Lavender leads Ohio State to Big Ten title

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

03/07/2010 - Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jantel Lavender posted 35 points and 10 rebounds, leading 10th-ranked Ohio State to the Big Ten Tournament title with a 66-64 win over Iowa.

Lavender went 14-of-25 from the field and was named the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament, as Ohio State (30-4) clinched an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament with its ninth win in 10 games.

Tayler Hill added 14 points in the victory, which was cemented by a pair of Lavender free throws with one second remaining.

Kamille Wahlin scored 20 points but missed a potential game-winning three- pointer for Iowa (19-13), which finished tied for the third-best record in the conference during the regular season at 10-8. Kelly Krei had 18 points and eight boards, while Kachine Alexander had 13 points and seven rebounds in defeat.

The Hawkeyes led for nearly the entire game and looked primed for the upset, holding a 49-33 lead early in the second half.

The Buckeyes, though, were able to whittle away at their deficit and eventually tied the game at 60-60 on a Samantha Prahalis layup with just over five minutes to go.

The game remained tied, 64-64, with 1:20 to go after a Lavender layup, but Jamie Printy was unable to hit a jumper that would have put Iowa in front. After a Hawkeyes turnover, Lavender was fouled and drilled both attempts at the line for a two-point lead with only a second to go.

Iowa had one last shot out of a timeout, but Wahlin's three was off the mark.

Wallstretsports NCAA Basketball Betting News

<< Browns add LB Fujita, OL Pashos
Cleveland, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Cleveland Browns added a pair of free agents in linebacker Scott Fujita and offensive lineman Tony Pashos on Sunday, signing both to multi-year contracts. Fujita played last year for the Super Bow

<< Bruins' Savard leaves game on stretcher
Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Boston Bruins forward Marc Savard left Sunday's 2-1 loss to the Penguins on a stretcher after being drilled by Pittsburgh's Matt Cooke. Cooke, who is known for his physical nature, caught an un

<< Morgan, Spartans earn share of Big Ten title with rout of Michigan
East Lansing, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Raymar Morgan led all scorers with 22 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, as 11th-ranked Michigan State claimed a share of the Big Ten regular-season title with a 64-48 rout of conference rival M

<< NFL suspends free agent DT Ferguson
Miami, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The National Football League has reportedly suspended defensive tackle Jason Ferguson for the first eight games of the 2010 season for a violation of the league's performance enhancing drug program

<< Magic survive Kobe, Lakers to win fifth straight
Orlando, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Vince Carter scored a team-high 25 points, and Dwight Howard added 15 points and 16 rebounds, as the Orlando Magic escaped with a 96-94 win over the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers in a rematch of last

Couples gets second Champions Tour win >>
Newport Beach, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Fred Couples captured his second Champions Tour win Sunday at the Toshiba Classic, just three weeks after breaking through for his first. Three starts, two wins. It's been an explosive debut on the over-5

Pavlyuchenkova downs Hantuchova to win at Monterrey >>
Monterrey, Mexico (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Third-seeded Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova won her second match of the day on Sunday to capture the title at the $220,000 Monterrey Open. Pavlyuchenkova rallied from a first-set loss t

Legace, Hurricanes blank Thrashers >>
Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Manny Legace stopped 27 shots to pick up his first shutout of the season, as the Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Atlanta Thrashers, 4-0, in a Southeast Division showdown at Philips Arena. Jussi Jokinen h

Field and Eskendereya top second Kentucky Derby Future Wager >>
Louisville, KY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The mutuel field and Fountain of Youth champ Eskendereya came up as the top two selections at the close of betting of the second Kentucky Derby Future Wager of 2010. The third and final Future Wager takes p

Pistons rally vs. Rockets, snap six-game skid with OT win >>
Auburn Hills, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tayshaun Price provided a season-high 29 points and 10 rebounds and spearheaded a late comeback in regulation, and the Detroit Pistons edged the Houston Rockets in overtime, 110-107, at the Palace at Aubu

Terrell Owens could return for Cowboys next game
A bye week will allow Terrell Owens broken hand to recover just in time for the next game the Dallas Cowboys are slated to play, according to reports. MySportsbook.com, an football sportsbook, has posted football betting lines on TO playing.

Owens broke the bone leading to his right ring finger Sunday night and had a plate surgically attached to it Monday. Although Owens' hand was swollen and aching Wednesday, Dallas Cowboys coach Bill Parcells said he's optimistic the receiver will be back at work next week and catching passes a week from Sunday against the Tennessee Titans.

MySportsbook.com online sportsbook listed Terrell Owens with odds of 7-2 (or $7 paid out for every $2 bet) to return back for the game against Tennessee.

"I certainly wouldn't rule it out now," Parcells said, referring to Terrell Owens immediate return. "Maybe five days from now I might, but I wouldn't rule it out now. ... I know we're looking to try to get him moving around pretty good in the next day or so. So we'll see where we are."

Owens did not speak with reporters Wednesday, but said Sunday he'd be out two to four weeks. A return against the Titans would be 13 days after the surgery. The Cowboys were listed as an early -7 1/2 favorite vs. the Tennessee Titans for Week 4 at MySportsbook.com

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your Sportsbook accepts Mastercard 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.