Football Betting

Kings end road trip in Dallas

Hockey Betting Lines

02/12/2012 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Los Angeles Kings will try to end a rough road trip on a positive note when they visit the rival Dallas Stars for today's Pacific Division battle at American Airlines Center.

The Kings are 1-3-1 so far on a six-game swing and they've managed just six total goals during the trip. The most recent result was a 2-1 overtime loss Saturday against the New York Islanders. Mark Streit scored just 96 seconds into the extra session to give the hosts the extra point and the OT setback dropped Los Angeles to 11-8-7 as the guest this season.

Los Angeles enters today three points behind the San Jose for first place in the Pacific and the Sharks have four games in hand over the Kings. LA is also the seventh seed in the West and is two points behind Chicago and just one ahead of Phoenix.

Andrei Loktionov lit the lamp in regulation for the Kings on Saturday, while Jonathan Quick made 23 saves. On the game-winner, Streit skated down the middle of the ice and eluded Milan Jurcina in the high slot before snapping his backhander past Quick.

"It's frustrating not getting the win, but at the same time getting one point can be so critical, especially down the stretch," Kings center Mike Richards said.

The Kings played Saturday without forward Jarret Stoll, who suffered a lower- body injury in LA's previous game against Florida. He has been placed on injured reserve and there is no timetable for his return.

After today's tilt, the Kings will return home for a pair of games against Phoenix and Calgary. LA will then close February by playing four out of five games on the road.

The Stars are seeded 11th in the West and are three in back of Phoenix for the last playoff spot in the conference. Dallas has lost two of three and three of its last five and was dealt a 3-2 shootout loss Friday night in Buffalo.

Dallas grabbed a 2-0 lead early in the third period against the Sabres, but Derek Roy and Thomas Vanek both scored for the home team to send the game to overtime. Nathan Gerbe would eventually end the contest when he scored for Buffalo in the fifth round of the shootout.

Michael Ryder and Tomas Vincour each had a goal for the Stars, while Kari Lehtonen made 30 stops in the loss.

"I think we played a pretty good game overall," said Ryder. "I think we maybe sat back a little too much in the third and gave them the momentum. It was a big point for us, but it would have been nice to get two."

Dallas defenseman Sheldon Souray missed Friday's game with a foot injury and is considered day-to-day.

Today's contest marks the sixth and final scheduled meeting between the Kings and Stars this season. LA won the first two encounters, but Dallas has since won three in a row and posted two of those victories after regulation. The Kings have won seven of nine and nine of their last 12 tests in Big D and Dallas is 15-10-2 as the host this season.


<< Ducks try to bounce back in Columbus
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Anaheim Ducks will try to rebound from a loss tonight, when they play the second test of an eight-game road trip against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena. The Ducks became the 19th straight opponent to los

<< Isles, Panthers clash at the Coliseum
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The first-place Florida Panthers will try to post their first three-game winning streak since early December when they visit the New York Islanders for today's clash at Nassau Coliseum. Florida, which leads Washington by t

<< U.S. finishes off Davis Cup sweep of host Swiss
Fribourg, Switzerland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The United States had already clinched a victory over host Switzerland in their best-of-five Davis Cup tie before capping off the weekend on Sunday with two more singles wins in a 5-0 sweep i

<< Lakers finish Grammy Road Trip in Toronto
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - With a bad case of Linsanity safely in the rearview mirror the Los Angeles Lakers will get back to business and finish their annual Grammy Road Trip north of the border against the Toronto Raptors. The Lakers served as not

<< Jazz start tough stretch in Memphis
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Memphis continues a five-game homestand Sunday when it welcomes the struggling Utah Jazz to FedEx Forum. The Grizzlies improved to 2-1 on the residency Friday when Rudy Gay scored 21 points as Memphis defeated the Indiana

Pens welcome Bolts to Steel City >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Pittsburgh Penguins tied a season-high for goals in a game on Saturday and will try to carry some of that offense into tonight's contest when they host the Tampa Bay Lightning at Consol Energy Center. The Penguins host

Sharks begin epic trek in St. Louis >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The first-place San Jose Sharks will make the first stop on their longest road trip of the season tonight, as they visit the St. Louis Blues in a Western Conference showdown at Scottrade Center. The Sharks lead the Pacific

Red Wings shoot for NHL home record vs. Flyers >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Detroit Red Wings will try to tie the NHL record for consecutive home wins when they shoot for their 20th straight victory at Joe Louis Arena tonight against the Philadelphia Flyers. It's fitting that the Red Wings wil

Last-place Novara stuns Inter at San Siro >>
Milan, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Unfortunately for last-place Novara, it does not play Inter Milan again this season. Andrea Caracciolo scored in the 56th minute Sunday and Novara won for just the third time in Serie A this season - and the

Host Czechs whip Italians 4-1 in Davis Cup >>
Ostrava, Czech Republic (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The host Czech Republic advanced to the Davis Cup quarterfinals with an easy 4-1 victory over Italy this week. The Czechs had already clinched the best-of-five tie with a doubles victory in Ostra

With all the style and sex appeal of Las Vegas, MySportsbook.com is without a doubt the coolest online sportsbook on the Internet.

At MySportsbook.com, players get to enjoy the luxury of a five star sportsbook, a racebook that's second to none, a casino with all the bells and whistles, and a swanky new poker room!

MySportsbook also has a unique games room where players can go head-to-head for cash playing such things as sports trivia and fantasy games, popular arcade games, word and memory games, and more.

Throughout MySportsbook, visitors and members are treated to informative sports news and sports betting stats Sports matchup reports and sports betting trends as well as entertaining columns written by colorful personalities.

The management at MySportsbook has been in the online gaming business since 1997. As a result of this success, management has earned a coveted spot on eGaming Review's "Power 50" list, which recognizes leaders in online gaming.

With MySportsbook.com , management's goal is to provide players with an exciting place to experience the thrill of gaming in a safe and trustworthy environment.

Thus, players at MySportsbook are assured of getting top notch customer service while having a wickedly good time.

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your Sportsbook accepts Visa needs.

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.