Isles try to end road woes in tough test with Canucks

Hockey Betting Lines

03/16/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Vancouver Canucks will try to extend their seven-game home winning streak when they take on a New York Islanders club that will be looking to avoid a ninth straight setback on the road tonight at GM Place.

Vancouver has been on fire since the Olympic break, going 6-1-1 over its last eight games. The Canucks have won the first two contests of a five-game homestand to extend a home winning streak that is sandwiched around an NHL- record 14-game road trip.

The Canucks improved to 25-7-1 at home this year with a 3-1 triumph over Calgary on Sunday that pushed Vancouver's lead over Colorado for first place in the Northwest Division to five points.

Daniel and Henrik Sedin both had a goal and an assist, Ryan Kesler scored and Mikael Samuelsson had an assist as all four Vancouver skaters extended their respective point streaks. Kesler owns the NHL's longest active run at 13 games, a span in which he has amassed six goals and nine assists. Daniel Sedin, meanwhile, has three tallies and 13 helpers over a 10-game run.

Samuelsson, named the NHL's First Star of the Week on Monday, has nine goals and four assists on a seven-game streak and Henrik Sedin has three goals and 10 points over his five-game run.

Roberto Luongo stopped 32 shots for Vancouver, which got all three of its goals in the first period.

"Obviously we came out strong and were playing really well as a team. I don't know what happened after that," Luongo said. "Fortunately we were able to hold on,"

Though they dropped a 2-1 shootout test at New York a season ago, the Canucks are 3-0-2 in their last five games versus the Islanders. Vancouver hasn't lost at home to New York since March 19. 1999, winning three in a row over the Isles as the host.

New York hits the road for four straight having not won as the guest since Jan. 9. The Islanders did just go 2-0-1 on a recent homestand, winning the last two contests to record back-to-back victories for the first time since a four-game win streak from Jan. 9-18.

The Islanders concluded the stand with a 4-1 victory over Toronto, holding the Maple Leafs scoreless on seven power-play attempts while getting a pair of special-teams goals themselves. Matt Moulson notched a power-play tally and Richard Park scored short-handed to go along with an assist.

"We're feeling like we owe each other some kind of results and consistency," said Isles goaltender Martin Biron, who made 26 saves. "That's what we're trying to go. Sometimes you just have that sense that you're loose and you're going to play well. We have that right now."

Tim Jackman and Frans Nielsen also scored for the Islanders, who are seven points behind in the Eastern Conference playoff race.

Wwwfllottery Hockey Betting News

<< Sharks to pay a visit to slumping Stars
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The San Jose Sharks and Dallas Stars will meet three times before the end of March. That isn't likely to help Dallas' playoff chances. The first of those three scheduled meetings takes place tonight, as Western Conference-

<< Oilers hoping to end longtime suffering in Minnesota
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The last thing that the Edmonton Oilers need at this point in the season is a trip to Minnesota. The road-weary club will try to snap its 12-game slide in the Twin Cities, where the Wild shoot for a third straight victory ton

<< Avs hope to continue dominance of Blues
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Strong play on the road this season has kept the St. Louis Blues in contention for a postseason berth. The club hasn't been able to achieve the same success at home, however, and it's had all kinds of trouble when facing the

<< Coyotes visit Tampa with shot at sixth straight win
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A flurry of recent moves have paid instant dividends for the Phoenix Coyotes, who'll be trying to run their current winning streak to six games in this evening's matchup with the Tampa Bay Lightning from the St. Pete Times Fo

<< Panthers shoot for win against Ovechkin-less Caps
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - While the Washington Capitals have already secured a playoff spot, the Florida Panthers have been making a late push for the postseason with their play as of late. The resurgent Panthers aim for their first victory this se

Tiger to make return at the Masters >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tiger Woods will return to competitive golf at the Masters. Woods made a statement Tuesday, saying he will end his self-imposed hiatus from the game at the year's first major championship, set for April 8-11 at Augu

Ohio State extends Tressel's contract again >>
Columbus, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ohio State has extended the contract of head football coach Jim Tressel an additional two years. Under the terms of a previous extension signed in 2008, Tressel had been under contract at Ohio State until Ja

Impressive Return for Lookin At Lucky >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The margin of victory was scant once again, but all Lookin At Lucky does is win races. The two-year-old champion made his 2010 debut a winning one taking the Rebel Stakes last Saturday at Oaklawn

O'Neill thinks Milner could replace Beckham >>
Birmingham, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill thinks James Milner may be the ideal candidate to play on the right side of England's midfield at the World Cup finals in South Africa this summer. The 24-year-old has o

Els back in top 10 of world rankings >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ernie Els' victory Sunday at the WGC-CA Championship vaulted the former world No. 1 back into the top 10 of this week's world golf rankings. Els' win at Doral moved the three-time major winner up

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.

FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million

Football Betting

In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.

And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.

Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.

So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.

Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)

The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.

As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.

The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.

In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.

Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.

And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.

So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.

There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.

So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.

And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.

There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)

Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.

Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.

Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.

So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.

NFL Betting Lines

To visit this sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your college football betting needs.