Boston to get some extra help in Oakland

Baseball Betting Lines

07/21/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Injuries to a number of key performers have caused the Boston Red Sox to lose ground in the American League playoff race. They'll get one of those players back this afternoon, however, with standout pitcher Clay Buchholz set to toe the rubber in today's finale of a three-game road series with the Oakland Athletics.

Buchholz stood among the league leaders in wins when he was forced to exit a June 26 game at San Francisco after just one inning due to a strained left hamstring. The injury also forced the first-time All-Star to miss last week's Midsummer Classic, where he had earned a spot on the AL roster after amassing a 10-4 record in 15 starts along with a 2.45 earned run average that's tops in the Junior Circuit at the moment.

The right-hander enters today's matchup having won seven of his past eight decisions and prepped for this assignment with a 3 2/3-inning rehab start for Triple-A Pawtucket on Friday. Buchholz threw 60 pitches and was reached for a pair of runs on four hits in that game.

The 25-year-old will be making his second career start against Oakland this afternoon and looks to build upon a sensational 5-1 record and 1.70 ERA on the road this year. Buchholz got a no-decision in a Fenway Park clash with the A's last season after letting up a pair of runs in 5 2/3 innings of work.

He'll be getting the call today for a Boston squad that's dropped nine of its last 13 tests following last night's extra-inning setback to the A's. Oakland came through with a 5-4 victory on Kevin Kouzmanoff's RBI single with two out in the bottom of the 10th inning.

Both Kouzmanoff and Jack Cust drove in two runs to help Oakland avenge a 2-1 defeat in Monday's series opener and record its sixth win in seven games. Daric Barton collected a pair of hits and scored the deciding run shortly after singling off Boston reliever Ramon Ramirez (0-3) with one out in the 10th.

"Anytime you can win an extra-inning game it's nice, but when it's against a team like the Red Sox, it's nicer because of how good they are," Athletics catcher Kurt Suzuki remarked afterward.

Andrew Bailey (1-3) did his part as well for Oakland, with the All-Star closer tossing two scoreless innings to pick up the win.

Marco Scutaro finished 2-for-5 with an RBI and two runs scored in Boston's latest loss. The Red Sox enter this evening's play six games behind the New York Yankees for first place in the AL East and 3 1/2 behind Tampa Bay for the lead in the league's Wild Card race.

Gio Gonzalez will attempt to pitch Oakland to a series win, as well as duplicate an excellent performance in his latest start, when he takes the mound for the home team this afternoon. The young left-hander got his second half off to a terrific beginning when he limited Kansas City to one run over seven innings in a 5-1 Athletics' win this past Friday. More importantly, he walked only one batter for the game after issuing four or more free passes in each of his three prior appearances.

Gonzalez improved to 8-6 and lowered his season ERA to a respectable 3.63 ERA with Friday's verdict, and he's been tough on the Coliseum mound as well. In nine home starts thus far in 2010, the 24-year-old has generated a 4-3 record along with a 2.98 ERA.

The former supplemental first-round draft choice has received a pair of no- decisions in two lifetime starts against the Red Sox, including a June 1 affair in Boston in which he was touched for three runs in five innings.

The Red Sox won two of three games from the A's in a series held at Fenway Park earlier this season, but have lost in six of their past eight visits to the Oakland Coliseum.

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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.

Huskers' Lucky hospitalized for undisclosed reason

LINCOLN, Neb. -- Nebraska running back Marlon Lucky was hospitalized Monday for undisclosed reasons after Lincoln police responded to a call at his residence.

The Nebraska athletic department said in a release Monday that Lucky was admitted Sunday night.

MySportsbook.com has the Cornhuskers listed at +2500 to win the BCS National Championship odds.

A nursing supervisor at the hospital said all questions about Lucky were being referred to the athletic department. The athletic department said there would be no further comment from the department or Lucky's family.

A Lincoln Police spokesman said officers responded to a call at Lucky's residence 11:30 p.m. Sunday. The spokesman said he didn't know Lucky's condition at the time he was taken to the hospital.

Lucky, from North Hollywood, Calif., started six games last season as a sophomore and was the team's second-leading rusher, with 728 yards and six touchdowns. He also caught 32 passes for 383 yards. He averaged 19.1 yards on eight kickoff returns.

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