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St Etienne eases relegation worries

Soccer Betting Lines

02/07/2010 - Saint Etienne, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - St Etienne moved seven points clear of the bottom three on Sunday with a comfortable 3-0 win over Monaco at the Geoffroy Guichard Stadium.

Blaise Matuidi had the home side in front after 14 minutes, and goals from Gonzalo Bergessio and Emmanuel Riviere in the final 15 minutes sealed the win, which is only the second in 11 games for St Etienne.

Monaco could have moved into third with a win, but they are now sixth, level on 39 points with Auxerre and Marseille.

St Etienne entered the game without a goal in its last six home contests, but that streak came to an end in the 14th minute when some good work by Dimitri Payet allowed Matuidi to fire into the bottom corner of the net from 10 yards.

Bakary Sako came close to doubling the lead before halftime when his volley sailed inches wide of the post, while both goalkeepers needed to be alert to keep the match at 1-0.

St Etienne's Jeremie Janot kept out a good effort from Thomas Mangani, with Monaco netminder Stephane Ruffier doing well to keep out Bergessio's shot.

Ruffier was unable to prevent Bergessio from scoring 15 minutes from time, however, as he easily beat the keeper with a side-footed shot after a good pass from Riviere.

The hosts remained two goals ahead when defender Yohan Benalouane cleared a header off the goal line from Yannick Sagbo, and the lead was extended to three goals right before the final whistle with a great individual goal from Riviere.

Lyon remained in fourth place as they were held to a 0-0 draw at Toulouse, while Marseille pounded Valenciennes, 5-1.


<< Mallorca moves into top four
Mallorca, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mallorca took over fourth place in the La Liga table on Sunday as Jose Carlos Nunes scored in the 81st minute of a 1-0 win over Villarreal at the Son Moix Stadium. Mallorca entered the match having wo

<< Syracuse thumps Cincinnati on the road
Cincinnati, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Andy Rautins had 20 points, as third-ranked Syracuse downed Cincinnati, 71-54, at Fifth Third Arena. Kris Joseph had 17 points, while Scoop Jardine and Arinze Onuaku each chipped in with 11 points for t

<< Ohio State rallies in second half to clip Lady Lions
University Park, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Samantha Prahalis hit five three- pointers and scored 26 points to pair with 12 assists, as No. 8 Ohio State rallied from down 14 in the second half to secure an 86-73 win over Penn State.

<< Ovechkin's hat trick keys Caps' OT comeback over Pens
Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mike Knuble scored on the power-play with 2:11 remaining in overtime, and Alex Ovechkin recorded a hat trick, as the Washington Capitals fought back from a three-goal deficit to edge Pittsburgh, 5-4, an

<< UConn rolls on with 46-point win
Louisville, KY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tina Charles scored 20 points and Maya Moore added 16, as top-ranked Connecticut demoralized Louisville on the road in an 84-38 romp at Freedom Hall. The Huskies (23-0, 10-0 Big East) took a commanding 5

Udinese tops Napoli with Di Natale's late heroics >>
Udine, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Antonio di Natale scored two goals in stoppage time to complete a hat trick as Udinese beat Napoli, 3-1, on Sunday at the Stadio Friuli. Di Natale put Udinese in front after seven minutes when he followed

NFL Inactives (Sunday, February 7, 2010) >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The following is a list of inactive players for Super Bowl XLIV in Miami. NEW ORLEANS SAINTS VS. INDIANAPOLIS COLTS, 6:25 P.M. (ET) Saints - 3rd QB Chase Daniel, TE Darnell Dinkins, RB Lynell Hamilton, T

Freeney active for Super Bowl >>
Miami, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Indianapolis Colts defensive end Dwight Freeney is listed as active for the Super Bowl despite a right ankle injury. Freeney hasn't practiced all week due to a third-degree sprain and torn ligament in h

Sharks get D Wallin from Carolina >>
San Jose, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The San Jose Sharks made a trade on Sunday, acquiring defenseman Niclas Wallin and a fifth-round pick in the 2010 draft from the Carolina Hurricanes for a second-round pick in the 2010 draft. Wallin, a

Carter leads Magic over Boston >>
Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Vince Carter led a balanced attack with 20 points and Dwight Howard logged 16 points and 13 rebounds despite battling foul trouble, as Orlando rallied back from an 11-point halftime deficit to beat Bo

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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