A's activate Bailey from DL

Baseball Betting Lines

08/22/2010 - Oakland, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Oakland Athletics reinstated pitcher Andrew Bailey from the 15-day disabled list on Sunday.

Bailey was placed on the DL on July 30, retroactive to July 21, with a right intercostal strain. In his final appearance, he picked up the win with two scoreless relief innings against the Red Sox on July 20.

For the year, the right-hander is 1-3 with a 1.56 earned run average and 20 saves in 23 chances.

To make room on the roster, the A's optioned pitcher Ross Wolf to Triple-A Sacramento. The 27-year-old has yet to record a decision in four appearances with Oakland this year, the last coming on July 29 at Texas.

Wwwstartribune Baseball Betting News

<< Lane wins Scottish Senior Open
St. Andrews, Scotland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Barry Lane only managed an even-par 72 on Sunday, but it was enough to get the victory at the Scottish Senior Open. Lane finished the tournament at four-under 212 and won by four strokes a

<< Fulham earns draw with United on Hangeland's late header
London, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Brede Hangeland's header in the 89th minute helped Fulham claim a 2-2 draw against Manchester United at Craven Cottage on Sunday. The goal came just five minutes after Hangeland put his team behind with

<< Brewers' Hawkins to have surgery
Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Milwaukee Brewers announced reliever LaTroy Hawkins will undergo surgery on Friday to repair the labrum in his right shoulder. The procedure will be performed by Dr. Lewis Yocum in Los Angeles.

<< Scully to broadcast for 62nd season
Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully will return to the broadcast booth for the Los Angeles Dodgers for a 62nd season in 2011, the team announced Sunday. "I'm just honored and humbled to continue my

<< Mets send C Barajas to Dodgers
Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New York Mets assigned catcher Rod Barajas to the Los Angeles Dodgers on a waiver claim Sunday. The 34-year-old backstop batted .225 with 12 homers and 34 runs batted in over 74 games with the Me

Bengals sign White as insurance for injured safety Wilson >>
Cincinnati, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Cincinnati Bengals signed safety Marvin White Sunday with the belief that veteran newcomer Gibril Wilson may be lost for the season with a knee injury. Wilson's agent, Alvin Keels, had previously po

Berg's brace leads PSV past AZ Alkmaar >>
Eindhoven, Netherlands (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Marcus Berg scored a pair of goals to lead PSV Eindhoven to a 3-1 win over AZ Alkmaar at Philips Stadium on Sunday. Berg scored the opener in the 43rd minute, and after AZ's Erik Falkenb

Strasburg throws Sunday, headed for MRI in D.C. >>
Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Nationals rookie hurler Stephen Strasburg reportedly felt no discomfort in going through a normal workout routine ahead of his scheduled MRI exam back in Washington, D.C. Sunday. The Washi

Leverkusen enjoys successful start at Dortmund >>
Dortmund, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Bayer Leverkusen used first-half goals from Tranquillo Barnetta and Renato Augusto to earn a 2-0 win over Borussia Dortmund at Signal Iduna Park on Sunday. The visitors came within inches of taki

Dodgers activate Weaver from disabled list >>
Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Los Angeles Dodgers have reinstated pitcher Jeff Weaver from the 15-day disabled list. He was placed on the DL August 3 with tendinitis in his left knee. The veteran right-hander is 5-1 with

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.