11/04/2008 - Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Toronto Blue Jays pitcher A.J. Burnett will opt out of the final two years of a five-year, $55 million deal he signed with the club before the 2006 season.
Burnett's agent, Darek Braunecker, met with team officials at the general managers meetings in California to inform the club of Burnett's decision. The pitcher was scheduled to make $24 million over the final two years of the contract.
The 31-year-old posted an 18-10 record with a 4.07 earned run average in 2008, when he started a career-high 34 games. He also struck out an American League- best and career-high 231 batters.
Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi has indicated that Toronto may discuss a new contract for Burnett.
For his 10-year career, which started with seven years with the Florida Marlins, Burnett has an 87-76 record with a 3.81 ERA.
<< St. Mirren apologizes to Hibernian's Shiels
Paisley, Scotland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - St. Mirren has moved quickly to apologize
to Hibernian midfielder Dean Shiels, who was taunted during Saturday's match at
at Love Street over the loss of his eye.
The club are working with Strathclyde
<< Griffey files for free agency
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ken Griffey Jr. was one of nine players to
file for free agency on Tuesday.
One of the greatest sluggers in league history and a sure-fire Hall of Famer,
Griffey, who will turn 39 later this month, combi
<< NFC West: Hightower becomes Cardinals' latest weapon
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - It couldn't have been easy for Edgerrin James.
Like a proud parent who watches their child head off to school for the first
time, the NFL's 13th all-time leading rusher was forced to watch from the
sidelines during the Ari
<< Chievo fires Iachini, names Di Carlo new coach
Verona, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chievo appointed Domenico Di Carlo as its
new coach on Tuesday after sacking Giuseppe Iachini.
The Verona-based side decided to axe Iachini on Tuesday morning in the wake of
the 3-0 defeat against Paler
Pistons formally introduce Iverson to team >>
Auburn Hills, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A day after being traded, Allen Iverson
was introduced as the newest member of the Detroit Pistons Tuesday at a press
conference.
"I gotta look in the mirror at myself and think of things that I ca
Ancelotti praises AC Milan's turnaround >>
Milan, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - AC Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti has praised his
squad for turning around a miserable start to the new season to move top of the
Serie A table.
A 1-0 victory at home to Napoli at the weekend moved the Rosson
Atletico Madrid: Aguero is not for sale >>
Madrid, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Atletico Madrid has warned Manchester City
that Argentinian striker Sergio Aguero is not for sale.
Mark Hughes' side have been linked with a January transfer window swoop for the
20-year-old who has alr
Rams sign RB Gado, place WR/KR Hall on IR >>
St. Louis, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The St. Louis Rams signed free agent running
back Samkon Gado Tuesday to serve as the team's third running back behind
Steven Jackson and Antonio Pittman.
Gado, 25, spent last season with the Texans and
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. “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).
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.
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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