11/19/2008 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The fast start by Toronto is a thing of the past and the team has rarely reached the win column since. Tonight the Raptors will try to close out a short two-game road trip on a winning note against the Miami Heat.
Toronto opened the 2008-09 season with three straight wins, but has dropped three of four and five of its last seven games to fall to 5-5 on the year. In Tuesday's 103-90 loss to the Orlando Magic at Amway Arena, Chris Bosh's strong performance was wasted and the Olympic Gold medalist netted a season-high 40 points on 14-of-19 shooting and grabbed 18 rebounds.
Jermaine O'Neal had 16 points and 10 rebounds in defeat. In injury news for the Raptors, guard Jose Calderon is questionable for Wednesday's game.
Miami has alternated wins and losses over its last seven games and will kick off a three-game homestand Wednesday versus the Raptors, Pacers and Rockets.
In Tuesday's 94-87 triumph over the Washington Wizards at the Verizon Center, Dwyane Wade shook off an ankle injury to post 19 points and 10 assists to lead Heat. Rookie Mario Chalmers added 15 points and six assists in the win.
Shawn Marion and Udonis Haslem scored 12 points apiece for Miami.
Toronto handed the Heat a 107-96 loss on November 16 this season at Air Canada Centre and has won five straight and six of the last seven meetings.
The Raptors have won two in a row at AmericanAirlines Arena.
<< Hawks attempt to snap skid against woeful Wizards
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Atlanta Hawks will try regain their early-season form
when they open a short two-game homestand tonight versus the Washington
Wizards at Philips Arena.
The Hawks opened the 2008-09 campaign with six straight wins befor
<< Caps head west for showdown with Ducks
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Washington Capitals will try to get back in the win
column tonight when they continue their five-game road trip with a stop at the
Honda Center to face the Anaheim Ducks.
The Capitals had a five-game winning streak hal
<< Rangers, Canucks clash in NYC
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Eastern Conference-leading New York Rangers will shoot
for a fourth consecutive victory tonight, when they welcome the Vancouver
Canucks for a matchup at Madison Square Garden.
The Rangers are leading the East with 30
<< Surging Bruins welcome Sabres to Beantown
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Boston Bruins will aim for their seventh victory in
eight games when they welcome the Buffalo Sabres for tonight's Northeast
Division clash at TD Banknorth Garden.
Boston, which leads the Northeast with 26 points, had
Spartans visits Mastodons in obvious mismatch >>
Fort Wayne, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The IUPU-Fort Wayne Mastodons have the
privilege of hosting the nation's fifth-ranked team this evening, as the
Michigan State Spartans of the Big Ten come to town.
Michigan State began its season on Sunday
No. 20 Wake Forest hosts UNC-Wilmington >>
Winston-Salem, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 20th-ranked Wake Forest Demon Deacons
welcome the UNC-Wilmington Seahawks to Winston-Salem this evening for a in-
state battle at the Lawrence Joel Coliseum.
The Demon Deacons successfully opened thei
Spartans visit Mastodons in obvious mismatch >>
Fort Wayne, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The IUPU-Fort Wayne Mastodons have the
privilege of hosting the nation's fifth-ranked team this evening, as the
Michigan State Spartans of the Big Ten come to town.
Michigan State began its season on Sunday
Jazz host Bucks in Salt Lake City >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Utah Jazz will try and remain perfect at home Wednesday
when they welcome Milwaukee to EnergySolutions Arena.
Carlos Boozer and C.J. Miles scored 21 points apiece to lead the injury-
ravaged Jazz to an impressive
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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