10/31/2008 - Flushing, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New York Mets picked up the 2009 option on first baseman Carlos Delgado's contract on Friday.
The 36-year-old's option is worth $12 million.
Delgado finished the 2008 season with a team-high 38 home runs along with 115 RBI and a .271 average, but his Mets missed the playoffs for the second straight year. In the final 85 games of the season, he batted .308 with 27 home runs and 80 RBI.
Over his 16 years in the majors, the Puerto Rican native has 469 homers and 1,489 RBI to go with a .280 average in 2,009 games while donning the uniforms of Toronto, Florida and the Mets. He has hit 35-or-more home runs in seven seasons and has eclipsed the century mark in RBI nine times.
<< Young QBs Square Off in Raiders-Falcons Tilt
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Only a year later. But clearly a world apart.
Over two consecutive Aprils at the NFL Draft, the Oakland Raiders and Atlanta
Falcons charted the course for their respective franchises by selecting
quarterbacks with No. 1 pi
<< Browns Can Get Level With Win Over Visiting Ravens
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Cleveland Browns will try to end a turbulent first-half
of the 2008 season on a high note on Sunday, when Romeo Crennel's squad
welcomes the AFC North rival Baltimore Ravens to town for an important Week 9
clash.
Clev
<< Depleted Cowboys Try to Get By at Giants
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Dallas Cowboys may have saved their season with a
victory last week, but the beleaguered club isn't out of the woods just yet.
The bruised and battered Cowboys' next challenge comes this Sunday at the
Meadowlands, wher
<< Bears Can't Afford to Look Past Winless Lions
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Chicago Bears hope to avoid the dreaded trap game this
Sunday, when they host the winless Detroit Lions at Soldier Field in the
second meeting between the teams this year.
Chicago (4-3), coming off its bye week, enters
Pens' Crosby day-to-day >>
Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Pittsburgh Penguins star center Sidney
Crosby is reportedly day-to-day with an undisclosed injury after leaving
Thursday's 4-1 loss against Phoenix in the third period.
A Pittsburgh newspaper i
Malaga faces toughest test yet against Barca >>
Malaga, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Promoted Malaga looked overmatched early this
season, going winless in its first four La Liga matches without scoring a goal.
But since, the club has won four straight and is coming off a huge victory over
S
Red Bulls face stiff test in first leg vs. Houston >>
East Rutherford, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New York Red Bulls backed into the
2008 Major League Soccer playoffs, and as a result, have to take on the two-
time defending champion Houston Dynamo in the Western Conference Semifinals
series
Cards sign backstop LaRue >>
St. Louis, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The St. Louis Cardinals announced Friday that
catcher Jason LaRue signed a one-year deal for the upcoming season.
The 34-year-old, who was a free agent, spent 2008 with the club as backup to
starter Yadier
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. “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).
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.
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.
MySportsbook.com favors Bears, Bengals, Chargers and Colts to remain perfect
LAS VEGAS , Sept. 28 - Two big match-ups of undefeated teams have fans salivating at the Week Four schedule in the NFL. The Chicago Bears stifling defense looks to provide a less than hospitable welcome to the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday night in a battle of two 3-0 teams in the NFC conference. In the AFC, the San Diego Chargers (2-0) head to Maryland to face the surprising Baltimore Ravens (3-0) as both try to keep pace atop the conference standings. Betting Lines makers at MySportsbook.com, online sportsbook and casino, have set the Bears as 3.5 point favorites while the Chargers are a 2.5 point bet.
Of the three remaining undefeated teams, only one, New Orleans, enters this week's game as an underdog. Despite an emotional and resounding win over Atlanta on Monday night, the Saints are a 7.5 point underdog against the struggling Carolina Panthers. Indianapolis looks to stay perfect when they face the New York Jets as a 9 point road favorite while the Cincinnati Bengals are a 6 point favorite at home to the New England Patriots.
Six teams enter the week still looking for their first win, with a seventh, Tampa Bay, on a bye week. The prospect of dropping another game would not bode well for a potential playoff run. Since 1990, just three teams -- the 1992 Chargers, 1995 Detroit Lions and 1998 Buffalo Bills -- have overcome losing their first three games of the season to earn a postseason berth. And only the Chargers managed to accomplish the feat after starting 0-4.
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your NFL football betting needs.
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