08/25/2008 - New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols was named National League Player of the Week for the period ending August 24.
Pujols led the NL with a .579 batting average, a 1.105 slugging percentage, a .652 on-base percentage and 10 runs batted in during the week, and was tied for the league lead with four doubles. In addition, the seven-time All-Star was second in the NL with 21 total bases and tied for third with 11 hits and two home runs.
Pujols currently has an eight-game hitting streak and is batting .359 on the season, tied with Atlanta's Chipper Jones for the NL lead.
This marks the seventh time that Pujols has earned NL weekly honors.
Other nominees for the award included Pujols' teammate Yadier Molina, who hit .533 during the week; and Chicago Cubs pitcher Rich Harden, who was 2-0 with an earned run average of 0.64 and 21 strikeouts.
<< Pirates obtain C Diaz
Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Pittsburgh Pirates acquired catcher
Robinzon Diaz from the Toronto Blue Jays Monday as the player to be named in
the August 21 deal that sent infielder Jose Bautista to the Jays.
The 24-year-old
<< SEC - Florida Really the Team to Beat?
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Everywhere you look, it's Georgia this and
Georgia that. The whole world is suddenly in love with the Bulldogs, and both
polls even have them in the number one spot.
Mark it down: They will not defeat the
<< This Week in Golf - August 28th through August 31st
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - PGA TOUR - DEUTSCHE BANK CHAMPIONSHIP, TPC
Boston, Norton, Massachusetts - It's week two for the FedEx Cup Playoffs and
Vijay Singh, by virtue of his playoff win at The Barclays, is the leader in
the race for
<< Dementieva wins at U.S. Open
Flushing Meadows, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Reigning Olympic gold medalist Elena
Dementieva of Russia was among the early winners on the first day of action at
the 2008 U.S. Open Monday.
Dementieva, the fifth seed here, dismissed of Akgul Aman
Dementieva, Davenport win at U.S. Open >>
Flushing Meadows, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Reigning Olympic gold medalist Elena
Dementieva of Russia and former champion Lindsay Davenport of the United
States were among the early winners on the first day of action at
the 2008 U.S. Open Monday.
Logano replacing Stewart in No.20 Car in 2009 >>
Huntersville, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Joe Gibbs Racing named 18-year-old Joey
Logano as driver of the No.20 Toyota in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in 2009.
Logano will replace Tony Stewart, who is leaving JGR at the end of the season
to serv
Cincinnati Bengals 2008 Season Preview >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Cincinnati Bengals' summer has already gone much better
than the organization's spring.
It was April when the Bengals looked to be on the verge of becoming the
"Bungles" all over again.
The beginning of the month sa
Pittsburgh Steelers 2008 Season Preview >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The honeymoon period for Mike Tomlin lasted nine games.
The first-year Pittsburgh Steelers head coach and his team found themselves at
7-2 soon after passing the halfway pole of the 2007 NFL season, and
suggestions that th
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.”
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