Boston suffers Pierce-ing blow
Basketball Betting Lines
12/22/2006 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Just when the Boston Celtics were heating up, their leading scorer goes down with an injury.
Celtics forward Paul Pierce is expected to miss two to three weeks with a stress reaction in his left foot. Pierce has been solid in Boston's recent winning streak and first injured his foot last Friday against Denver.
Pierce, who earlier this season passed Bill Russell for seventh all-time in Celtics history in points, is averaging 26.6 points, 7.4 rebounds and 4.3 assists this season.
The Kansas product started all 24 games this season and has made 79 starts or more over the past six years. The durable Pierce will miss Friday's game against the Atlantic Division-rival Philadelphia 76ers followed by a five-game road trip out west against Denver, the Los Angeles Clippers, Golden State, Seattle and Portland.
Speaking of the Sixers, Boston lost out on the Allen Iverson sweepstakes when Philly traded the superstar and former MVP to the Denver Nuggets this week. The Celtics were interested but very unwilling to give away young talent.
Boston will look to center Al Jefferson to step up in Pierce's absence. He has averaged double figures in rebounds the last six games and will need to score the ball more often for the Celtics, who are a half game behind New Jersey for the top spot in the Atlantic Division.
Birmingham, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Manchester United had an eight- point lead in the Premiership standings only two weeks ago. Now, the Red Devils have seen that cushion fall to only two points, courtesy of their stunnin
<< KC bolsters staff; Henderson hangs up boots
Kansas City, MO. (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Kansas City Wizards made some moves in
the offseason to help bolster its staff on Friday with the addition of
assistant coach Kris Kelderman and goalkeeping, strength and conditioning
coach D
<< Timberwolves try to halt three-game losing streak against Bucks
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Minnesota Timberwolves will try to rebound from a
bitter ending to their most recent game when the struggling club hosts the
Milwaukee Bucks tonight at the Target Center.
Minnesota dropped a 111-94 decision to the Lo
<< Rockets visit Southwest Division-rival San Antonio
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Houston Rockets hope to end a lengthy recent lack of
success against the San Antonio Spurs when the two in-state rivals face one
another tonight at the AT&T Center.
San Antonio has thoroughly dominated this series as o
<< Hornets, Grizzlies battle at the Ford Center
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The injury-riddled New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets will
try to stop a four-game losing streak when they welcome the equally-struggling
Memphis Grizzlies to the Ford Center this evening.
The Hornets, who are without thre
Cleveland, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Cleveland Browns quarterback Charlie Frye reportedly has a broken bone in his right wrist. Frye was hurt on December 3 against Kansas City and has missed the past two games with what the team had d
Griffey breaks hand >>
Cincinnati, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Cincinnati Reds center fielder Ken Griffey
Jr. suffered a broken left hand due to an undisclosed accident at his home,
the team announced Friday.
Griffey, an 18-year veteran and 12-time All-Star, will
U.S. WNT to open 2007 against Germany >>
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The United States Women's National Team will
open the 2007 season by participating in the Four Nations Tournament from Jan.
26-30 in China.
The tourney will pit the U.S. versus some of the world's stronge
Pistons get 'Sheed back >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Detroit Pistons got one of their key players back this
week when Rasheed Wallace returned from a two-game absence to help beat the
division-rival Cleveland Cavaliers.
Wallace, who had missed the previous two wins
Aberdeen, Rangers battle for second place >>
Aberdeen, Scotland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - With league-leaders Celtic a whopping
14 points clear of the rest of the pack, it is time to start playing for
second place for the rest of the Scottish Premier League.
On Saturday, second-pla
MySportsbook.com Releases World Series Championship Lines
New York Yankees and Chicago White Sox early favorites to win 2008 World Series
The Major League Baseball season starts this weekend and MySportsbook.com, a leading online sportsbook for over 8 years, is the first to offer baseball sports betting lines on who will win the 2007 World Series.
"The World Series is the biggest baseball event in the sports betting world and MySportsbook.com is excited that we are first to market with betting lines on every team," says Tim Dalton, Marketing Director, MySportsbook.com. "We are getting things ready for a great baseball season and our members are looking forward to our Player Payback Bonuses, as well as Dime Lines, all season long."
Going in to this weekend, MySportsbook.com's favorites to win the World Series are the New York Yankees at 7-2 and last year’s winners the Chicago White Sox at 9-2.
"These betting lines are ripe for the picking," Dalton added, "baseball fans know that the season is long and many factors, including players staying healthy, will affect these Future odds as the baseball season progresses. Betting on your favorite team in the beginning of the season could prove quite lucrative. We are seeing examples of this right now in the NCAA College Basketball Tournament with a lucky few that placed pre-season bets on George Mason to win it all. Anything can happen."
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About www.MySportsbook.com
MySportsbook.com is the foremost online sportsbook offering Internet wagering to its worldwide customers. Fully licensed and regulated in St. John’s, Antigua since 1997, MySportsbook.com offers a complete range of online casino games, sports betting lines, poker tournaments and horse racing offtrack betting daily through its portfolio of companies and managed services. With over 7 years of experience, MySportsbook.com has become one of the most respected companies in the gaming industry by providing unparalleled 24/7 customer support and timely payouts. MySportsbook.com is part of the SportingBet PLC group of companies that is publicly-traded on the London Stock Exchange ( LSE ) under the symbol SBT.L. MySportsbook.com provides a secure environment for sports and casino wagering and has been featured in numerous media outlets, including MAXIM Magazine, Cigar Aficionado, and CNN’s Paula Zahn Now among others.
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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