Rockies P Cook leaves game with injury

Baseball Betting Lines

09/08/2010 - Denver, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Colorado Rockies starter Aaron Cook left Wednesday's game against Cincinnati in the sixth inning after being hit in the right leg with a line drive.

Cook was making his second start since a month-long stint on the disabled list due to a sprained right toe. At the time of his departure, the Rockies were ahead, 9-1, and Cook allowed one run on six hits and a walk with four strikeouts in five innings. He was responsible for the two baserunners.

Esmil Rogers replaced Cook on the mound.

Cashbetting Baseball Betting News

<< Rangers blast Blue Jays to halt losing streak
Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ian Kinsler and Jeff Francoeur ignited the Texas offense, helping the American League West-leading Rangers snap a series of streaks with an 8-1 win over Toronto. Kinsler homered to begin the game and Fran

<< Bonderman solid as Tigers take down White Sox
Detroit, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jeremy Bonderman pitched eight brilliant innings and Alex Avila hit a key two-run double, as the Detroit Tigers topped the Chicago White Sox, 5-1, in the continuation of a four-game series. Bonderman (

<< Wozniacki, Zvonareva advance to U.S. Open semis
Flushing Meadows, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Caroline Wozniacki overcame windy conditions and beat Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova in straight sets Wednesday night to reach the semifinals at the U.S. Open. The No. 1 seed from Denmark won he

<< Cardinals pitcher Miller has forearm strain
Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - St. Louis Cardinals reliever Trever Miller was diagnosed Wednesday with soreness and stiffness in his left elbow. Miller was examined in St. Louis by Dr. George Paletta. An MRI scan revealed a forearm stra

<< Ingram back running, still doubtful
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) -Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram has not returned to practice for No. 1 Alabama and while Nick Saban said the injured running back is unlikely to play against No. 18 Penn State on Saturday, the coach isn't necessarily countin

Twins sweep away Royals, extend AL Central lead >>
Minneapolis, MN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Denard Span punctuated a three-run fifth inning with a two-run triple, and the Minnesota Twins held on to beat Kansas City, 4-3, to complete a three-game sweep at Target Field. J.J. Hardy had two hit

Ljungberg's miss forces Fire to settle for draw with TFC >>
Bridgeview, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Chicago Fire and Toronto FC played to a 0-0 draw at Toyota Park on Wednesday, a result that does little to help the playoff chances of either team. Chicago had the best chance of the match early in t

Braun, Brewers down reeling Cards >>
Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ryan Braun homered and drove in a total of four runs to back Chris Capuano's solid performance on the mound, as the Milwaukee Brewers dominated the St. Louis Cardinals, 8-1, in the rubber match of a th

Braves avoid sweep in Pittsburgh >>
Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Martin Prado, Derrek Lee, and Alex Gonzalez each drove in two runs to back Derek Lowe's solid performance on the mound, as the Atlanta Braves handled the Pittsburgh Pirates, 9-3, to avoid a three-game sweep a

RSL eyes top spot in league against Seattle >>
Seattle, WA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Real Salt Lake entered this season as defending Major League Soccer champions, and according to midfielder Andy Williams, they also had a few goals in mind. "At the beginning of the year, we had our goals wher

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.