Bulls host streaking Nuggets
Basketball Betting Lines
03/22/2007 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Denver Nuggets attempt to win a season-high sixth straight game when they visit the Chicago Bulls tonight at the United Center.
Denver is tied with the Los Angeles Lakers for the sixth spot in the Western Conference playoff race, while the Bulls are No. 5 in the East.
The Nuggets play the second of a five-game road trip this evening. Carmelo Anthony scored 30 points and Denver tied a season-high with its fifth straight win, as Nuggets knocked off the New Jersey Nets, 94-90, on Tuesday at Continental Airlines Arena.
Allen Iverson finished with 20 points for the Nuggets, who won for the first time (1-21) when scoring under 100 this season. Marcus Camby registered 10 points, nine rebounds and four blocked shots for Denver, which snapped a four- game skid against the Nets and won in New Jersey for the first time since March 26, 2000.
Denver is a respectable 15-14 on the road this season. The Nuggets will also visit Toronto, Cleveland and Detroit on the current swing.
Chicago has dropped two in a row and wraps up a short two-game homestand. Cuttino Mobley scored 25 points and Corey Maggette netted 22 to help the Clippers to a 103-89 victory over the Bulls on Tuesday at the United Center.
Kirk Hinrich had 29 points in the loss to the Clippers, while Ben Wallace finished with a season-high 19 points, 16 rebounds and seven assists for Chicago, which has lost two in a row after a four-game winning streak.
The Bulls are 25-9 at home this season. They are scheduled to visit the Indiana Pacers on Sunday at Conseco Fieldhouse.
This is the second and final meeting of the season between the clubs. On November 21st, J.R. Smith scored 36 points to lead the Nuggets to a 113-109 win over the Bulls at the Pepsi Center.
Denver has won two of three and four of its last six at Chicago. A win tonight would give the Nuggets a sweep of the season-series for the first time since the 2003-04 campaign.
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Houston Rockets attempt to make it five straight wins tonight when they host the Central Division-leading Detroit Pistons tonight at the Toyota Center. Detroit leads the Cleveland Cavaliers by three games for the top s
<< Ducks shoot for club history in Phoenix
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Anaheim Ducks take aim at a pair of franchise records
when they take the ice tonight against the basement-dwelling Phoenix Coyotes
at Jobing.com Arena.
Anaheim established club single-season bests of 43 victories and
<< Rock vs. Jock series highlights week 4 in AFL
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Philadelphia Soul (2-0), co-owned by JON
BON JOVI, host the fifth version in the "Rock vs. Jock" series as they welcome
the Colorado Crush (2-1), co-owned by JOHN ELWAY, to the Wachovia Center on
Thursday, Ma
<< Streaking Wild welcome the Blues
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Minnesota Wild put their franchise-record win streak on
the line tonight at the Xcel Energy Center, where the scorching club welcomes
the St. Louis Blues for the first time this season.
Minnesota has ripped off victori
<< Red Wings head home to face Jackets
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Detroit Red Wings hope a return home will enable them
to break out of a recent funk, as the Central Division contenders begin a
stretch of three consecutive games at Joe Louis Arena tonight with a matchup
against the Colu
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The red-hot Atlanta Thrashers will try to extend their lead in the Southeast Division tonight, as they welcome the San Jose Sharks to Philips Arena. The Thrashers are closing in on the first-ever postseason bert
Penn State's Portland quits >>
State College, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Rene Portland, who was recently fined by
Penn State for harassment of a player, resigned her position as head coach of
the women's basketball team on Thursday.
Penn State launched an investigation in
Knicks finish homestand against Trail Blazers >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New York Knicks wrap up a four-game homestand this
evening when they welcome the Portland Trail Blazers to Madison Square Garden.
New York is 1-2 so far on the stand and suffered a 92-77 loss to the Dallas
Mavericks on
Kings, Suns meet in first of home-and-home set >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Pacific Division champion Phoenix Suns finish a short
two-game homestand when they host the Sacramento Kings tonight at US Airways
Center.
This is the first of a home-and-home set. Sacramento will host the Suns on
Sun
Bruins start set with playoff-hopeful Canadiens >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Montreal Canadiens have improved their play recently
and hope to continue that trend tonight, when they visit the Boston Bruins at
TD Banknorth Garden for the finale of a home-and-home series.
Earlier this month, t
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.
Super Bowl XLIII Betting Odds
Super Bowl XLIII, the Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers.Super Bowl XLIII is now set, the Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers will meet each other on February 1st in Tampa's Raymond James Stadium to battle it out for the coveted Lombardi Trophy. The game kicks off at 6:00pm ET on NBC with announcers Al Michaels and John Madden covering the on-field action. Super Bowl XLIII betting odds at online bookmaker MySportsbook.com have the Steelers listed as an early -6.5 against the spread favorite.Super Bowl XLIII Betting Odds
Pittsburgh earned their passage to the big game by beating their division rival, the Baltimore Ravens, 23-14 in yesterday's AFC Championship Game. The Steelers jumped on Baltimore early, building a 13-0 first half lead, and never let up on their way to a fairly easy win. Although the Ravens did close to within two points in the fourth quarter, it never appeared as if they had enough offense to pull off the upset.
The Steelers dominating defense held Baltimore to a total of 198 yards while allowing them to convert just three third downs in 13 attempts. Pittsburgh also forced quarterback Joe Flacco into three interceptions, one of which safety Troy Polamalu returned fourty yards for a touchdown.
The Cardinals, by far the playoff team with the longest odds to reach Super Bowl XLIII, did so yesterday with a 32-25 upset of the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship. Arizona charged out of the gates and built a 24-6 halftime lead that had the Eagles venerable defense reeling. Quarterback Kurt Warner and wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald did most of the damage, connecting on three first half touchdowns.
Arizona, however, could not sustain their momentum and the Eagles took a 25-24 with 10:45 left to play in the fourth. The Cardinals, with the franchise's first Super Bowl appearance hanging in the balance, mounted a fourteen play, 72 yard touchdown drive that consumed 7:52 off the clock. Warner hit running back Tim Hightower on a short screen for the go-ahead, game clinching score that will forever live in Cardinal infamy.
MySportsbook.com's Super Bowl XLIII Betting Odds:
Pittsburgh Steelers -6.5 (-110), Over 46.5 (-110), -260 (Money line)
Arizona Cardinals +6.5 (-110), Under 46.5 (-110), +220 (Money line)
Matt Foust won both of his conference championship plays yesterday and he is ready to serve up plenty of Super Bowl action. Each individual play costs $15.00, however, MySportsbook.com recommends purchasing Matt's NFL Playoff Package which includes all of Matt's Super Bowl props and picks from just $45.00.
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