Halladay goes distance again, Brown shines in MLB debut

Baseball Betting Lines

07/28/2010 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Outfielder Domonic Brown stroked an RBI double on his first major league swing and Roy Halladay tossed his major league-leading eighth complete game of the season, as the surging Philadelphia Phillies defeated Arizona, 7-1.

One of the most heralded prospects in baseball, Brown was summoned from Triple-A Lehigh Valley after the Phillies disabled center fielder Shane Victorino, who suffered a left abdominal strain during Tuesday's series opener.

The 22-year-old Brown was in the starting lineup for his big league debut, playing right field, and narrowly missed hitting a home run in his first at- bat in the second inning. He went 2-for-3 with a sacrifice fly and scored two runs.

Carlos Ruiz doubled twice and knocked in three runs for the Phillies, who have won a season-best seven games in a row and 10 straight at Citizens Bank Park.

Miguel Montero's two-out RBI double in the ninth inning spoiled the shutout bid for Halladay (12-8), who recorded nine strikeouts and did not issue a walk.

Arizona's Edwin Jackson (6-10) gave up five runs on eight hits and walked two in five-plus innings to absorb the loss, the sixth in a row for the Diamondbacks.

The Halladay-Jackson matchup was the first in nearly 19 years of two pitchers who tossed a no-hitter in the current season. The last occurrence took place on September 6, 1991, when Wilson Alvarez was opposed by Nolan Ryan.

Horsetacing Baseball Betting News

<< Mills picks up first MLB win as Blue Jays sweep O's
Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Brad Mills threw seven shutout innings for his first career win as the Toronto Blue Jays continued their domination of the Baltimore Orioles with a 5-0 win to cap a three-game sweep. Mills (1-0) gave up

<< A's lose Sheets for the season
Arlington, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Oakland Athletics pitcher Ben Sheets will miss the remainder of the 2010 season with a torn flexor tendon in his right elbow. Sheets was placed on the disabled list Saturday, retroactive to July 20, wi

<< Dodgers acquire Podsednik from Royals
San Diego, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Los Angeles Dodgers made a move to bolster their outfield by acquiring former All-Star Scott Podsednik from the Kansas City Royals for two minor league players - catcher Lucas May and pitcher

<< Ohlendorf hit by line drive, leaves game
Denver, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Ross Ohlendorf left Wednesday's game against the Rockies after being struck by a line drive off the bat of Troy Tulowitzki in the first inning. With a runner at t

<< Rays' Zobrist leaves game
St. Petersburg, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tampa Bay Rays infielder/outfielder Ben Zobrist left Wednesday's game against Detroit with lower back stiffness. His availability is being listed as day-to-day. The five-year veteran, playing cen

Jones, Hudson lead Atlanta past Washington >>
Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chipper Jones drove in two runs and Tim Hudson was solid in 7 2/3 innings on the mound, as the Atlanta Braves took down the Washington Nationals, 3-1, in the second test of a three-game set at Nationa

Longoria leads Rays to fifth straight win >>
St. Petersburg, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Evan Longoria homered and Jeff Niemann battled through six innings to lead Tampa Bay to a 7-4 triumph over Detroit in the third installment of a four-game set. Longoria finished 3-for-4 with a walk, tw

Thrashers sign F Eager >>
Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Atlanta Thrashers signed forward Ben Eager on Wednesday. Per team policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed. Eager spent last season with the Blackhawks and posted seven goals and nine assists with 1

Giants' Torres caps big game with winning hit in 10th >>
San Francisco, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Andres Torres capped his four-hit day with a deep bases-loaded single in the 10th inning, lifting the Giants to a 10-9 win over the Florida Marlins at AT&T Park. Torres added a two-run homer

Cahill helps Oakland down Texas >>
Arlington, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Trevor Cahill allowed two hits over eight innings in a dominant performance, and Kurt Suzuki homered and knocked in two runs to guide Oakland in 3-1 win over the Texas Rangers in the middle contest of a th

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.