit Betting System, this team has become known for releasing some of the most profitable big-unit plays of the year based on insider news that was not in the public's eye. The following betting tips are all geared towards helping you win some extra cash in a few opportunities on this week's sports gambling slate.

Betting the Favorite in the Series Price for the NBA's Eastern Conference Finals

NBA's version of its final four is in place with both the Eastern and Western Conference Finals getting underway this week. Finding the best value in the series betting odds at Bovada in the East involves a high level of risk and reward based on the current moneyline odds.

Cleveland has been opened as a prohibitive -1000 favorite to make a return trip to the NBA Finals at the expense of Toronto. The Raptors betting odds to pull off an improbable upset in this best-of-seven affair have been set at +600. To recap each team's path to this series, the Cavaliers cruised past both Detroit and Atlanta in two four-game sweeps, while Toronto needed the full seven games each time to get past Indiana and Miami.

The sheer wear and tear of almost playing twice as many games puts the Raptors a a severe disadvantage against the Cavs even though they won two of three games in the regular season series. The risk is high, but the obvious choice in a series bet would still have to be Cleveland. A safer strategy for betting this series would be to try and find the prop bet odds for how many games it may last. The Cavaliers may be hard pressed to pull off another sweep, but a play on five games could be the way to go depending on the actual odds.

Betting the Underdog in the Series Price for the NHL's Eastern Conference Finals

Staying in the East, Bovada has recently updated its series price odds for the NHL Eastern Conference Finals between Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay. Despite losing Game 1 at home, the Penguins are still -130 favorites to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals. The series price on the Lightning is now +110.

One of the biggest contributing factors to the current odds is an injury to Tampa Bay goaltender Ben Bishop. He left Game 1 of this series with a leg injury in the first period and his status right now is considered day-to-day. In his place, Andrei Vasilevskiy was able to turn away 25 of the 26 shots he faced to help preserve the Lightning's 3-1 win.

Both teams may have to forge on with an inexperienced goalie between the pipes. Pittsburgh turned to Matt Murray early in the postseason due to an injury to veteran Marc-Andre Fleury, and the 21-year old has responded in an impressive fashion with a goals-against average of 2.15 and a .929 save percentage through 10 playoff starts.

Pittsburgh is obviously perceived as the better all-around team by the oddsmakers even with Bishop in goal for Tampa Bay, but a road win in the opener is tough to ignore. Also in the Lightning's favor is a 5-2 record in their last seven games in the conference finals as opposed to Pittsburgh's 0-5 record in its last five games in this round.

Going Against the Favorite in this Week's Freeway Series

Starting this Monday night at Dodger Stadium, the Los Angeles Angels are in town for an extended four-game interleague series against their city rivals. They are just 16-21 on the year with a slow start out of the gate but coming off an important three-game weekend sweep of Seattle on the road by a combined score of 19-13. Adding in a 12-10 loss to St. Louis last Thursday, the Angels have averaged 7.3 runs in their last four games behind some hot bats.

The Dodgers have been listed as heavy -190 home favorites for Monday's Game 1 following a 2-1 series win against St. Louis at home this past weekend. They are now 20-18 through their first 38 games, which hardly makes them a dominant force in this matchup. While they are favored in the series price as well, this could be a good opportunity to go against the home team in this week's Freeway Series.

The Angels have owned the Dodgers in a head-to-head showdown in recent years with an 8-1 record in the last nine meetings by a combined score of 42-24. Six those wins were by two or more runs. And with the way the Angels lineup has hit the ball over its past four games, runs could once again be easy to come by. Another trend in the visitors' favor is the Dodgers 2-7 record in their last nine games against a team with a losing record.

Start:	November 23, 2024 @ 2:30 PM
Expert:	Tony George
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