Devil Rays' P Jackson leaves game with injury

Baseball Betting Lines

06/19/2007 - Phoenix, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tampa Bay Devil Rays starting pitcher Edwin Jackson left the team's 10-2 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks in the fifth inning when he suffered cramping and fatigue in his right index finger tendon.

Jackson allowed two runs on four hits in 4 2/3 innings and remained winless on the season. If Jackson, who is 0-8 and hasn't won a major league game in 1 1/2 years, held on and got one more batter he would have recorded the win.

Instead, Jason Hammel (1-0) earned the win after tossing 2 1/3 innings of scoreless relief.

Jackson's last win in the big leagues was in September of 2005.

Worldcupbets Baseball Betting News

<< UC Irvine knocks Fullerton out of CWS; Oregon State blasts ASU
Omaha, NE (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Bryan Petersen came through with the game- winning single in the bottom of the 13th inning, as UC Irvine eliminated Cal State Fullerton from the College World Series with a 5-4 victory. The scoring went

<< Blanton leads A's over Reds
Oakland, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Joe Blanton held the Reds to one run through eight innings, and Mark Ellis' three-run homer highlighted a five-run fifth for the Athletics, as Oakland topped Cincinnati, 6-1, in the opener of a three-g

<< Marlins activate Johnson
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Florida Marlins activated pitcher Josh Johnson from the 15-day disabled list and the right-hander started Monday's game against the White Sox in Chicago. Johnson (0-1), in his first start since Septemb

<< Brewers edge reeling Giants
Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Rickie Weeks celebrated his return from the disabled list by going 2-for-4 with an RBI and run scored as Milwaukee survived a late rally to edge San Francisco, 5-4, in the opener of an three- game se

<< Thome homers as ChiSox smack Marlins
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jim Thome hit a three-run homer and A.J. Pierzynski had three hits and drove in a pair of runs as the Chicago White Sox held off the Florida Marlins, 10-6, at U.S. Cellular Field. Jerry Owens scored thre

Gomes, Harris lead D-Rays over D-Backs >>
Phoenix, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jonny Gomes and Brendan Harris both homered as Tampa Bay continued its mastery over Arizona with a 10-2 win in the opener of a three-game set at Chase Field. The Devil Rays are now a perfect 7-0 all-time a

Figgins goes 6-for-6, knocks in game-winner as Angels outlast Astros >>
Anaheim, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chone Figgins' sixth hit sent everybody home, a triple driving in Reggie Willits with the winning run, capping a rally from five down, as the Angels edged Houston, 10-9, to kick off a three-game interle

Tiger becomes a father >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tiger Woods became a father Monday when his wife, Elin, gave birth to a daughter. Sam Alexis Woods is the couple's first child. "Elin and I are delighted to announce the birth of our daughter, Sam Alexis Woods,"

Indiana coach Hoeppner dies >>
Bloomington, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Indiana University head football coach Terry Hoeppner died Tuesday morning following a lengthy illness. Hoeppner, who was 59 years old, twice underwent brain surgery in the last 18 months. "Coach

Tennis Star's Landmark Anti-Doping Trial Starts >>
Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A Boston law firm has gone to court today to clear the name of Guillermo Coria, a top-ranked professional athlete who was suspended from the national tennis circuit in 2001 after testing positive for steroids. Cori

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.