Raiders release injury-prone Walker; Ellis let go as well
Football Betting Lines
03/08/2010 - Alameda, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Oakland Raiders released wide receiver Javon Walker on Monday, as well as veteran defensive end Greg Ellis.
Walker inked a six-year, $55-million contract with Oakland prior to the 2008 campaign but made just 15 receptions in his two injury-plagued seasons with the Silver and Black. He recorded 196 receiving yards and one touchdown.
The 31-year-old Florida State product has not been the same since an 89-catch, 1,382-yard season with Green Bay in 2004 that saw him record 12 TDs. He has had several operations on his right knee and missed half of the 2008 season after undergoing ankle surgery.
Ellis signed with the Raiders after being released by Dallas following the 2008 campaign. The 34-year-old had seven sacks and 29 tackles in 14 games for Oakland last season.
Selected by the Cowboys with the eighth overall selection of the 1998 NFL Draft, the 6-foot-6, 265-pound Ellis has compiled 84 sacks, 533 tackles and four interceptions in 176 career games.
Richmond, VA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - James Darius scored 12 points and Kent Bazemore added 10 points and five assists, as Old Dominion held on to claim the Colonial Athletic Association tournament title with a 60-53 win over William
<< Cavs edge Spurs without LeBron
Cleveland, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mo Williams had 17 points, eight rebounds and
eight assists, as the Cleveland Cavaliers edged the San Antonio Spurs, 97-95,
in a matchup between shorthanded teams.
The Cavaliers rested LeBron James for a se
<< Grizzlies recall Thabeet after short stint in D-League
Memphis, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Memphis Grizzlies recalled center Hasheem
Thabeet from the Dakota Wizards of the NBA Development League on Monday.
Thabeet, who was drafted second overall in 2009, became the highest-ever draft
pick to be
<< Lions trade for CB Houston; Falcons add sixth-rounder
Flowery Branch, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Atlanta Falcons traded cornerback
Chris Houston to the Detroit Lions for a sixth-round pick in the 2010 draft on
Monday.
The teams also agreed to swap fifth-round picks in the upcoming draft.
H
<< UConn gets record 71st straight win
Hartford, CT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Top-ranked Connecticut won its NCAA-record
71st consecutive game Monday, a 59-44 victory over No.6 Notre Dame in the
semifinals of the Big East Tournament.
It is the longest winning streak in NCA
Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Loui Eriksson scored in the fifth round of the shootout and Marty Turco stopped a career-high 49 shots as Dallas rallied in the third and ended Washington's 13-game home-winning streak with a 4-3 win at Veri
Siena captures third straight MAA title >>
Albany, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Edwin Ubiles recorded a game-high 27 points
along with seven rebounds to help the Sienna Saints past the Fairfield Stags
in overtime, 72-65, to win the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Tournament
Champio
Marion leads Mavs to 12th straight victory >>
Minneapolis, MN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Shawn Marion posted 29 points to go with 14
rebounds, pacing the Mavericks to their 12th straight victory in a 125-112
decision over the lowly Timberwolves.
Dirk Nowitzki and Caron Butler added 24 a
Nets still searching for winning streak, fall to Grizzlies >>
Memphis, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Rudy Gay and Mike Conley each scored 21 points
to push the Memphis Grizzlies past the New Jersey Nets, 107-101, at the FedEx
Forum.
Gay grabbed 10 rebounds, while Marc Gasol also tallied a double-double wi
Gallinari and Knicks squeak past Atlanta >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Danilo Gallinari made four three-pointers and
finished with a game-high 27 points, as the New York Knicks escaped with a
99-98 win over the Atlanta Hawks at Madison Square Garden.
David Lee contributed a
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.”
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Michael Vick is back, Brett Favre isn't and the NFC East remains the best division in the NFC, maybe in all of football.
As players start to gather for the start of another season, some things change and some stay the same in the world of the NFL.
The NFC East has been the dominant division in the National Conference for a while, despite limited playoff success, save for the New York Giants surprise Super Bowl win two seasons ago.
Hell, there's a generation of kids in Texas who have never seen the Cowboys win a playoff game (last win was in 1996).
But collectively, the Giants, Eagles, Cowboys and Redskins (well, maybe not so much the Redskins) are as good as a division gets in an NFC conference that has struggled to stay competitive with the AFC side.
Sports bettors have both acknowledged the NFC East's dominance, as one glance at the NFL future odds menu will show.
Looking over the NFL betting odds at online sports book MySportsbook.com we see the top three teams listed to win the NFC Championship are all from the NFC East:
Dallas Cowboys - 7 - 1
Philadelphia Eagles - 13 - 2
New York Giants - 9 - 2
Slotting in behind these three are two teams from the NFC North: the Minnesota Vikings (15-2) and the Chicago Bears (10-1).
Again, despite the lack of recent playoff success, the Dallas Cowboys are popular with the sports betting community, as they hold 14% of all the money wagered on who will win the NFC Championship.
So far, the New York Giants are the bettors' favorite to represent their conference in the Super Bowl, as they have 24% of the overall NFC Championship betting volume.
And what about the Philadelphia Eagles? For the most part, the Eagles had a very productive offseason, the kind that could bring them back to the top.
They had a good draft adding the likes of WR Jeremy Maclin and RB LeSean McCoy.
Unfortunately, the team received a blow when long-time defensive coordinator Jim Johnson passed away on Tuesday.
But this team will make a real run at the division title this year. Going into the regular season, Philly is listed at +240 to win the division.
Last season the Eagles were 9-6-1 SU and 10-6 ATS.
Teams from the NFC East will play teams from the AFC West in the regular season and the Eagles haven't really been a good bet in the last 20 games against the likes of San Diego, Oakland, K.C. and Denver, only going 8-12 ATS.
Two seasons removed from that Super Bowl title, the New York Giants see themselves listed as the odds-on favorite in NFC East championship futures at +162.
Plaxico Burress is gone and with him all the bad publicity surrounding the gun in the sweatpants incident, but can they replace him in the offense?
Last season the Giants were a very reliable bet going 12-4 ATS.
In the Giants' last 20 games against fellow teams from the NFC East; they are 13-7 ATS.
Dallas is listed at +240 to win the division.
Dallas went 9-7 SU and 7-9 ATS last season and with the amount of talent the Cowboys have, a similar performance won't do.
The Cowboys have been atrocious against divisional rivals, going 6-14 ATS in their last 20.
The Washington Redskins are longshots to win the division at +550.
Visit MySportsbook.com for free sportsbook odds RSS feeds go to MySportsbook.com for all your betting football needs.