UNC's Wear brothers to transfer

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

05/07/2010 - Chapel Hill, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - North Carolina's basketball program took a hit for next season with the announcement that sophomore forward brothers David and Travis Wear are transferring.

"Their father called me last night and asked for their release, which came as a complete surprise," UNC coach Roy Williams said. "I love both kids and they would have been very important parts of our team next season. It is a significant blow to our team, as we had four post players and now we are down to two.

"Our coaching staff will look at whatever options are available, but it's hard to replace two quality players at this time. We are extremely disappointed that David and Travis are leaving the program."

David Wear appeared in 27 games for the Tar Heels as a freshman, averaging 2.9 points and 1.7 rebounds while missing the final nine games of the season due to a torn labrum in his left hip. Travis Wear averaged 3.5 points and 2.2 rebounds in 32 games.

Sport-lines NCAA Basketball Betting News

<< Wizards' Arenas out of halfway house for gun count
GREAT FALLS, Va. (AP) -Gilbert Arenas has arrived home from the halfway house where he lived for nearly a month as part of his sentence for bringing guns into the Washington Wizards locker room.Arenas left the work-release facility in the Maryland s

<< Mr. Clutch: Ethier's ninth-inning slam helps Dodgers avoid sweep
Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Andre Ethier belted a game-ending grand slam with one out in the ninth inning, and the Los Angeles Dodgers topped Milwaukee, 7-3, to avert a three-game sweep. Jonathan Broxton (2-0) blew the save o

<< Rays move to 12-1 on road, sweep Mariners
Seattle, WA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jeff Niemann hurled seven scoreless innings and Carl Crawford clubbed a two-run homer, as the Tampa Bay Rays defeated Seattle, 8-0, to complete a three-game sweep at Safeco Field. Crawford finished 3-for-5 and

<< Franzen's dandy period helps Wings stave off elimination
Detroit, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Johan Franzen notched a natural hat trick in a fabulous first period, sparking the Detroit Red Wings to a resounding 7-1 win over San Jose to stay alive after four games of their Western Conference semifin

<< Report: Calhoun expected to receive extension on Friday
Hartford, CT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The University of Connecticut is reportedly set to give men's head basketball coach Jim Calhoun a contract extension through the 2013-14 season. According to the Hartford Courant, UConn will hold

Wizards' Arenas out of halfway house in gun case >>
GREAT FALLS, Va. (AP) -Gilbert Arenas arrived home from a halfway house Friday morning, having completed one part of his punishment for bringing guns into the Washington Wizards locker room.Arenas drove up to his house in the Virginia suburbs of Was

Redskins sign LB Draft >>
Ashburn, VA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Washington Redskins have signed veteran linebacker Chris Draft. The 34-year-old spent the 2009 season with Buffalo and saw time in 11 games, starting three, while collecting 45 tackles, a sack and an

Seedless final in Estoril >>
Estoril, Portugal (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Saturday's women's final at the $220,000 Estoril Open will feature a pair of non-seeds -- Spaniard Arantxa Parra Santonja and Latvian Anastasija Sevastova. The 81st-ranked Parra Santonja

Cavs, Celtics set shifts to Boston for pivotal Game 3 >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The scene shifts to Beantown tonight as the top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics get ready for the pivotal Game 3 of their Eastern Conference semifinals series. The Celtics wrestled away homecourt advantage i

Suns shoot for commanding 3-0 series lead in San Antonio >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Phoenix Suns shoot for a commanding 3-0 series lead tonight when they resume their Western Conference semifinals set with the Spurs in San Antonio. The Suns held serve on their home court, winning Games 1 and 2 of the

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.