Buffalo extends Lindell
Football Betting Lines
12/27/2006 - Orchard Park, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Buffalo placekicker Rian Lindell signed a contract extension that will keep him with the Bills though the 2011 season.
Since joining the Bills before the 2003 campaign, Lindell has connected on 83 percent (93-of-112) of his kicks, including a staggering 92 percent (23-of-25) this season.
Lindell began his career with Seattle in 2000 and has converted 80 percent of his kick, including 12-of-19 from 50 yards or more.
Cincinnati, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Cincinnati Bengals center Rich Braham is apparently ready to call it a career. Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis made the announcement at his Wednesday news conference. Braham suffered a knee injur
<< Angels' Rivera has surgery for broken leg
Anaheim, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim outfielder Juan
Rivera underwent surgery Wednesday to repair a broken left leg.
Orthopaedic surgeon Dr. Michael Abrahams inserted a rod into Rivera's left
tibia and screws
<< Jackson, Kampman and Gould earn NFC's weekly awards
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - St. Louis Rams running back Steven Jackson,
Green Bay Packers defensive end Aaron Kampman and Chicago kicker Robbie Gould
have been selected as the NFC's top players for Week 16 of the season.
Jackson ear
<< Stars' Morrow out indefinitely
Frisco, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Dallas Stars captain Brenden Morrow will be out
of action indefinitely following successful surgery Tuesday night to repair
severed tendons in his right wrist, general manager Doug Armstrong said on
Wednesd
<< Thornton leads West All-Star balloting
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - San Jose Sharks forward Joe Thornton leads all
Western Conference players in fan balloting for the NHL All-Star Game.
Thornton has received 614,753 votes and has a lead of more than 70,000 votes
on Anaheim d
Minneapolis, MN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Minnesota Vikings cornerback Fred Smoot was placed on injured reserve Wednesday, five days after being involved in a single-car accident in his home state of Mississippi. Vikings head coach Brad Chi
Eagles' Sheppard and Lewis questionable for Falcons game >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Pro Bowl cornerback Lito Sheppard and
strong safety Michael Lewis are both listed as questionable for Philadelphia's
game against Atlanta this Sunday.
Sheppard, who recorded three tackles and a ke
Colts' Freeney listed as questionable >>
Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Indianapolis Colts defensive end Dwight
Freeney is listed as questionable for Sunday's regular season finale against
the Miami Dolphins with a shoulder injury.
Freeney, the Colts' career sack leade
Giants' Seubert doubtful; Shockey questionable for Saturday >>
East Rutherford, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Guard Rich Seubert is doubtful and
tight end Jeremy Shockey questionable for the Giants' Week 17 game at
division-rival Washington on Saturday night.
Seubert is nursing a shin problem,
Bucs ink QB Simms >>
Tampa, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Chris Simms
signed a multi-year contract with the team on Wednesday.
Per team policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Simms, who has missed the majority of the season
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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