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Magic and Celtics renew rivalry in BeantownBasketball Betting Lines02/07/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The latest round of what is quickly becoming one of the best rivalries in the Eastern Conference takes place at TD Garden this afternoon as the Atlantic Division-leading Boston Celtics host the Southeast's top squad, the Orlando Magic. The Celtics avoided what could have been a rather embarrassing loss on Friday when Ray Allen poured in 26 points and drilled a critical three-pointer with two minutes left, as Boston extended lowly New Jersey's woes with a 96-87 win. Rajon Rondo scored 17 points and dished out 11 assists for the Celtics, who have beaten the Nets 12 straight times since the tail end of the 2006-07 season and improved to 2-0 on their current three-game homestand. Glen Davis had 13 points, while Eddie House scored all 10 of his points in the fourth quarter. "I don't know what it was, I mean, we just didn't play well in the first half," Celtics head coach Doc Rivers said. "I thought it was a game that we thought that we could just outscore them." Boston toiled without leading scorer Paul Pierce for the second straight game against New Jersey. The veteran forward, who has been out with a foot injury, will be a game-time decision this afternoon. The Magic, perhaps looking ahead to their matchup with the C's, did suffer an embarrassing setback to the Southeast Division's worst team, Washington, in their last encounter on Friday. Caron Butler fueled a Wizards' comeback over Orlando, scoring 29 of his 31 points in the second half, including the game-winning jumper with a half- second left in regulation, to push Washington to a surprising 92-91 decision at Amway Arena. Butler also grabbed nine rebounds for the Wizards, who trailed by as many as 21 in the contest before outscoring the Magic by 22 in the third quarter to erase the deficit. In a back-and-forth final frame, Orlando's Rashard Lewis nearly spoiled the turnaround by hitting a go-ahead three-pointer with 4.6 seconds to play, but Butler answered with a baseline 19-footer to send the Magic to just their fifth home loss this season. Dwight Howard logged 20 points and 18 rebounds, while Vince Carter chipped in 21 points in Orlando's first loss in five games. "It is flat-out unacceptable," Carter said. "We did a great job of getting ourselves back into the game. But unfortunately, when you have a slippage like that, you're going to lose a buzzer-beater." Lewis had 12 points and his desperation fadeaway following Butler's eventual game-winner was well off the mark. The Magic, who are the reigning Eastern Conference champs, bested the Celts, who were the 2007-08 NBA champs, in Game 7 of the East semifinals last season with a 101-82 blowout win in Beantown, but Boston was without star forward Kevin Garnett. This season, Orlando has gotten the best of the Celtics in two of the three encounters between the two teams, including an 83-78 triumph at TD Garden in November.
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(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Home cooking figures to be key this afternoon as the Toronto Raptors shoot for their seventh consecutive win at Air Canada Centre against a Sacramento Kings team aiming to avoid an 11th straight road loss. The Raptors open
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Terrell Owens could return for Cowboys next game Owens broke the bone leading to his right ring finger Sunday night and had a plate surgically attached to it Monday. Although Owens' hand was swollen and aching Wednesday, Dallas Cowboys coach Bill Parcells said he's optimistic the receiver will be back at work next week and catching passes a week from Sunday against the Tennessee Titans. MySportsbook.com online sportsbook listed Terrell Owens with odds of 7-2 (or $7 paid out for every $2 bet) to return back for the game against Tennessee. "I certainly wouldn't rule it out now," Parcells said, referring to Terrell Owens immediate return. "Maybe five days from now I might, but I wouldn't rule it out now. ... I know we're looking to try to get him moving around pretty good in the next day or so. So we'll see where we are." To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your Sportsbook accepts Mastercard needs.
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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