PSV Eindhoven claims top spot in Eredivisie

Soccer Betting Lines

01/27/2012 - Eindhoven, Netherlands (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Dries Mertens scored his 14th goal as PSV Eindhoven defeated Vitesse, 3-1, on Friday to move into first place in the Dutch Eredivisie.

Tim Matavz and Stanislav Manolev also scored for PSV, which could have climbed to the top of the standings last week but settled for a 1-1 draw with Utrecht. AZ Alkmaar can reclaim the lead Saturday with a win at Roda.

Matavz fired PSV into the lead just after the half-hour mark and Mertens added to the lead in the 76th. Mike Havenaar pulled a goal back after 84 minutes for Vitesse, but Manolev sealed PSV's win 3 minutes into stoppage time.

PSV won for the third time in its last four games to move two points ahead of AZ. Vitesse dropped its second straight and is 12 points off the pace.

Also Saturday, Heerenveen hosts Utrecht, NAC hosts De Graafschap, and Heracles hosts Excelsior. On Sunday, Feyenoord hosts Ajax, RKC Waalwijk hosts Venlo, NEC hosts Den Haag, and Twente hosts Groningen.

Niftu Soccer Betting News

<< Phillies, Pence agree for $10.4 million
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Philadelphia Phillies avoided arbitration with outfielder Hunter Pence on Friday, signing him to a one-year deal worth $10.4 million. Pence, who was acquired from the Houston Astros on July

<< Rays sign Keppinger to major league deal
St. Petersburg, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Tampa Bay Rays signed veteran infielder Jeff Keppinger to a one-year deal on Friday. The 31-year-old hit .277 with six home runs and 35 runs batted in over 99 games as he split time w

<< Report: Browns hire Childress as OC
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Cleveland Browns have hired Brad Childress as offensive coordinator, according to a report. Childress will become the first offensive coordinator under Browns head coach Pat Shurmer, NFL.com reported Friday. The f

<< Giants sign infielder Theriot
San Francisco, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The San Francisco Giants signed infielder Ryan Theriot to a one-year, non-guaranteed major league contract. The deal, announced Friday, is pending a physical. Theriot, 32, played in 132 games for the W

<< AC Milan signs Lopez from Catania
Milan, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - AC Milan announced Friday that it has signed striker Maxi Lopez from Catania, possibly signaling the end of the Rossoneri's pursuit of Carlos Tevez. Milan appeared to be in the mix to land the want-away Manc

Bucks' Bogut out with fractured ankle >>
Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Milwaukee Bucks center Andrew Bogut will miss the next 8-to-12 weeks with a fractured left ankle. Bucks general manager John Hammond made the announcement on Friday through the club's Twitter account.

Patriots' defense making the most of spare parts >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A year ago, Sterling Moore was taking in the Super Bowl as a spectator, perched way up in the rafters of spacious Cowboys Stadium as a college senior at nearby Southern Methodist University. The rookie cornerback will have

Hannover gets first Bundesliga win since October >>
Hannover, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mohammed Abdellaoue scored his 10th goal of the season and Hannover edged Nurnberg, 1-0, on Friday at AWD Arena for its first Bundesliga win since October. Hannover had six draws and two losses in its l

Mets sign INF Tuiasosopo >>
Flushing, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New York Mets signed free agent infielder Matt Tuiasosopo on Friday. Tuiasosopo, 25, played sparingly in three major league seasons for the Seattle Mariners between 2008-10 and hit .176 with 15 runs batte

Racing legend Foyt forced to skip Rolex 24 at Daytona >>
Daytona Beach, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A.J. Foyt will miss this weekend's Rolex 24 at Daytona after being hospitalized due to complications from recent knee surgery. Foyt, a four-time Indianapolis 500 winner, was scheduled to serve as G

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.