Guerrero's bat, Harden's arm helps Rangers down Angels

Baseball Betting Lines

08/01/2010 - Anaheim, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Vladimir Guerrero's two-run homer in the fourth inning was enough against his former team as the AL West-leading Rangers edged the Angels, 2-1, in the middle installment of a three-game series.

Nelson Cruz extended his career-high hitting streak to 19 games as Texas, despite playing without major league-leading hitter Josh Hamilton, bounced back from a 9-7 defeat on Friday. Hamilton was out because of patella tendinitis in his right knee.

Rich Harden (4-3), activated off the disabled list earlier in the day, limited Los Angeles to one run on five hits over seven innings.

"They were aggressive and that was my plan, to go out there and throw strikes," Harden said. "I was hitting my spots and I was happy with my pitch count."

Dan Haren (0-2), making his second start with his new club, was charged with five hits, walked two and fanned six in a complete game effort. It was his second complete game of the season and 11th of his career, but he's winless (0-6) over his last nine starts.

Howie Kendrick homered in the seventh inning for LA, which lost for the eighth time in 10 contests.

David Murphy walked to start the fourth inning and Guerrero homered on the first pitch to left-center for his 21st long ball of the year.

"The pitch was low, but it should have been more outside. It caught too much of the plate," Haren said.

Erick Aybar struck out swinging to leave men at the corners in the bottom of the fifth. Hideki Matsui grounded out to strand a runner in scoring position in the LA sixth, but Kendrick homered to center with one out in the seventh. Mike Napoli doubled with two outs and Aybar was hit by a pitch, but Maicer Izturis grounded out to end the frame.

Frank Francisco retired the side in order in the eighth and Neftali Feliz did the same in the ninth for his 29th save.

Game Notes

Harden hadn't pitched since June 11 due to a gluteal strain...To make room for Harden on the roster, Texas optioned pitcher Doug Mathis to Oklahoma City...Texas has prevailed in seven of the 11 meetings this season...Feliz has saved all 15 of his opportunities on the road...The Rangers acquired infielder Cristian Guzman from the Washington Nationals on Saturday. Texas also sent catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia to Boston in exchange for pitcher Roman Mendez, first baseman Chris McGuiness, a player to be named later and cash considerations.

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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.”

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