01/23/2012 -
Melbourne, Australia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Victoria Azarenka overcame a letdown
in the first-set tiebreaker to upend Agnieszka Radwanska 6-7 (0-7), 6-0, 6-2
in their quarterfinal match at the Australian Open on Tuesday.
Azarenka, seeded third, will play in her second Grand Slam semifinal against
either top-ranked Caroline Wozniacki or reigning champion Kim Clijsters, who
are currently playing at Rod Laver Arena.
There were eight breaks of serve in the first set alone between Azarenka and
the eighth-seeded Radwanska, who won all seven points in a surprisingly quick
tiebreaker.
Azarenka bounced back from losing her first set of the tournament quite
swimmingly, goose-egging the Pole in a 26-minute second set.
The Belarusian kept the momentum in her favor and controlled the final set to
improve to 7-3 against Radwanska, who has yet to reach a major semifinal.
Azarenka still has a chance at reaching the World No. 1 ranking by the end of
the week.
<< No illusion: Magic score 56 in blowout loss to Celtics
Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Boston Celtics kicked their cold streak
against winning teams by beating one that has never played so bad.
Paul Pierce had 19 points and seven assists Monday night and the Celtics raced
past the Magic,
<< Fisher leads Nashville over Columbus
Nashville, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mike Fisher scored twice and Pekka Rinne made
25 saves as Nashville continued its home dominance over Columbus with a 4-1
victory at Bridgestone Arena.
Patric Hornqvist and Matt Halischuk also tallied fo
<< Fished leads Nashville over Columbus
Nashville, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mike Fisher scored twice and Pekka Rinne made
25 saves as Nashville continued its home dominance over Columbus with a 4-1
victory at Bridgestone Arena.
Patric Hornqvist and Matt Halischuk also tallied fo
<< Bulls blow past Nets in Rose's return
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Derrick Rose returned with a vengeance as he
scored 22 points to go along with eight assists and five rebounds as the
Chicago Bulls topped the New Jersey Nets, 110-95, at United Center.
The Bulls got
<< Hawks pull out win in Milwaukee
Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Josh Smith's three-pointer with 41.9 seconds
left in the game put Atlanta on top for good in a back-and-forth, 97-92
victory over the Milwaukee Bucks.
Smith finished with 19 points and 13 rebounds in
Spurs top Hornets on Duncan's shot >>
New Orleans, LA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tim Duncan has some life left in his 35-
year-old legs after all, hitting a one-handed fallaway at the foul line with
1.4 seconds remaining to lift the Spurs over the Hornets, 104-102.
Carl Landry's
Lowry and Martin lift Rockets over T'Wolves >>
Minneapolis, MN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kyle Lowry posted his second career triple-
double while Kevin Martin finished with 31 points, and the Rockets downed the
Timberwolves, 107-92, for their seventh consecutive victory.
Lowry totaled 16 poi
Former Phillies broadcaster Musser dies >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Long-time Philadelphia broadcaster Andy
Musser has passed away at the age of 74.
The Daily News reported that Musser died at his home on Sunday.
Musser was an integral part of the Phillies televis
West-leading Thunder roll over Pistons >>
Oklahoma City, OK (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - James Harden, Russell Westbrook and Kevin
Durant combined to score 68 of Oklahoma City's points, as the Western
Conference-leading Thunder dominated the lowly Detroit Pistons, 99-79.
Harden and
Marion leads Mavericks past Suns >>
Dallas, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Shawn Marion scored 29 points against his former
team and the Dallas Mavericks won their second game in a row without Dirk
Nowitzki, beating the Phoenix Suns, 93-87, on Monday night.
The Mavericks started
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.
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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