The 26-year-old batted .265 with five home runs, 11 doubles and 26 RBI in 121
games during his first full season with the Cubs in 2011.
DeWitt arrived from the Dodgers at the trade deadline in 2010, and in 174
games for Chicago, he hit .258 with nine homers, 20 doubles and 48 RBI.
In addition, the club claimed infielder Adrian Cardenas off waivers from the
Oakland Athletics. The 24-year-old hit .314 in 127 games for Triple-A
Sacramento last season.
<< Alcohol led to Presbyterian player's death
Clinton, SC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - An autopsy has determined the death of a
Presbyterian College football player on Sunday was brought on by alcohol
intoxication.
The Laurens County Coroner's office said Monday that the death of 21-year-old
Kyl
<< Liverpool, Spurs finish goalless at Anfield
Liverpool, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Liverpool and Tottenham played to a 0-0
draw at Anfield on Monday, doing little to improve the ambitions of either
side.
The result leaves Tottenham seven points back of leaders Manchester City
<< Missouri State to visit Kansas State, Louisville
Springfield, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Missouri State football will open the 2012
season by visiting two FBS opponents and play five home games as part of an
11-game schedule announced Monday.
Seventh-year head coach Terry Allen and the Bears wi
<< Lawrie, Stanley soar in world rankings
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Paul Lawrie claimed a four-shot win in
Qatar, while Kyle Stanley erased an eight-shot deficit to come from behind and
win the Phoenix Open on Sunday. With those victories, both players made big
moves i
<< Boeljon moves into top 50 in women's rankings
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Christel Boeljon came from three strokes
back to win the Australian Ladies Masters on Sunday and that helped her jump
16 spots in this week's women's world rankings.
Boeljon, who played in her first
Granada edges Malaga to emerge from drop zone >>
Granada, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Granada climbed out of the relegation zone
on Monday with a 2-1 win over Malaga at Los Carmenes.
With its second-straight La Liga victory, Granada improves to 25 points on the
year to sit tied with Rayo Va
Crosby skates with team >>
Montreal, QC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby
skated with the team on Monday, but did not participate in full team practice
and his status has not changed.
Crosby has been out since December 5 due to concu
BU downs Harvard, gains Beanpot final >>
Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kieran Millan stopped 29 shots and Wade Megan
tallied twice as Boston University took a 3-1 decision over Harvard in the
first semifinal matchup of the 60th annual Beanpot from TD Garden.
Matt Nieto als
Carmelo Anthony leaves game with strained groin >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Knicks star forward Carmelo Anthony suffered a
strained right groin in Monday's game against the Utah Jazz and will not
return.
He suffered the injury near the midpoint of the first quarter as he
No. 24 Louisville routs Connecticut >>
Louisville, KY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chris Smith scored 16 points and Gorgui
Dieng added 15 to lead No. 24 Louisville to a thorough 80-59 throttling of
Connecticut.
Kyle Kuric chipped in 10 points and nine rebounds, while Chane Behanan
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.
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.”
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