Seahawks ink TE Baker

Football Betting Lines

03/15/2010 - Kirkland, WA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Seattle Seahawks on Monday added depth at the tight end position by signing veteran Chris Baker.

Per club policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The 30-year-old Baker spent last season with the Patriots after being with the Jets for the first seven years of his NFL career. The Michigan State product caught 14 passes for 142 yards and two touchdowns last year.

The 6-foot-3, 258-pounder will complement starting tight end John Carlson, who already has set the franchise single-season records by a tight end for receptions (55 in 2008), receiving yards (627 in '08) and seven touchdown catches last season.

In 115 career games, Baker has hauled in 159 passes for 1,647 yards and 14 touchdowns. He was a third-round draft choice of the Jets in 2002.

Also on Monday, Seattle signed wide receiver Ruvell Martin and released running back Tyler Roehl.

Martin has 58 receptions for 848 yards and six touchdowns over four seasons with the Rams and Packers.

Sportautochance Football Betting News

<< Giants, Jets to both host games opening weekend
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New York Giants and New York Jets will both host games at their new home, Meadowlands Stadium, on the opening weekend of the 2010 regular season. The Giants will play Sunday afternoon, September 12,

<< Djokovic sneaks into fourth round at Indian Wells
Indian Wells, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - World No. 2 Novak Djokovic barely survived his third-round match Monday at the $4.5 million BNP Paribas Open, an ATP World Tour Masters event. The second-seeded Djokovic outlasted 25th-seeded German Philip

<< Packers re-sign T Tauscher
Green Bay, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Green Bay Packers on Monday re-signed veteran offensive tackle Mark Tauscher to a two-year contract. The Wisconsin product has spent his entire 10-year career with the Packers, who selected the 6-f

<< Iowa fires hoops coach Lickliter
Iowa City, IA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The University of Iowa has fired head men's basketball coach Todd Lickliter. The school announced the news Monday, and while Iowa athletic director Gary Barta said he still believes Lickliter is "a trem

<< Power-ful return to IndyCar
Sao Paulo, Brazil (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Seven months after suffering back injuries in a practice crash at Sonoma, CA, Will Power made an impressive comeback in the IZOD IndyCar Series by winning the inaugural Sao Paulo Indy 300 in Brazil. Powe

UConn leads top seeds for women's tourney >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Connecticut, Stanford, Tennessee and Nebraska all earned top seeds for the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament, which begins Saturday at campus sites around the country. Connecticut (33-0) is t

Stars' Modano out indefinitely >>
Frisco, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Dallas Stars center Mike Modano will be out indefinitely after undergoing surgery Monday for an appendectomy. The 39-year-old Modano did not practice with the team today and is not expected to play

Broncos release QB Simms >>
Englewood, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Denver Broncos on Monday released quarterback Chris Simms in the wake of the acquisition of Brady Quinn. On Sunday, the Broncos acquired Quinn from the Browns in exchange for fullback Peyton Hill

Detroit F Prince suffers back injury >>
Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Detroit Pistons forward Tayshaun Prince suffered an injury to his back and had to be assisted off the floor in the first quarter of Monday's game against the Boston Celtics. With 4:53 remaining in the qu

Ducks' Selanne, Getzlaf undergo MRIs >>
Anaheim, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Anaheim Ducks forwards Teemu Selanne and Ryan Getzlaf underwent MRIs on Monday for injuries sustained in Sunday's 4-2 win over San Jose. Selanne, who scored career goal No. 599 in the victory, suffered an

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.

Football Betting: Defensive Rookie of the Year Awards

Oddsmakers have released the odds for the 2009 AP NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year Award and Seattle Seahawks linebacker Aaron Curry has been made the opening favorite.

Bet on NFL Football

Seattle took Curry with the fourth overall pick in April's NFL draft and plan on inserting him into its starting lineup right away. The Hawks traded linebacker Julian Peterson in the offseason, so Curry is expected to have a significant role in Seattle's defense next year and that's one of the primary reasons he is the favorite to win the NFL ROY Award.

Oddsmakers from online sportsbook MySportsbook.com have made Curry a 5/1 favorite to win this year's NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year Award. Given that he was the best defensive prospect in this year's draft and how he'll have plenty of opportunities to make plays in '09, Curry offers a ton of value at 5/1.

Another thing working for Curry is the position he plays. A linebacker has won the defensive ROY award six straight times and eight of the last nine years. Jerod Mayo, Patrick Willis, DeMeco Ryans, Shawne Merriman, Jonathan Vilma, Terrell Suggs, Kendrell Bell and Brian Urlacher were the most recent linebackers to take home the award.

Following Curry at 5/1 are Tyson Jackson (Chiefs) at 7/1, James Laurinaitas (Rams) at 8/1, Brian Orakpo (Redskins) at 10/1, Rey Maualuga (Bengals) at 10/1 and Jerry Peria (Falcons) at 10/1.

All the players mentioned above are expected to start for their respective teams, but Jackson and Peria are going to have a tough time being recognized on a national level given they're both defensive linemen. D-linemen rarely put up the numbers that it takes to win an individual award like the ROY.

A couple of players with some value are Clay Matthews (Packers) at 12/1 and Larry English (Chargers) at 15/1. Matthews is expected to start at outside linebacker in Green Bay's new 3-4 defense and could rack up a ton of tackles. English, who was an impressive player at Northern Illinois, is expected to be a situational pass rusher for the Chargers and could rack up a ton of sacks.

For complete odds on the 2009 AP NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year Award, see below. And for complete odds for the 2009 AP NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year Award, click the link provided.

2009 AP NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year Award

Robert Ayers (DEN) 12/1

Ron Brace (NE) 25/1

Everette Brown (CAR) 16/1

Darius Butler (NE) 40/1

Patrick Chung (NE) 30/1

Aaron Curry (SEA) 5/1

Brian Cushing (HOU) 12/1

Vontae Davis (MIA) 30/1

Louis Delmas (DET) 30/1

Larry English (SD) 15/1

Evander Hood (PIT) 25/1

Tyson Jackson (KC) 7/1

Malcolm Jenkins (NO) 25/1

Paul Kruger (BAL) 50/1

James Laurinaitas (STL) 8/1

Sen'Derrick Marks (TEN) 20/1

Clay Matthews (GB) 12/1

Aaron Maybin (BUF) 15/1

Rey Maualuga (CIN) 10/1

Roy Miller (TB) 20/1

Michael Mitchell (OAK) 45/1

Fili Moala (IND) 30/1

Brian Orakpo (WAS) 10/1

Jerry Peria (ATL) 10/1

B J Raji (GB) 7/1

Clint Sintim (NYG) 35/1

Alphonso Smith (DEN) 40/1

David Verkune (CLE) 20/1

Jason Williams (DAL) 30/1

Field (Any Other Player) 6/1

NFL football gambling

To visit this internet sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs.