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Aggies meet Cowboys in StillwaterNCAA Basketball Betting Lines02/21/2007 - Stillwater, OK (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The eighth-ranked Texas A&M Aggies have made the trip to Stillwater for a Big 12 Conference clash with the Oklahoma State Cowboys. Texas A&M has won six of its last seven games to move to 22-4 overall and 10-2 in conference action, as the club continues to battle Kansas for league supremacy. The Aggies were last in action on Saturday when they beat Oklahoma in Norman by a 56-49 final. At 6-2 this season in true road games, don't expect A&M to be intimidated this evening. At one point, Oklahoma State appeared to be one of the nation's best teams, but the squad is now fighting for NCAA Tournament consideration with a 5-6 Big 12 record. The Cowboys have lost two straight games and four of their last five, including a 75-64 setback to Missouri on Saturday. Texas A&M cruised to a 67-49 victory over Oklahoma State back on January 20th, overshadowing the fact that the Cowboys own a 26-10 advantage in the all-time series between the teams. Joseph Jones and Acie Law led the way for Texas A&M in the victory over Oklahoma on Saturday, as both standouts scored 21 points. Jones led the team with nine rebounds, while Law dished out seven assists against only two turnovers. Strong defense was key to the victory for the Aggies, as they held the Sooners to 34 percent shooting from the field. A 13-6 edge in points from the foul line also helped the cause. Law is scoring 17.0 ppg this season on 51 percent shooting from the floor, including 44.4 percent accuracy from three-point range. He has also handed out 143 assists with 70 turnovers and leads the team with 35 steals as well. Jones checks in with 13.5 ppg and 6.5 rpg, while Josh Carter is scoring 12.1 ppg on the strength of his staggering 51.1 percent accuracy from behind the arc. Antanas Kavaliauskas is also netting 12.1 ppg, and he is grabbing 6.2 rpg. The Aggies are netting 75.3 ppg on 50 percent shooting from the field, and they are holding foes to 56.5 ppg on 36.3 percent efficiency. Mario Boggan continues to pace Oklahoma State with 20.8 ppg and 7.9 rpg, and he is one of the elite players in the Big 12 Conference. The top backcourt performer for the Cowboys is JamesOn Curry, as he supplies 18.1 ppg to go along with his 94 assists. The biggest problem for the Cowboys is that they are allowing 77.5 ppg in conference play. On Saturday, they permitted Missouri to shoot 50 percent from the floor, including a 10-of-18 effort from three-point range. Unfortunately, Oklahoma State was only able to connect on 40.8 percent of its own field goal attempts, including a 2- of-10 showing from behind the arc. If not for a 22-9 advantage in points from the foul line, the final score would have been even more lopsided. Curry and Boggan scored 16 points apiece in defeat.
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Sportsbook Betting LinesWho 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 MadeThe 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 ChangeOnce 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. |
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