Butler leads WVU over Hoyas

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

03/01/2010 - Morgantown, WV (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Da'Sean Butler filled the stat sheet in his final game at WVU Coliseum, totaling 22 points, six rebounds and six assists to lead No. 10 West Virginia to an 81-68 victory over the struggling 19th-ranked Georgetown Hoyas.

The Mountaineers (23-6, 12-5 Big East) clinched a double-bye in the Big East Tournament with the win and currently sit in third place in the conference standings, a half-game ahead of Pittsburgh and a half-game behind the Villanova Wildcats, who they visit in the regular season finale on Saturday.

Devin Ebanks and Kevin Jones scored 15 and 14 points, respectively, for West Virginia, which received 11 points from Darryl Bryant in its fourth win in five games.

The Hoyas (19-9, 9-8), ranked eighth in the country just three weeks ago, have lost four of their last five, dropping them to seventh in the conference.

Austin Freeman, Georgetown's leading scorer at 17.0 ppg, did not dress because of a stomach virus, the same illness that forced him to play limited minutes in a 14-point home loss to Notre Dame on Saturday.

Greg Monroe and Chris Wright tallied 22 and 21 points, respectively, for the Hoyas, who committed 20 turnovers in the setback.

West Virginia expanded its three-point lead midway through the first half with a 13-3 run. Butler had six points on the spurt, which was capped by Bryant's finger-roll for a 27-14 advantage with seven minutes left.

The margin reached 41-21 on a Casey Mitchell three-pointer with two minutes remaining in the stanza.

Georgetown turned the ball over 12 times in the opening 20 minutes, leading to 14 points the other way en route to a 43-26 differential at the break.

The Hoyas failed to make any adjustments in the locker room, as they had four giveaways in the first three minutes of the second half. Jones fueled the subsequent 10-0 WVU flurry, with his jumper yielding a healthy 53-26 cushion.

A nine-point run for Georgetown a little later kept the Mountaineers on their toes, but the hosts still led comfortably until the final five minutes.

A Jason Clark bucket finished an 8-0 Georgetown spurt to get as close as 62-53, but Butler followed with two free throws and a contested layup to push the margin back to double-digits with 3 1/2 minutes to play.

The hosts led by at least 10 the rest of the way.

Game Notes

The Mountaineers finished 12-2 at WVU Coliseum this season, while the Hoyas went 6-5 in true road games...The Hoyas end their regular season at home against Cincinnati on Saturday...Monroe also had nine rebounds for the Hoyas, while Wright handed out seven assists and grabbed six caroms...West Virginia committed nine turnovers.

Ganblenet NCAA Basketball Betting News

<< UConn closes in on record; Charles reaches milestone
South Bend, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tina Charles posted 18 points and eight rebounds while becoming the Huskies' all-time leading scorer and rebounder, as top-ranked Connecticut finished off its second straight undefeated regular season

<< Bears waive OL Pace
Lake Forest, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Chicago Bears waived offensive tackle Orlando Pace, tight end Fontel Mines, and guard Tyler Reed on Monday. Pace, a veteran of 13 NFL seasons, started in 11 games at left tackle for Chicago last

<< Earnhardt Jr. contributes $1M to Victory Junction camp
Randleman, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - NASCAR's most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., announced on Monday he is donating $1 million to build and maintain The Dale Jr. Corral and Amphitheater at Victory Junction -- a camp for children with se

<< Blue Jackets acquire C Moore from Islanders
Columbus, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Columbus Blue Jackets acquired center Greg Moore from the New York Islanders in exchange for defenseman Dylan Reese. The trade is pending both players passing a physical. Moore has spent the season with

<< James, Boozer take February honors
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James and Utah Jazz forward Carlos Boozer were named the Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Month, respectively, for the games played in February. James led th

Syracuse's second half defense sparks upset of No. 7 West Virginia >>
Syracuse, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Erica Morrow scored 23 points with five rebounds and five assists, and the Syracuse Orange used suffocating defense in the second half to upset the seventh-ranked Mountaineers, 67-48, at the Carrier

