Hamlin wins at Pocono again

Autoracing Betting Lines

06/06/2010 - Long Pond, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Denny Hamlin held off Tony Stewart and teammate Kyle Busch in a pair of late-race restarts to win Sunday's Gillett Fusion ProGlide 500 at Pocono Raceway.

Just before Hamlin crossed the line to take the white flag for the final lap, Kevin Harvick bumped Joey Logano and put Logano into a spin to setup a green- white-checkered finish.

After the final restart, Hamlin pulled away from the field, while Busch passed Stewart for second one lap away from the finish.

A multi-car crash involving at least 10 drivers on the final lap ended the race under caution, with Hamlin picking up his fourth win at Pocono. He won at this unique 2.5-mile triangular track last August.

Hamlin now leads the Sprint Cup Series with four victories so far this season.

Busch gave Joe Gibbs a 1-2 finish at Pocono. Stewart, the defending race winner, took the third spot, followed by points leader Harvick and four- time defending series champion Jimmie Johnson.

Harvick now holds a 19-point lead over Busch. Hamlin is now 136 points behind the leader.

Wwwentercasino Autoracing Betting News

<< Jimenez's scoreless streak ends, but still wins 11th
Phoenix, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ubaldo Jimenez extended his scoreless streak to 33 consecutive innings before it was broken in the eighth, helping Colorado pull out a 3-2 victory over the Diamondbacks. Jimenez (11-1) shut down the D'Bac

<< A's edge Twins to avoid sweep
Oakland, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kevin Kouzmanoff had three hits, scored a run and drove in a run to support a solid seven innings from Gio Gonzalez, as Oakland beat Minnesota, 5-4, to salvage the last of a three-game set at the Coliseu

<< Marlins to call up top prospect Stanton
Flushing, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Florida Marlins announced Sunday that they will select the contract of top prospect Mike Stanton in time for the 20-year- old to make his major league debut on Tuesday in Philadelphia. Stanton, a second-ro

<< Price earns 2nd Champions Tour win of season
West Des Moines, IA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Nick Price captured his second victory of the season with a four-under 67 Sunday to win the Principal Charity Classic. Price finished with a 14-under 199 on the Glen Oaks course to beat Champions Tour

<< Baltimore tops Boston in 11th; Samuel gets first win
Baltimore, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Nick Markakis' run-scoring single in the 11th inning lifted Baltimore to a 4-3 win over Boston, snapping the Orioles' 10- game losing streak and giving Juan Samuel his first victory as the team's manager

Jaso, Upton pace Rays over Rangers >>
Arlington, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - John Jaso had three hits, including a home run, and drove in five runs, and B.J. Upton collected three hits, scored three times, stole a base and knocked in a run to power Tampa Bay past Texas, 9-5, to salv

Ellis helps Dodgers earn split with Braves >>
Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A.J. Ellis hit a game-winning RBI single in the bottom of the 11th inning, as the Los Angeles Dodgers edged the Atlanta Braves, 5-4, to split a four-game series. James Loney went 2-for-5 with two runs

Napoli helps Angels complete sweep of Mariners >>
Seattle, WA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mike Napoli's two-run homer in the seventh broke a tie, and the Los Angeles Angels swept the Seattle Mariners in three games with a 9-4 win at Safeco Field. Napoli matched career-highs with four hits

Song earns 1st Duramed Futures title >>
Cedar Rapids, IA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Christine Song shot a flawless five-under 67 to capture her first professional win Sunday at the Ladies Titan Tire Challenge on the Duramed Futures Tour. Song finished three rounds on the Hunters

Mackenzie captures 1st Canadian Tour win >>
Victoria, BC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Brock Mackenzie birdied the 18th hole Sunday to shoot a four-under 66 and capture his first Canadian Tour win at the Times Colonist Open. Mackenzie finished with a 14-under 266 on the Uplands course to edge pa

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.