Football Betting

Panthers trim roster, put two on IR

Football Betting Lines

08/31/2010 - Charlotte, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Carolina Panthers reduced their roster to the maximum 75 on Tuesday, in part by placing wide receiver Wallace Wright and defensive end Hilee Taylor on injured reserve.

Wide receivers Dexter Jackson and Oliver Young were waived, while oft-injured linebacker Thomas Davis was transferred from the active/physically unable to perform list to the reserve/PUP list while he recovers from knee surgery.

Wallace had spent the last four years with the Jets and was expected to impact special teams play as well as compete for time on offense.

Davis, meanwhile, is recovering from his second surgery for a torn ACL in as many years. The five-year veteran saw time in seven games last season before the injury and registered 61 tackles, two interceptions and five passes defensed.

His move to the reserve/PUP list means he'll be sidelined for the first six weeks of the season, then can return to practice for the next three weeks before a determination on his roster status must be made.


<< Fish wins U.S. opener
Flushing Meadows, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Surging American Mardy Fish was a hard-fought opening-round winner Tuesday on Day 2 at the U.S. Open. The 19th-seeded Fish needed all five sets to get past Czech Jan Hajek 6-0, 3-6, 4-6, 6-0, 6-1 on

<< Lloyd tears off redshirt, will start against UM
STORRS, Conn. (AP) -Connecticut's coaches have scrapped plans to make linebacker Greg Lloyd Jr. take this season off, using a redshirt year to recover from the serious knee injury he went down with in November.Lloyd, the son of the former Pittsburgh

<< Wigan adds Chelsea's Di Santo, United's Cleverley
Wigan, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Wigan acquired striker Franco Di Santo from Chelsea and signed him to a three-year contract, and also added midfielder Tom Cleverley on loan from Manchester United on Tuesday. Di Santo, 21, spent last seaso

<< Islanders bring back captain Weight
Uniondale, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New York Islanders signed captain Doug Weight to a one-year contract on Tuesday. Financial terms of the deal were not announced. "Doug has played an important role in helping to develop our young

<< Ravens' Cody sidelined after surgery
Owings Mills, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Baltimore Ravens rookie defensive tackle Terrence Cody underwent surgery last week to have torn meniscus in his knee repaired. Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said Cody will likely be sidelined fo

Rockies pick up P Delcarmen from Red Sox >>
San Francisco, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Colorado Rockies acquired pitcher Manny Delcarmen from the Boston Red Sox in exchange for minor-league right- hander Chris Balcom-Miller on Tuesday. The 28-year-old Delcarmen was 3-2 with a 4.

Predators sign D Johnson >>
Nashville, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Nashville Predators agreed to terms with defenseman Aaron Johnson on a one-year, two-way contract on Tuesday. The 27-year-old blueliner appeared in 41 games between Calgary and Edmonton in 2009-10 an

Braves make several roster moves >>
Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Atlanta Braves made several roster moves on Tuesday, including recalling outfielder Nate McLoouth from Triple-A Gwinnett. Also, the team recalled first baseman Troy Glaus from his rehabilitation assig

Falcons cut two injured defenders >>
Flowery Branch, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Atlanta Falcons parted ways with safety Matt Giordano by way of an injury settlement and waived/injured defensive tackle Thomas Johnson to reach the league-mandated 75-man roster Tuesday

Liverpool loans Insua to Galatasaray >>
Liverpool, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Liverpool loaned Argentina international Emiliano Insua to Turkish giants Galatasaray for the upcoming season, the club announced Tuesday. Liverpool acquired Insua from Boca Juniors in 2007. He played 62

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.