11/20/2008 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Minnesota Wild will try to match their longest winning streak of the season tonight, when they host the Vancouver Canucks in a Northwest Division showdown at Xcel Energy Center.
Vancouver and the Wild will battle for first place in the division tonight as the Canucks come into this test with a one-point edge over Minnesota for the top spot.
Minnesota has won five of the last seven meetings with the Canucks, but Vancouver earned a 2-0 home win over the Wild on November 8 in the first of six encounters between the clubs this year. The Wild have taken two of three and six of nine against the Canucks on home ice.
The Wild have won three straight contests and tonight they'll try to equal the four-game winning streak that opened up the team's 2008-09 schedule. Minnesota's last two victories have come via the shootout with the latest win coming Tuesday night in Pittsburgh.
Marek Zidlicky netted the game-winning shootout tally to help the Wild post the 2-1 decision over the Penguins at Mellon Arena. Niklas Backstrom also chipped in for the win, making 24 saves and halting each of Pittsburgh's three shootout attempts.
After the overtime session ended with the score knotted 1-1, Petr Sykora's backhand was gloved down by Backstrom to start the shootout. Zidlicky followed by faking backhand, then drifted to his right before sliding a forehand shot around Dany Sabourin. The goaltenders stopped the next two tries, leaving Sidney Crosby with a chance to extend the affair, but his forehand attempt sailed square into Backstrom's left pad to seal the win for Minnesota.
Mikko Koivu was credited with Minnesota's regulation goal after the puck beat Sabourin off a faceoff to help the Wild to their fourth win in five contests.
The Wild, who are 5-1-1 as the host this year, are beginning a five-game homestand tonight.
The Canucks have won two of their last three games and are coming off Wednesday's road victory over the New York Rangers. Alex Burrows had two goals as Vancouver doubled up the Rangers, 6-3, at Madison Square Garden.
Kyle Wellwood, Ryan Johnson, Pavol Demitra and Daniel Sedin also scored for the Canucks, who are 7-1-2 in their last 10 games. Mattias Ohlund collected three assists, while Taylor Pyatt and Jannik Hansen both recorded two helpers.
Roberto Luongo made 39 saves to notch his 11th win of the season. Only Rangers netminder Henrik Lundqvist, who was rested in Wednesday's test, has more wins this year with 12.
Tonight marks the third stop on a four-game road trip for the Canucks, who are 5-4-1 as the visiting club this year. Vancouver will complete the trek Saturday afternoon in Pittsburgh.
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(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Needless to say, Washington's Alex Ovechkin has put his
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(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Calgary Flames had no trouble against the Colorado
Avalanche at home this season. They will now try to carry that success into
Denver tonight, as the two teams wrap a home-and-home set at the Pepsi Center.
The Flames h
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Nalbandian-Ferrer will open Davis Cup final >>
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Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Every sport has its rules. How often
people break them depends on the sport. How frequently people call themselves
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Barry Bonds, Rafael Palmeiro and Mark McGwir
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. “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).
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.
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.
It's less than a month until the NHL hockey betting season opens at MySportsbook.com and preparations are underway for another battle in the race to hoist Lord Stanley's mug in 2007.
As cup crazy fans prepare to place their bets, one online sportsbook ,MySportsbook.com, is offering hockey betting lines on the 2007/2007 Stanley Cup , who will bring it home this upcoming season.
Despite a poor showing in last season's playoffs and the loss of Steve Yzerman to retirement, the Detroit Red Wings are early favourites at this online sportsbook with wagering odds of 6-1. The Wings will look to offensive powerhouse Pavel Datsyuk and newly appointed captain Nicklas Lidstrom to lead one of the league's most prominent franchises.
Always a threat are the Ottawa Senators, with newly acquired goaltender Martin Gerber from the Stanley Cup champion ,Carolina Hurricanes. The Sens are second best in the rankings at a 7-1 bet, and odds makers at this sportsbook are optimistic that the Ottawa squad will fare better than last season's Eastern Conference semi-final upset to the Buffalo Sabres.
Also worth noting are the defending Stanley Cup champs Carolina Hurricanes, a 10-1 bet to repeat. Behind the Canes are the New Jersey Devils, Calgary Flames, Buffalo Sabres, Philadelphia Flyers, and Anaheim Mighty Ducks all sit at 12-1. In the basement are the Washington Capitals, Chicago Blackhawks, and St. Louis Blues who all have 100-1 odds to win.
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your hockey betting needs.
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