08/22/2008 - San Antonio, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The San Antonio Spurs re-signed guard Michael Finley on Friday. Per team policy, terms were not disclosed.
Finley, who was one of two Spurs to participate in all 82 regular-season games a year ago, finished the year averaging 10.1 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.4 assists.
The Wisconsin product also put together 6.7 points, 1.9 rebounds and 1.0 assists per contest over 17 playoff games.
A first-round pick of Phoenix (21st overall) back in 1995, Finley has averaged 16.7 points, 4.6 rebounds and 3.2 assists in 976 career contests with the Suns, Mavs and Spurs.
<< RSL acquires Johnson from Fire for draft picks
Salt Lake City, UT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Real Salt Lake acquired 21-year-old
forward Will Johnson from the Chicago Fire in exchange for conditional
SuperDraft picks in 2009 and 2011, the team announced on Friday.
"Johnson is an ex
<< Houston, New York aim to extend respective winning streaks
East Rutherford, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Houston Dynamo will be going for
their fifth straight Major League Soccer win when they travel to take on the
New York Red Bulls at Giants Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
The two-time defending
<< Pirates bring Mientkiewicz back from bereavement list
Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Pittsburgh Pirates reinstated first
baseman Doug Mientkiewicz from the bereavement list on Friday.
Mientkiewicz left the team on Monday to be with his wife, Jodi, who underwent
heart surgery for
<< Safarova, Peng land in Forest Hills final
Forest Hills, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Czech Lucie Safarova and Chinese
Shuai Peng will square off in Saturday's final at the $74,800 Forest Hills
Tennis Classic, a final U.S. Open tune-up.
The unseeded Safarova upended third-s
Rockies' Podsednik set to return >>
Denver, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Colorado Rockies activated outfielder
Scott Podsednik from the 15-day disabled list on Friday.
Podsednik went on the DL on July 29 with a non-displaced fracture of his left
little finger. The 32-
Edwards takes the pole for Bristol Cup race >>
Bristol, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Carl Edwards' winning momentum during the
month of August continued Friday as he captured the pole for the Sharpie 500
at the Bristol Motor Speedway. The No.60 Roush Fenway Racing driver circled
the 0.533
Harris homers twice to lead Nats past Cubs >>
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Willie Harris homered twice, including his
first career grand slam, and drove in six runs as the Washington Nationals
stunned the Cubs by coming back to down Chicago, 13-5, in the opener of a
three-g
Red Sox recall Smith, sign Ross >>
Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Boston Red Sox recalled pitcher Chris Smith
from Triple-A Pawtucket and signed catcher David Ross to a minor-league
contract Friday.
The moves come prior to the start of a three-game series against
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. “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).
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.
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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