Louisville surges to third in BCS

Football Betting Lines

11/06/2006 - Morristown, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The undefeated tandem of Ohio State and Michigan held down the top two spots in the latest Bowl Championship Series Poll, while undefeated Louisville jumped up two spots to number three.

Neither the Buckeyes (10-0) nor the Wolverines (10-0) had an easy time this weekend, but both were good enough to stay first and second, respectively, in the poll.

Ohio State squeaked out a 17-10 win over Illinois on Saturday to move its BCS average to .987, which is .16 better than Michigan's .971 average. The Wolverines won a shootout over Ball State, 34-26.

The Wolverines moved 11 percentage points closer to the Buckeyes than they were in the poll last week.

Michigan will host Ohio State on November 18. The top two teams in the final BCS standings, which will be released on December 3, will play in the BCS Championship Game on January 8 in Glendale, Arizona.

The Cardinals (8-0) used a 44-34 win over previously unbeaten West Virginia to vault from the fifth spot in the poll to third with an average of .891. The Mountaineers (7-1), meanwhile, dropped all the way to 10th.

Florida (8-1) remained fourth in the poll with an average of .802. Texas is just two percentage points back of the Gators after its 36-10 rout of Oklahoma State moved its record to 9-1.

Auburn (9-1) stayed in sixth place in the latest poll, while UCS (7-1) moved up a spot to seventh. The Trojans were third in the BCS two weeks ago before suffering a setback to Oregon State and falling to eighth.

California (8-1) and Notre Dame (8-1) are ranked eighth and ninth, respectively.

Arkansas (8-1) and its .572 average is .002 points back of West Virginia while LSU (7-2), Rutgers (8-0), Boise State (9-0) and Wisconsin (9-1) round out spots 11 through 15.

Next is Tennessee (7-2), Oklahoma (7-2), Georgia Tech (7-2), Wake Forest (8-1) and Oregon (7-2). Rounding out the poll is Virginia Tech (7-2), Boston College (7-2), Maryland (7-2), Oregon State (6-3) and Texas A&M (8-2). Both Maryland and Oregon State are new to the rankings this week.

The BCS title game is new to the series this year, as the other top bowl games -- Rose, Orange, Sugar and Fiesta -- will still play their traditional games on New Year's Day or soon after. The BCS title game will rotate among the four traditional sites -- Pasadena, Miami, New Orleans and Arizona -- giving each of the venues two games in one particular season.

The champions from the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten, Big 12, Big East, Pac-10 and SEC make up six of the 10 teams in the five BCS games. The other four spots go to at-large teams that have at least nine wins and are ranked among the top 14 in the final BCS standings.

One team from among the champions of Conference USA, the Mid-American Conference, the Mountain West Conference, the Sun Belt Conference or the Western Athletic Conference automatically qualify for a BCS game if either: such team is ranked in the top 12 of the final BCS standings, or, such team is ranked in the top 16 of the final BCS standings and its ranking in the final BCS standings is higher than that of a champion of a conference that has an annual automatic berth in one of the BCS bowls.

The BCS system uses a pair of human polls -- the Harris Interactive and the USA Today -- as well as six computer rankings. Each poll counts one-third toward the overall score, while the average of the computers completes the formula.

Snadbox Football Betting News

<< Duncan leads Spurs over Raptors
Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tim Duncan poured in 26 points and Tony Parker added 19 -- two of five Spurs in double figures -- as San Antonio downed Toronto, 103-94, at Air Canada Centre. Manu Ginobili tallied 12 points, Fabricio

<< Lions roar past Falcons
Detroit, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kevin Jones rushed for 110 yards on 26 carries with two touchdowns as the Detroit Lions took advantage of three Michael Vick turnovers to upset the Atlanta Falcons, 30-14. Roy Williams caught six passes for 138

<< Ravens hang on to beat Bengals in AFC North battle
Baltimore, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ed Reed finished off Samari Rolle's interception with a 25-yard touchdown return to push the Ravens to a quick two-touchdown edge, and Baltimore held on to beat Cincinnati, 26-20, in a huge AFC Nor

<< Bartoli wins at Bell Challenge
Quebec City, QC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Second-seeded Marion Bartoli defeated eighth-seeded Olga Poutchkova Sunday to take the $28,000 purse at the Bell Challenge. Bartoli, of France, scored a 6-0, 6-0 win over Poutchkova of Russia to c

<< Paterno breaks bone in left leg; status uncertain for Temple
State College, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno was diagnosed with a tibial plateau fracture of his left leg and ligament damage in the knee, an injury suffered during a sideline collision with tw

Saints Brees by Bucs >>
Tampa, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Drew Brees threw for 314 yards and three touchdowns to lead the New Orleans Saints to a 31-14 beating of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium. Brees completed 24 of his 32 passes without

Bears lose perfect season to the Dolphins...again >>
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jason Taylor had one sack, forced a fumble, intercepted a pass and scored a touchdown as Miami capitalized on six Chicago turnovers to best the Bears, 31-13, at Soldier Field. Chicago lost its chance for

Nedney kicks Niners past Vikings >>
San Francisco, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Joe Nedney kicked three field goals as the San Francisco 49ers defeated the Minnesota Vikings, 9-3, in a defensive battle at Monster Park. Alex Smith was 13-of-21 passing for 105 yards and an int

Roughriders rally to beat Stampeders in West Semifinal >>
Calgary, AB (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kenton Keith's 14-yard touchdown run with 2:20 remaining cemented a second-half comeback, as the Saskatchewan Roughriders pulled out a gritty 30-21 win over the Calgary Stampeders in the Western Divisio

Walker's three scores lift Broncos over Steelers >>
Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Javon Walker's arrival -- six catches for 134 yards with two touchdowns and a 72-yard rushing score -- signaled Pittsburgh's season departure just 10 months after winning the Super Bowl, as Denver

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.

Sportsbook accepts U.S. credit cards

Sportsbooks That Take US Credit Cards for NFL football betting

Sportsbooks that take credit cards are not always easy to come by....Everything from credit card companies denying gambling transactions to the fear of chargebacks by customers has slowed down sportsbook credit card transactions by a high percentage.

There are however still sportsbooks that take credit cards.

When using your credit card it is highly recommended that you try either: MySportsbook.com or Sportsbooks.com. Both sportsbooks have a high rate of accepting credit cards and will save you the time and hassle of looking around the web to make a credit card transaction.

Furthermore, Sportsbooks.com is one of the oldest sportsbooks on the web and Sportsbook offers security in that they are the biggest online sportsbook in the world! Publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange, they are ROCK SOLID!