Thrashers acquire F Artyukhin from Anaheim >>
Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Atlanta Thrashers acquired forward Evgeny Artyukhin from the Anaheim Ducks on Monday in exchange for defenseman Nathan Oystrick and a conditional draft choice in 2011. Artyukhin, who was in his first s

Cavs start strong, rout Knicks >>
Cleveland, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - LeBron James scored 22 points, dished out seven assists, and pulled down seven rebounds, as the Cleveland Cavaliers continued their recent dominance over the New York Knicks with a 124-93 rout at Quic

Magic beat Sixers by 21 >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jameer Nelson scored 22 points and dished out 10 assists, and seven Orlando players scored in double-figures to help the Magic rout the 76ers, 126-105, at Wachovia Center. Rashard Lewis and Vince Carter

Mavs continue mastery of Bobcats, win eighth straight >>
Charlotte, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Dirk Nowitzki scored 16 of his 27 points in the second half and also pulled down 13 rebounds, as Dallas won its eighth straight game and remained perfect against the Charlotte Bobcats with an 89-84 decisio

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.

American Idol odds : Blake Lewis the Early Standout

An important American Idol betting lines recap from February 20 Guys episode. The 12 men came out flat overall with Blake Lewis appearing to have the early edge after the first hour and a half.

Rudy - was quite good singing "Free Ride" to start off.  Randy was not impressed though.  Paula thought he started off fantastic.  "Never had anyone stop off so lively" said Paula but Simon (who does not like Rudy) does not feel he has a distinct voice and was not impressed either. 

Brandon was a little pitchy according to Randy and Paula agreed.  Simon said he was a good singer but the song was "too safe" and he needs to make an impact.  He was listed at +1200 odds or $1200 paid out on a $100 bet should he win the competition. 

Big favorite Sundance came in with a flat version of "Knights in White Satin" and the judges let him have it, including Paula.  Randy claimed the song was out of pitch throughout.

Korean American - and a Jenny Woo favorite - Paul Kim was up next.  Another pitchy flat one but Randy said he still liked his potential.  Kim at +3000 odds was said to have sung a "third rate version of that (George Michael) song" according to Simon Cowell.  He sang "Careless Whisper".

22 year old Chris Richardson was up next.  He was listed with +1100 odds coming in.  He got the best response from the judges though Simon did not believe the vocal was that great. 

Nick was boring and pitchy.  Simon didn't think he was that bad though and predicted he would be back next week.  Nick Pedro was a big +3000 dog coming into this competition. 

Beat boxer Blake Lewis was listed with early +1000 odds or $1000 payout on a $100 bet if he were to become the next American Idol winner odds .  These of course were the early odds.  He was considered original for picking an "odd song".  He did not beat box and the judges felt it was the best vocal of the night. 

Sanjaya came in as the second biggest favorite after Chris Sligh but his performance Tuesday night was not very good. 

Chris Sleigh was the early favorite at +450 odds.  Great voice and a great sense of humor.  He's a real standout.  Randy felt it was on point but maybe ahead of the chorus a little bit.  Simon Cowell said he felt like he was in some "sort of weird student gig". 

Jared Cotter followed.  He was listed with +2000 odds early on to win the competition.  The judges felt he needs to take more risks but looked good. 

22-year old AJ Talbado, who has tried out for American Idol five times, was up next.  "Kind of a theme park performance" said Simon.  Though the judges felt he performed okay.  Simon did feel AJ might be better than he originally thought.

Phil - this season's military favorite - came into this competition with +1200 odds to win the competition.  He was the last to perform.  He was certainly strong enough to get through this stage of the competition and perhaps the best one after a shaky start. 

Tomorrow night, the ladies perform and I sure hope they do a better job than the boys.  Check out all the American Idol betting odds here.

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com - this sportsbook accepts credit cards.