Pistons' Stuckey cleared to return Friday

Basketball Betting Lines

03/18/2010 - Auburn Hills, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Detroit Pistons guard Rodney Stuckey has been cleared to return to game action, starting with Friday's road game against Indiana.

Stuckey has missed the last six games after collapsing on the bench of a March 5 game at Cleveland. He was taken away on a stretcher and then spent time in a hospital, but tests for any possible life-threatening condition have reportedly come back negative.

Stuckey and Ben Wallace participated fully in practice Thursday and both are expected to be on the court against the Pacers. Wallace hasn't played in the last eight games due to a sore right knee. He is averaging 5.3 points and 9.1 rebounds in 60 contests this season.

A third-year pro, Stuckey is averaging 17.1 points, 4.3 rebounds and 5.0 assists over 62 games this season. He and Wallace are expected to be available as reserves for Friday's game.

Wwwnydailynews Basketball Betting News

<< Arizona makes Reynolds deal official
Tucson, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Arizona Diamondbacks and third baseman Mark Reynolds have officially agreed to terms on a three-year contract extension. The deal will reportedly pay him $14.5 million and also includes an $11 million

<< Rangers manager Washington admits to drug use as player
Surprise, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington on Thursday admitted to using marijuana and amphetamines during his playing career, just a day after admitting to using cocaine during the 2009 season. Washing

<< Cubs' Guzman to have shoulder surgery
Mesa, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Cubs reliever Angel Guzman has decided to have surgery to repair the ligament tear in his right shoulder and will be out indefinitely. The tear was discovered in an MRI exam on March 5th and the right-h

<< Saint Mary's ends tourney drought with win over Richmond
Providence, RI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Omar Samhan led all scorers with 29 points and added 12 rebounds, as Saint Mary's earned an 80-71 win over Richmond in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Mickey McConnell hit five three-pointers a

<< Mack carries Butler past UTEP
San Jose, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Shelvin Mack made seven three-pointers and finished with 25 points, as fifth-seeded Butler pulled away in the second half to take a 77-59 win over UTEP in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Gordo

Sabres-Lightning Sum >>
Buffalo 3 1 2-6Tampa Bay 0 0 2-2First Period-1, Buffalo, Pominville 19 (Roy, Lydman), 5:19 (pp). 2, Buffalo, Myers 10 (Hecht), 13:56. 3, Buffalo, Pominville 20 (Tallinder), 16:23.Second Period-4, Buffalo, Roy 19, 9:25 (sh).Third Period-5, Ta

Brewers' Gamel has tear in shoulder >>
Phoenix, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Milwaukee Brewers infielder Mat Gamel has been diagnosed with a muscle tear in his right shoulder and will be restricted from activity for the next six weeks. The injury occurred in batting practice befo

Jankovic, Stosur move into Indian Wells final four >>
Indian Wells, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic and eighth-seeded Samantha Stosur were both straight-set quarterfinal victors Thursday at the $4.5 million BNP Paribas Open. The sixth-seeded Serbian Jankovic mo

Deep three in final seconds propels Northern Iowa past UNLV >>
Oklahoma City, OK (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ali Farokhmanesh hit a deep three from the left side with 4.9 seconds to play in regulation, and Northern Iowa came away with a 69-66 victory over UNLV in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Faro

Kentucky clobbers ETSU in first-round matchup >>
New Orleans, LA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Eric Bledsoe scored a career-high 29 to go with four steals, and the top-seeded Kentucky Wildcats blew out the East Tennessee State Buccaneeers, 100-71, in a first-round matchup of the NCAA Tournam

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.