Athletics lose Sweeney for season

Baseball Betting Lines

07/19/2010 - Oakland, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Oakland Athletics will be without their leading hitter, Ryan Sweeney, for the rest of the season after he elected to have surgery on at least one of his ailing knees.

It was announced earlier Monday that Sweeney was placed on the 15-day disabled list with right patella tendinitis. The A's official website indicated he had a cortisone shot for the knee last Monday and received platelet-rich injections during the All-Star break to no avail.

Sweeney was quoted on the site as saying, "it wasn't a matter of if I needed the surgery. It was a matter of when I was going to get it. So we just had to make that decision."

The surgery is not yet scheduled, but is to be performed by Dr. Richard Steadman in Vail, Colorado. The recovery time is expected to take 4-to-6 months. Sweeney will also have his left knee examined, and a second surgery is not out of the question.

The 25-year-old batted .294 with one home run and 36 runs batted in over 82 games this season. In 364 career games with the Chicago White Sox and Oakland, Sweeney is a .286 hitter with 13 home runs and 144 RBI.

Cbssportslinr Baseball Betting News

<< Seven-run third inning propels Rays to win over O's
Baltimore, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Wade Davis threw eight strong innings and was backed by a seven-run third inning, as the Tampa Bay Rays crushed the Baltimore Orioles, 8-1, in the opener of a three-game series at Camden Yards. Davis

<< Donnie Murphy homers in ninth to lift Marlins over Rockies
Miami, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Pinch-hitter Donnie Murphy hit a two-run homer off Huston Street in the bottom of the ninth, as the Florida Marlins edged the Colorado Rockies, 9-8, in the opener of a four-game series at Sun Life Stadium

<< Pujols, Cardinals charge past Phillies
St. Louis, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Albert Pujols crushed a two-run homer as part of a five-run fifth inning, and the St. Louis Cardinals overcame an early deficit to beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 8-4, in the opener of a four-game series

<< Tigers lose 3B Inge for 4-6 weeks with hand fracture
Detroit, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Detroit's Brandon Inge was hit on the left hand by a pitch in Monday's game versus Texas and suffered a non-displaced fracture of the fifth metacarpal bone. He's expected to miss the next 4-to-6 weeks. Rangers

<< Rangers' Nippert takes line drive off head
Detroit, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Texas Rangers reliever Dustin Nippert was drilled on the side of the head by a line drive off the bat of Austin Jackson during Monday's game versus the Tigers at Comerica Park. The right-hander tried in

Cueto pitches, hits Reds past Nats >>
Cincinnati, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Johnny Cueto pitched six innings to win his third consecutive decision and singled in two runs to lead Cincinnati over Washington, 7-2, to start a four-game series at Great American Ball Park. Cueto (9

Barnes apparently to play for Raptors >>
Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Free agent forward Matt Barnes has apparently agreed to play for the Toronto Raptors. Barnes posted on his Twitter account Monday that he will be playing for the Raptors next season. He thanked the Orla

Astros use 17-hit attack to defeat Cubs >>
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Carlos Lee slapped a two-run double to highlight a five-run first inning, as Houston capitalized early on mistakes from Carlos Silva and beat the Chicago Cubs, 11-5, to begin a three-game set at Wrig

Capuano picks up win as Brewers down Pirates >>
Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Rickie Weeks hit a two-run homer and Chris Capuano picked up his first win in over three years, as the Milwaukee Brewers earned a 3-1 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates in the opener of a four-game series

Callaspo's hit lifts Royals over Blue Jays in 10 >>
Kansas City, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jason Kendall lofted a game-tying sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 10th inning and Alberto Callaspo singled home the winning run, as the Kansas City Royals rallied to beat Toronto, 5-4, in the opener

NFL Football Office Pool Printable Schedules
MySportsbook.com , leading online sportsbook, offers free NFL football office pool printable sheets! Run your own NFL Football Office Pool. Create your own pool, invite your friends to join. Compete with your with co-workers, friends or family for bragging rights every week. Exchange some hard hits without risk of injury -- Trash Talk with your fellow co-workers.
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your football sportsbook needs.

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.