Phillies sign OF Pierre
Baseball Betting Lines
01/27/2012 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Philadelphia Phillies on Friday inked outfielder Juan Pierre to a minor-league contract with an invitation to spring training.
The 34-year-old veteran finished 2011 with a .279 average, two home runs, 17 doubles and 50 RBI in 158 games for the Chicago White Sox. He added 27 stolen bases, bringing his total to 554 career swipes -- most among active players -- along with four triples and 80 runs scored.
Entering his 13th pro season, the native of Mobile, Alabama is a lifetime .296 hitter who has collected 16 homers, 234 doubles, 86 triples and 484 RBI over 1,751 contests for the Rockies, Marlins, Cubs, Dodgers and ChiSox.
Staten Island, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Wagner College football program will open its 2012 season at Florida Atlantic - the Seahawks' first game against a Football Bowl Subdivision school. Wagner announced an 11-game schedule on Friday, beg
<< Sixers try to bounce back vs. bumbling Bobcats
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Philadelphia 76ers try to bounce back from a rare loss
at home this evening when they welcome the hapless Charlotte Bobcats to the
Wells Fargo Center.
Philadelphia lost for only the second time in 10 tries in front of
<< Wolves welcome Spurs to the Twin Cities
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Minnesota Timberwolves were able to snap a 16-game
losing streak to the San Antonio Spurs when the two clubs met in early January
and shoot for a rare win streak in the series tonight at the Target Center.
The Timberwo
<< Bogut-less Bucks visit Bulls
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - It has been a season of frustration for Bucks center Andrew
Bogut and his latest setback will keep him out of action indefinitely. That
leaves Milwaukee a big hole in the middle this evening as it visits a Chicago
Bulls club
<< Cavs and Nets meet at The Q
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New Jersey Nets have yet to win consecutive games this
season. The Cleveland Cavaliers have done it just once.
Both teams will be trying to put together win streaks this evening at Quicken
Loans Arena.
The Nets have
Lecce, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Inter Milan will attempt to get back to winning ways on Sunday at Lecce after the club saw its eight-match winning streak halted in the Coppa Italia by Napoli in midweek. The 2-0 setback prevent
Raptors' Bargnani out with calf issue >>
Denver, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Toronto Raptors forward Andrea Bargnani will be
out for an undefined period of time after aggravating a previous calf injury.
The 26-year-old suffered a strained left calf back on January 11 and missed
six
'Melo to sit two games >>
Miami, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - New York Knicks star Carmelo Anthony is expected
to miss the next two games in an effort to heal a variety of injuries.
Anthony will sit out Friday's contest at Miami and will also miss Saturday's
contest at
Illinois State changes date of 2012 opener >>
Normal, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Illinois State football team's 2012 season
opener against Dayton has been changed from Thursday, Aug. 30 to Saturday,
Sept. 1 due to the construction on the new renovations to Hancock
Stadium,
Kickoff will
Champion colt returns in Holy Bull Stakes >>
Hallandale Beach, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Two weeks after being announced as the
2011 Eclipse Award winning two-year-old colt, Hansen makes his 2012 debut in
Sunday's $400,000 Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream Park. The Holy Bull is part
of the
Sportsbook Betting Lines
Who Makes the Sportsbook Betting Lines?
Las Vegas Sports Consultants (LVSC) is the world’s premier oddsmaking company and the most respected authority on making the lines. Mike Seba is a Senior Oddsmaker at LVSC and has been making lines for the last six years. In our extended interview, Seba explained that there are 4-5 oddsmakers assigned to make lines for each of the major sports (pro & college football and basketball; MLB, NHL, boxing, golf). Each of these oddsmakers bring unique opinions, strengths and weaknesses to the process. Oddsmakers at LVSC are professional sports junkies who love what they do and would probably do it for nothing if you asked them, but they do get paid for it. By necessity their approach is very research-oriented and concise, since with millions of dollars at risk there is little margin for error.
“You either have a passion for it or you don’t,” Seba said.
“The #1 thing for us is to make a line for each game that creates good two-way action. We do this by drawing from past experiences and applying them to current situations. People think it’s much more complicated, but it’s not. “What are the Football Betting Lines Trying to Accomplish?
There is a common misconception that point spreads represent the oddsmakers’ prediction of how many points the favorite will win by. That is not the case at all – their intent is NOT to evenly split the ATS result between the teams; rather, their goal is to attract equal betting action on both sides. Stated another way, they want to create a line that half the people find appealing to bet one way while the other half find it appealing to bet the other way (known as ‘dividing the action’).Divided action means the sportsbook is guaranteed a profit on the game because of the fee charged to the bettor (called juice or vig – typically $11 bet to win $10).
How the Opening Line Is Made
The opening line is the first line created by the oddsmakers, which is then sent out to sportsbooks. Of course there is an entire method to the madness on how the opening line is created. Seba explained that it all starts with each oddsmaker creating a line on each game based upon their own personal approach. This usually includes having up-to-date power ratings on each team.Power ratings are the oddsmaker’s value of each team and are used as a guide to calculate a "preliminary" pointspread on an upcoming game. The power ratings are adjusted after each game a team plays. Examples of non-game factors that would require an adjustment to a team's power rating are key player injuries and player trades.
Once a game’s power rating based pointspread is determined, the oddsmaker will make adjustments to that line after considering each team's most recent games played and previous games played against that opponent. Also, adjustments are made after reading each team’s local newspapers to get a sense of what the coaches & players are thinking going into the game.Since the oddsmaker’s ultimate goal is equally dividing the sports betting action, public perception and sportsbook betting patterns must be taken into account. For example, the public might have heavy betting interest week after week on a popular college football betting team such as USC. If an oddsmaker comes up with a preliminary line of USC -7, then an adjustment up to -7.5 or -8 would be made in response to the public’s expected USC bias.
The last step in the line-making process for each oddsmaker is taking one final look to determine whether or not the line "feels right." This is where common sense and past experience with how games are bet enters into the picture.A round-table discussion among the 4-5 oddsmakers involved in making the line for each sport is then conducted and a consensus line is decided upon by the Odds Director before it is released to the sportsbooks. Of the 4-5 oddsmakers, generally the 2 most respected opinions are weighed more heavily by the Odds Director before he decides on the final line.
Why Sports Betting Lines Change
Once the opening line is released by LVSC, the individual sportsbooks decide if they want to make any adjustments before offering it to the public. Reasons for such adjustments include:Experts working for the individual books having a strong opinion on the game
Individual books having players who consistently bet with certain tendencies (such as an extreme bias toward favorites or toward a certain popular team like USC)The purpose of these adjustments, like all line adjustments, is to more equally divide the betting action.
Once betting begins, sportsbooks can adjust the line at any time. In doing so they attempt to make more attractive the team that is getting less action. By moving the line, sportsbooks can influence how the public bets on a particular game.For example, if the pointspread on a game is 7 and most of the money is coming in on the underdog (taking the +7), sportsbooks will then move the number down to 6 ½ to try and attract money on the favorite.
Moving the line is the oddsmaker's effort to balance betting action, and often times such moves can have a major impact on a bettor’s decision. Oddsmakers can also change the line depending on various event-related factors such as player injuries or weather. Obviously, if the line comes out a week ahead of the event (which is the case in football), there is much that could happen during the week leading up to the event that could affect the line. Oddsmakers have to determine if any changes are necessary and send out an "adjusted line."“The main objective is that our clients get equal action on both sides,” Seba said. “We’re not trying to pick the team that covers the spread, we’re trying to make it a coin flip, a tough decision (for the bettor). If we’ve done that, we’ve done our job.”
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