Rays down O's to keep pace in AL East

Baseball Betting Lines

09/03/2010 - Baltimore, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Carl Crawford went 3-for-5 with an RBI and a run scored, as the Tampa Bay Rays beat Baltimore, 4-1, in the opener of a three-game series at Camden Yards.

Evan Longoria, Ben Zobrist and Reid Brignac each knocked in a run for the Rays, who have won five of their last six games. Matt Garza (14-7) gave up a run on five hits and three walks over 5 2/3 innings.

Tampa Bay remained 1 1/2 games behind first-place New York in the American League East standings.

Orioles starter Kevin Millwood (3-15) yielded four runs on seven hits and walked five in 5 2/3 innings to take the loss.

The Rays scored two runs in both the third and fourth innings.

Brignac singled to open the third, took second on a groundout and came home on a two-out single by Crawford. Longoria followed with a double to plate the speedy Crawford.

Matt Joyce walked to begin the fourth, and consecutive one-out singles by B.J. Upton and Brignac produced a run. After John Jaso walked to load the bases, Zobrist lofted a sacrifice fly to make it 4-0.

A sac fly by Felix Pie put Baltimore on the board in the bottom of the fourth.

Tampa Bay relievers combined to allow just two hits over the final 3 1/3 innings.

Rafael Soriano pitched the ninth to register his major league-leading 41st save.

Game Notes

The Rays opened a nine-game road trip...Garza improved to 9-1 in 12 career starts against the O's...Baltimore reliever Mark Hendrickson struck out five in three scoreless innings...Tampa Bay is 10-3 versus Baltimore this season.

Wwwdenverpost Baseball Betting News

<< Jones, Alvarez and Doumit power Pirates past Nats
Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Garrett Jones hit two doubles and drove in three runs, leading Pittsburgh to an 8-5 win over Washington to begin a three- game weekend series at PNC Park. Ryan Doumit homered among three hits for the Pi

<< Texans cut K Brown
Houston, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Houston Texans head coach Gary Kubiak conceded Friday that the team had cut longtime kicker Kris Brown. Kubiak did not want to discuss the whole of the team's cuts at Friday's press conference, saying they

<< Morrison, Miller pace Marlins over Braves
Miami, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Logan Morrison tripled twice, scored two times and drove in a run in support of five solid innings from Andrew Miller as Florida downed Atlanta, 6-1, to being a three-game set. Chad Tracy had a key two

<< Calcavecchia leads First Tee Open by two
Pebble Beach, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mark Calcavecchia fired an eight-under 64 Friday to take a two-stroke lead after the first round of the First Tee Open. Calcavecchia fired his 64 at Del Monte Golf Course, which is one of two courses used

<< Hamels, Ruiz help Phils nip Brewers
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Carlos Ruiz drove in the lone run of the game and Cole Hamels pitched seven strong innings, as the Philadelphia Phillies snuck past the Milwaukee Brewers, 1-0, in the opener of a three-game series

Dodgers' activate Padilla from DL >>
Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Los Angeles Dodgers activated pitcher Vicente Padilla from the 15-day disabled list on Friday prior to the opening of a weekend set with division rival San Francisco. The veteran ri

Bodine's fuel holds up for Kentucky win >>
Sparta, KY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Todd Bodine overcame a spin and then conserved enough fuel at the finish to pull off a stunning victory in the Built Ford Tough 225 Camping World Truck Series race at Kentucky Speedway. Bodine, the curren

Garcia beats Reds again as Cardinals end skid >>
St. Louis, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jaime Garcia kept an unbeaten streak against Cincinnati intact with 6 2/3 effective innings and Jon Jay set the tone with a first-inning triple and run scored, as St. Louis slowed the Reds' roll with a 3-2 win

Printers, Lions beat up on shorthanded Alouettes >>
Montreal, QC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Casey Printers threw a pair of touchdown passes and British Columbia's defense gave Chris Leak fits in his first pro start as the Lions snapped out of an awful funk in a big way with a 38-17 dismant

Broncos' Dumervil out for 2010 season >>
Englewood, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Denver Broncos linebacker Elvis Dumervil will be placed on injured reserve and miss the entire 2010 season after undergoing surgery last month to repair a torn pectoral muscle. Friday, Dumervil p

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.

$12,000,000.00 MARCH MADNESS BRACKET CONTEST

2009 MARCH MADNESS BRACKET CONTEST

Offering $12 Million Dollars to whoever fills in the perfect March Madness Bracket. For the fifth year in a row MySportsbook.com is giving March Madness bettors a chance to never have to work another day in their lives. MySportsbook.com has been in business for 12 years and to celebrate this years March Madness they are offering $1 Million Dollars for every year they have been taking college basketball wagers along with every other sports wagering type imaginable.

The MySportsbook.com March Madness contest is simple just Sign-up for the March Madness bracket contest and come back after Selection Sunday to submit your March Madness picks. Then place $20.00 in wagers during each round of the March Madness tournament. Even if your bracket is not perfect you could potentially still win $10,000.00.

There is not an office pool on the planet that can offer this March Madness Grand Prize. Get together with your office, work as a team or keep the $12 Million and do it yourself and win the $12 Million. Also feel free to print out the Printable March Madness Brackets .

Get free 2009 March Madness Betting from top rated online sportsbook MySportsbook.com. Mysportsbook.com online March Madness betting VISA Mastercard