Safin sneaks out U.S. opener

Tennis Betting Lines

08/26/2008 - Flushing Meadows, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former champion Marat Safin was a hard-fought first-round winner Tuesday at the U.S. Open.

An unseeded Safin went the distance to get past veteran American Vincent Spadea 3-6, 6-2, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 at Ashe Stadium on the grounds of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

The former world No. 1 and two-time major titlist Safin captured the U.S. Open back in 2000. The big Russian will meet Spaniard Tommy Robredo in the second round.

A mild upset came when former Top-5 German star Tommy Haas erased 12th-seeded Frenchman Richard Gasquet in a splendid five-setter, 6-7 (3-7), 6-4, 5-7, 7-5, 6-2. Haas reached the quarterfinals here in three of the previous four years.

In other action involving Top-16 seeds, No. 13 Spaniard Fernando Verdasco vaulted past Russian Igor Kunitsyn 6-3, 6-4, 6-1, a No. 15 Robredo rolled past German Mischa Zverev 7-6 (7-4), 6-2, 6-1 and 6-foot-10 No. 14 Croat Ivo Karlovic handled Czech Jan Minar 7-5, 6-1, 6-4.

American Sam Querrey posted an upset by dismantling 22nd-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych 6-3, 6-1, 6-2, while 31st-seeded Italian Andreas Seppi edged out Korean Hyung-Taik Lee 6-3, 7-5, 3-6, 3-6, 6-3. Querrey closed out a listless Berdych with his 11th ace of the lopsided match.

Additional opening-round wins came for Finn Jarkko Nieminen, Spaniard Guillermo-Garcia Lopez, Luxembourg's Gilles Muller, Frenchmen Jeremy Chardy, Nicolas Devilder and Florent Serra, Korean Yen-Hsun Lu, and Italian lucky- loser Flavio Cipolla, who replaced 21st-seeded Russian Mikhail Youzhny in the draw and outlasted Czech Jan Hernych 6-7 (2-7), 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (7-0), 7-6 (7-4).

The U.S. Open marks the fourth and final major of the year.

Mysportbet Tennis Betting News

<< Wenger drops signing hint
London, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has dropped a strong hint that he will not be adding to his squad before the transfer window closes at the weekend. The Gunners have been linked with moves for Liverpo

<< Benitez keen to strengthen Liverpool side
Liverpool, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez has revealed he is "working hard" on improving his squad following reports that he is close to signing Albert Riera from Espanyol. The 26-year-old Spain winger has be

<< Cottagers sign Dutch starlet
London, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Fulham have agreed a deal with Fortuna Sittard to sign Danny Hoesen, according to the Dutch teenager. Hoesen, 17, was invited to London for a trial by Cottagers boss Roy Hodgson earlier in the summ

<< Cleveland's Jurevicius placed on PUP list
Berea, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Cleveland Browns put wide receiver Joe Jurevicius on the physically unable to perform list Tuesday. With this move, the 33-year-old is ineligible for the first six weeks of the NFL season. Jurevic

<< QB Edwards returns to practice for Bills
Orchard Park, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Buffalo Bills starting quarterback Trent Edwards returned to practice on Tuesday after missing a week with a thigh contusion. The second-year quarterback missed Buffalo's 20-7 exhibition w

Confidence bubbling to surface for Red-hot Bulls >>
East Rutherford, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - It started out as a small bubble on July 19, when the New York Red Bulls battled to a 2-2 draw with the Los Angeles Galaxy to snap a two-game losing streak in Major League Soccer play. A couple more bub

Edmonton's Harris highlights CFL weekly awards >>
Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A.J. Harris and Dario Romero of the Edmonton Eskimos were among the top players for the CFL for Week 9. Harris earned offensive honors after running for a CFL season-high 189 yards and a score, plus 30

Bears part ways with Manning >>
Lake Forest, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Chicago Bears terminated the contract of veteran cornerback Ricky Manning, Jr. on Tuesday. Manning came to the Bears in 2006 as a free agent and in 31 games, he has posted 106 tackles,

Nationals' Kearns headed back to DL >>
Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Washington Nationals placed right fielder Austin Kearns on the 15-day disabled list Tuesday for the second time this season. Kearns has a stress fracture in his left foot. Kearns mis

Marlins activate Waechter from DL >>
Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Florida Marlins activated pitcher Doug Waechter from the 15-day disabled list on Tuesday. Waechter was put on the shelf on August 11 with inflammation in his rotator cuff. In 39 games this season

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.