Gronkowski to miss practice time
Football Betting Lines
01/26/2012 - Foxboro, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski is expected to miss practice time this week in preparation for next Sunday's Super Bowl because of the ankle injury he sustained during last Sunday's AFC Championship Game.
Gronkowski hurt his left ankle while being tackled during the third quarter of the 23-20 win over Baltimore. He was able to return to the contest, but was seen with a walking boot on Monday.
"We'll just have to see," Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said when asked when Gronkowski would be able to practice. "He's not going to practice [Thursday], so take it day-by-day. I'm not going to try to forecast where things will be 10 days from now. We'll just take it day-by-day."
Gronkowski had a record-breaking year for the Patriots, setting an NFL mark for tight ends with 17 touchdown receptions. He also scored once on the ground and finished the campaign with 90 catches -- second on the team behind only Wes Welker's 122 -- for 1,327 yards.
Aaron Hernandez, who was third on the club with 79 catches, is the only other tight end on New England's active roster.
The Patriots signed tight end Carson Butler to the practice squad on Thursday. Butler spent the majority of the 2010 season on New England's practice squad and was released by the Patriots just before the start of the 2011 campaign.
Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Nationals have agreed to terms with reliever Brad Lidge on a one-year contract. Lidge, 35, has been a closer for much of his career, but has struggled with injuries and ineffectiveness in recen
<< Lille adds Argentine Cetto on loan from Palermo
Lille, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Lille acquired defender Mauro Cetto on loan
for the rest of the season Thursday from Italian club Palermo.
The 29-year-old Argentine started his career with Rosario Central, but later
played in France wit
<< Barca's Iniesta out three weeks with hamstring tear
Barcelona, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Barcelona midfielder Andres Iniesta will
be sidelined three weeks with a left hamstring tear, the European champions
announced Thursday.
Iniesta was injured just before the half-hour mark in Wednesday
<< QPR signs defender Onuoha from City
London, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - QPR acquired defender Nedum Onuoha from
Manchester City on Thursday and signed him to a 4 1/2-year contract.
Onuoha, 25, made his debut for City in 2004 and played 92 matches for the
club, some of
<< Toronto FC signs defender Eckersley
Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Toronto FC signed defender Richard Eckersley on
Thursday.
Eckersley, 22, joined Toronto FC on loan from Burnley last April and played 23
matches for the Major League Soccer club. He started 22 of those matches
Guadalajara, Mexico (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Guadalajara named Ignacio Ambriz its new manager Thursday, as the former Mexican international takes charge of his third different club in his native country. Ambriz, 46, made 64 appearances for Mex
A's sign OF Gomes >>
Oakland, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Athletics have agreed to terms on a one-
year contract with outfielder Jonny Gomes.
Gomes, 31, split last season between Cincinnati and Washington, and hit .209
with 14 homers and 43 RBI in 120 games
In the FCS Huddle: Keeler isn't the FCS' only FBS candidate >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The ink seemingly wasn't dry on a contract
that would send Greg Schiano from Rutgers to the head coaching job with the
Tampa Bay Buccaneers and already there was potential fallout:
Delaware coach K.C. Keel
Schiano leaves Rutgers for Tampa Bay >>
Newark, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Tampa Bay Buccaneers must have been serious
about finding a new coach from the college ranks.
After a strong flirtation with Oregon's Chip Kelly last weekend, the Bucs on
Thursday have reportedly settled
Glenn restructures deal with Stamps >>
Calgary, AB (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Calgary Stampeders and newly-acquired
quarterback Kevin Glenn have worked out a restructured contract.
Glenn was dealt to the Stampeders on January 3 in a trade with Hamilton that
sent Henry Burris
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.”
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