Baseball Betting

Benson edges Hornaday for truck title, Bodine wins race

Autoracing Betting Lines

11/14/2008 - Homestead, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Johnny Benson captured his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship Friday with a seventh-place finish in the Ford 200 at the Homestead-Miami Speedway. Benson finished the season seven points ahead of Ron Hornaday, Jr., who finished one position behind in eighth. It was the second-closest points battle in the 14-year history of the series.

Meanwhile, Todd Bodine won at Homestead, holding off Brian Scott in a green- white-checkered finish. The victory was Bodine's third of the season and the 15th of his Truck Series career.

Scott finished second, and Kevin Harvick was third. Kyle Busch and Dennis Setzer rounded out the top-five.

More details to follow.


<< Wade leads Heat to rout of Wizards
Miami, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Dwyane Wade dropped a game-high 24 points and the Miami Heat clobbered the Washington Wizards, 97-77, at American Airlines Arena. Michael Beasley netted 19 points for the Heat, who wrapped up a thre

<< Young, Sixers overcome big deficit to topple Pacers
Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Thaddeus Young scored a career-high 25 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, and the Philadelphia 76ers erased a 26-point first-half deficit and came back to edge the Indiana Pacers, 94-92. Andre Miller s

<< No. 21 Wake Forest crushes N.C. Central
Winston-Salem, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Freshman Al-Farouq Aminu scored 21 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, and No. 21 Wake Forest kicked off its 2008-09 campaign with a 94-48 rout of North Carolina Central. Aminu made 9-of-12 from the

<< Charlotte pulls out victory over short-handed Jazz
Charlotte, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Gerald Wallace scored 22 points and grabbed nine rebounds to lead the Charlotte Bobcats to a 104-96 victory over the ailing Utah Jazz, who were without three of their top six players. Deron Williams,

<< Ovechkin and Laich lead surging Caps over Devils
Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Alexander Ovechkin and Brooks Laich both had a goal and an assist, as the surging Washington Capitals defeated the slumping New Jersey Devils, 3-1, in the opener of a home-and-home series at the Verizon Center.

Randolph, Crawford push Knicks over Thunder >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Zach Randolph poured in a season-high in points and rebounds with 29 and 19, respectively, and the New York Knicks held off the Oklahoma City Thunder, 116-106, at Madison Square Garden. Jamal Crawford

Harris leads Nets to victory over Hawks >>
East Rutherford, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Devin Harris finished with 30 points, eight assists and six rebounds, as the New Jersey Nets used a strong fourth quarter to take a 115-108 victory over the Atlanta Hawks. Vince Carter ended with

No. 12 Oklahoma rolls over American University >>
Norman, OK (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Blake Griffin had 24 points and a career-high 18 rebounds, as 12th-ranked Oklahoma crushed American University, 83-54, in the season opener for both clubs. Cade Davis had 11 points while Willie Warren added

Thrashers stay in win column by edging 'Canes >>
Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Johan Hedberg finished with 27 saves as the streaking Atlanta Thrashers downed the Carolina Hurricanes, 3-2, in a Southeast Division battle at Philips Arena. Marty Reasoner, Eric Perrin and Slav

Posey, Hornets hold off Blazers >>
New Orleans, LA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - James Posey scored 14 points and nailed two key three-pointers in the fourth quarter, as the New Orleans Hornets pulled out a hard-fought 87-82 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers. Chris Paul logged

Sportsbook betting odds favor Europe in Ryder Cup

September 19, – Despite holding a decided edge in the all-time series, with 24 wins, 2 ties and 10 losses, Team USA is the underdog again heading into the Ryder Cup in Kidare, Ireland this weekend, according to MySportsbook.com.  The Europeans have captured four of the past five editions, including their largest victory ever, an 18 ½ to 9 ½ thumping in Michigan in 2004. Current Ryder Cup betting odds favor the Europeans to continue their winning ways; they are a 4-5 bet to take the title, compared to 6-5 for the Americans. 

Despite being knocked out in the first round of World Match play by Shaun Micheel, Tiger Woods is predicted to lead the US charge and be their highest point scorer for the week, with odds listed at 9-4 that he outpoints all other American players, including Jim Furyk, Phil Mickelson and Chris DiMarco to  name a  few.  Team USA has four relatively unknown players on the roster but all four are 2007 tournament winners and have posted some of season’s best performances, each earning over $1.5 million on the PGA TOUR.  They include Zach Johnson, Vaughan Taylor, JJ Henry and Brett Wetterich.

The experienced European squad includes the likes of Luke Donald, Sergio Garcia, Padraig Harrington, Jose Maria Olazabal and Darren Clarke, who’s emotions will be tested after the passing of his wife to a battle with cancer.  Donald and Garcia are in particularly good form and each is a 5-1 bet to lead the European squad in the points race. Donald has proven he can go head to head with Woods at a major event after a run for the $1.2 million purse at the PGA Championship. Garcia’s Ryder Cup credentials prove he’s ready for battle too.

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your golf sportsbook needs.

Ryder Cup Odds

Europe
Tie
USA
4-5
10-1
6-5


Ryder Cup Top US point scorer
Tiger Woods
Jim Furyk
Phil Mickelson
Chris DiMarco
David Toms
Stewart Cink
Chad Campbell
Scott Verplank
Zach Johnson
Vaughan Taylor
JJ Henry
Brett Wetterich
9-4
4-1
5-1
7-1
8-1
12-1
15-1
15-1
25-1
30-1
30-1
50-1


Ryder Cup Top European scorer
Sergio Garcia
Luke Donald
Padraig Harrington
Colin Montgomerie
Darren Clarke
David Howell
Lee Westwood
Paul Casey
Henrik Stenson
Jose Maria Olazabal
Paul McGinley
Robert Karlsson
5-1
5-1
6-1
13-2
8-1
9-1
9-1
11-1
12-1
12-1
20-1
25-1

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com

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.”

To visit this internet sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your sports betting needs and World Series odds.