Basketball Betting








 
Basketball Betting
 

NBA Basketball Betting

Heat welcome Raptors to South Beach

Basketball Betting Lines

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.


<< Lowly Clippers visit struggling Thunder
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Oklahoma City Thunder are having a miserable start to their inaugural season and will resume a three-game homestand this evening versus the just-as-lowly Los Angeles Clippers at the Ford Center. Oklahoma City is only 1

<< 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

Villanova seeks 3-0 start as Niagara comes to the Main Line >>
Villanova, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 23rd-ranked Villanova Wildcats hope to score their third consecutive victory to open this new season as they host the Niagara Purple Eagles as part of the Philly Hoop Group Classic. Niagara began the seas

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


Albert Pujols to be This Year's Home Run Champ Says Online Sportsbook

Barry Bonds is a 50-1 long shot to be this year's home run champ odds.  The favorite to be this year's home run champ is none other than Albert Pujols, however.

Now that Barry Bonds is signed and in Giants camp, it is on to his pursuit of all of sports most prestigious records: the all-time home run mark. Bonds sits just 21 homers shy of tying Hank Aaron for the career mark at 755. Word out of Giants’ camp is that Bonds is the healthiest he has been in a few years. Bonds is just two seasons removed from his injury riddled 2005 campaign where he played in only 14 games and hit only 5 home runs. He did come back last year and had a solid season hitting .270 with 26 bombs. All eyes will be on Bonds this spring and summer not only because of his home run chase but his highly publicized steroid abuse allegations. If and when Bonds breaks the record, he surely will not get the positive attention one should for breaking a record that was once thought of as “unbreakable”. Despite Bonds decent season last year, he is just 50-1 at MySportsbook.com to lead the MLB in long balls this season.

Not surprisingly, the favorites to go deep the most times this season are Albert Pujols 5-1, Ryan Howard 6-1, David Ortiz 8-1 and Alex Rodriguez 12-1. With 49 homers, Pujols finished second in the National League behind Howard (58). Pujols is considered the favorite due to the consistent power numbers that he has posted since breaking into the league in 2001. Also one must consider the fact that he played in 16 fewer games then Howard did due to an injury. Howard smashed 58 homers in his first complete season of big league play en route to the National League MVP odds award. He silenced his critics by successfully hitting left-handed pitching. Howard also displayed the ability to use his power to the opposite field. Two attributes which should keep Howard amongst the league leaders in long balls for years to come. From the American League representatives, David Ortiz leads the field. Ortiz was second in the majors last year with 54 home runs. Except for 1999 when he only played in 10 games, Ortiz has improved on his home run numbers each year he has been in the majors (1997).

Be sure to log onto online sports betting site MySportsbook.com to check out the odds for who will lead the MLB in home runs this season. Below is just a sample of the players listed. With the highest credit card rates in the industry, MySportsbook.com is the place to bet on baseball this summer.

World Series odds

Adam Dunn 15-1

Albert Pujols 5-1

Alex Rodriguez 12-1

Alfonso Soriano 15-1

Andruw Jones 25-1

Barry Bonds 50-1

Carlos Delgado 40-1

David Ortiz 8-1

Jermaine Dye 40-1

Ken Griffey Jr. 100-1

Lance Berkman 40-1

Manny Ramirez 20-1

Richie Sexson 40-1

Ryan Howard 6-1

Travis Hafner 20-1

Vladimir Guerrero 40-1

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com - this sportsbook accepts credit cards.







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.