North Carolina, UConn lend big names NIT field

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

03/14/2010 -

NEW YORK (AP) -North Carolina and Connecticut are lending some serious star power to the NIT.

The Tar Heels were a No. 4 seed in the bracket released Sunday, the second time in the past three years that the defending national champion missed the NCAA tournament. Florida also played in the NIT in 2008 after winning the title.

Connecticut is the other blueblood relegated to the NIT, also picked as a fourth seed after a trying season in which coach Jim Calhoun missed time with a medical condition.

The No. 1 seeds were Illinois, Arizona State, Virginia Tech and Mississippi State, which lost in overtime to Kentucky in the SEC title game on Sunday.

The tournament begins March 16 at campus sites. The championship game is April 1 at Madison Square Garden.Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

Wwwwilottery NCAA Basketball Betting News

<< Messi's hat trick leads Barca over Valencia
Barcelona, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Lionel Messi had second-half hat trick and Barcelona beat Valencia 3-0 on Sunday in a clash of top-three clubs in Spain's La Liga at the Camp Nou. Messi scored in the 56th, 81st and 83rd minutes to incre

<< Isles finally win back-to-back games, top Leafs
Uniondale, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Richard Park posted a goal and an assist, while Blake Comeau added three helpers, and the Islanders recorded back-to- back wins for the first time in nearly two months with a 4-1 win over Toronto. Matt

<< Gonchar caps Penguins rally over Lightning
Tampa, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Sergei Gonchar notched the game-winning score early in the third period, as Pittsburgh clipped Tampa Bay, 2-1, at St. Pete Times Forum. Pascal Dupuis also tallied for the Penguins, who snapped a two-game s

<< Seedorf's late goal leads AC Milan over Chievo
Milan, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Substitute Clarence Seedorf scored in injury time and AC Milan edged Chievo 1-0 on Sunday at the San Siro to close within one point of Inter Milan for first place in Italy's Serie A. Seedorf entered the ma

<< Streelman, Collins share lead in Puerto Rico
Rio Grande, Puerto Rico (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kevin Streelman and Chad Collins were atop the leaderboard Sunday at 12-under par when the third-round of the rain-delayed Puerto Rico Open was suspended for the day due to darkness. Rain delay

Coyotes nip Thrashers in SO >>
Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Adrian Aucoin scored the game-winning goal in the fourth round of the shootout, as the Phoenix Coyotes edged the Atlanta Thrashers, 3-2, at Philips Arena. Rich Peverley got Atlanta on the board with a

Raiders acquire LB Wimbley from Cleveland >>
Alameda, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Oakland Raiders announced Sunday that they have acquired linebacker Kamerion Wimbley from the busy Cleveland Browns for an undisclosed draft choice. While the draft choice remains undisclosed officially,

Report: Beckham to miss World Cup due to Achilles tear >>
Milan, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - English superstar soccer player David Beckham will reportedly miss the World Cup in June after suffering an apparent tear to his left Achilles while playing for AC Milan. The injury occurred Sunday night in a

Bobcats win sixth straight, snap Orlando's eight-game win streak >>
Orlando, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Stephen Jackson recorded 28 points, six rebounds and as many assists, as Charlotte matched a franchise-best winning streak with its sixth straight win, 96-89, over Orlando. Raymond Felton checked i

Wade carries Heat over Sixers >>
Miami, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Dwyane Wade poured in 38 points on 14-of-25 shooting, pacing Miami to a 104-91 wire-to-wire victory over the Philadelphia 76ers. Udonis Haslem added 13 points and 12 rebounds, and Carlos Arroyo chipped in

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.