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Bruins try to strengthen grip on playoff spot versus DevilsHockey Betting Lines03/30/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Boston Bruins will continue their push for the postseason tonight when they visit the New Jersey Devils for a battle at Prudential Center. The Bruins enter tonight as the eighth and final playoff seed in the Eastern Conference, but they are just two points ahead of Atlanta, which is playing this evening in Toronto. Boston has seven games left on its schedule, giving it a game in hand over the Thrashers. Meanwhile, the Devils, who have already clinched a postseason spot, will try to draw even with Pittsburgh for first place in the Atlanta Division tonight. New Jersey enters Tuesday trailing the Penguins by two points for the division lead as well as the second seed in the East. New Jersey would appear to have the upper hand in tonight's matchup as the Devils are 3-0 against the Bruins this season. Overall, the Devils have taken five of six and nine of 12 in the series. Boston has also lost five of its last six on the road in this series. However, the Devils have just two wins in their last six games (2-2-2) and were handed a 5-1 setback Sunday in Philadelphia. Ville Leino and Simon Gagne each had a goal and an assist to lift the Flyers to the easy win over their division rivals. Ilya Kovalchuk scored the lone goal while Martin Brodeur was charged with four goals on 19 shots over two periods for the Devils. Yann Danis played the third period in net and stopped five shots. "You can't fault Marty for the screened shots," Devils coach Jacques Lemaire said. "We have to do a better job in front of him." As for Kovalchuk, he continues to be productive for the Devils since coming over in a trade with Atlanta last month, posting 20 points (8 goals, 12 assists) in 20 games. Still, Jersey has been less than stellar with the Russian sniper in the lineup, going 9-8-3 with Kovalchuk on the wing. The Devils are 25-10-2 as the host this year and are playing the first of two straight on home ice tonight. Jersey will also welcome Chicago to the Rock on Friday. Meanwhile, Boston has lost two of its last three games and the Bruins failed to pick up a point in Monday's 3-2 loss against visiting Buffalo. Ryan Miller stopped 40-of-42 shots to lead the Sabres to the close victory at TD Garden. David Krejci and Dennis Seidenberg scored for the Bruins. Starter Tim Thomas was pulled after allowing three goals on 14 shots in 26-plus minutes. Tuukka Rask stopped all 19 shots he faced the rest of the way. Rask is expected to get the start tonight. The Bruins have a 18-13-6 record as the visiting team this year, but they have won their last two road tilts.
<< Thrashers try to rebound against Maple Leafs
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The playoff hopeful Atlanta Thrashers will try to bounce back when they visit the Toronto Maple Leafs tonight at Air Canada Centre. The Thrashers enter tonight two points behind Boston for the eighth and final playoff seed
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(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Rangers will try to help their playoff chances alive tonight when they visit the Islanders at Nassau Coliseum for another battle between the New York teams. The Rangers enter tonight as the 10th seed in the East. The B
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Sportsbook Betting LinesWho 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 MadeThe 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 ChangeOnce 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. |
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