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04/11/2008 - Denver, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Hobey Baker Memorial Award Executive Committee announced Friday that University of Michigan forward Kevin Porter was named the 28th winner of college hockey's most prestigious individual honor.
Named after a legendary Princeton hockey player who died in World War I, the award recognizes strength of character in players both on and off the ice.
Porter, a senior, is only the second player in the Wolverines' history to win the award, joining Brendan Morrison, who received the honor in 1997.
The Northville, Michigan native registered 33 goals and 63 points in 43 games in 2007-08.
A 2004 draft pick of the Phoenix Coyotes, Porter guided the Wolverines to a 33-6-4 record and a berth in the Frozen Four, where they lost to Notre Dame, 5-4, in overtime in Thursday's national semifinal.
Boston College junior forward Nathan Gerbe and Miami-Ohio senior forward Ryan Jones were the other two finalists.
North Dakota's Ryan Duncan took home the award last season.
<< Masters Second Round News & Notes
Augusta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Contrary to what you might know about Brandt
Snedeker (or what you might not know), this is not his first appearance at the
Masters.
Snedeker captured the 2003 U.S. Amateur Public Links title, which earned
<< Reyes leaves Mets-Brewers game
Flushing, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - New York Mets shortstop Jose Reyes left his
team's game Friday against Milwaukee with left hamstring tightness.
Reyes was hitless in three at-bats through five innings, and was replaced by
Marlon Anderson
<< Ochoa leads Corona Championship by a shot
Morelia, Mexico (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Lorena Ochoa moved closer to yet another
victory on Friday, shooting her second consecutive seven-under 66 to take sole
possession of the lead after two rounds of the Corona Championship.
Playing in her
<< Incredible rally by Blake gives U.S. 2-0 lead versus France
Winston-Salem, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - James Blake saved two match points in the
fifth set and rallied to beat Paul-Henri Mathieu, giving the United States a
commanding 2-0 lead over France in their best-of-five Davis Cup World Group
quarter
Raptors rout Nets to tie for sixth in East >>
Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Carlos Delfino scored 24 points, including a
6-of-8 performance from three-point range, as the Toronto Raptors crushed the
Nets, 113-85, ending New Jersey's playoff hopes.
Chris Bosh added 21 points and nin
T-Wolves rally to deny Magic win No. 50 >>
Orlando, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ryan Gomes hit the game-winning free throws
with 2.9 seconds left and Hedo Turkoglu fired an airball at the buzzer as the
Minnesota Timberwolves escaped with a 102-101 victory over Orlando at Amway
Arena.
What they're saying at the Masters, Day Two >>
Augusta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The weather, and Augusta National, were set to
undergo changes as the weekend approached at the Masters, meaning things
could only get tougher for the players.
Here's what some of them were talking about
Pacers stifle Sixers to remain in East playoff picture >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Danny Granger scored 30 points and grabbed
12 rebounds, helping the Indiana Pacers remain in playoff contention with an
85-76 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers at the Wachovia Center.
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Rule No. 1 in the gamblers' handbook states, "Avoid sports betting on meaningless games."
When you're drowning in a sea of baseball monotony, however, things change. Even a hint of pro football betting can persuade the most disciplined bettor to break a few rules.
The NFL preseason is around the corner, with a tempting Hall of Fame match kicking off on Sunday. But bettors must stay vigilant. Wagering on NFL exhibition games is an entirely different beast than the regular season. Most fans don't recognize the players on the field because starters get as much action in August as Warcraft fans get on Prom night.
The only certainty about the NFL this time of year is uncertainty – and yet there are some who say betting in August can be a gold mine.
“I actually feel the NFL preseason presents solid profit opportunities for sharp bettors and handicappers,” Sports Expert Steve Merril explains. “My experience has been that the sportsbooks fear the preseason, which is evident by lower limits and massive moves.”
The line moves are attributed to the limited knowledge available regarding playing-time distribution. One team’s top unit out on the field for one more series has an impact on the pointspread. Setting lines in the preseason often is a shot in the dark.
“We base the betting lines mostly on public perception,” Pete Korner, founder of the Sports Club in Las Vegas, says. “It’s very tough to predict, almost a guessing game.”
The preseason is all about figuring out who’s in and for how long.
“It becomes a race between bettors and oddsmakers to find out how long the quarterbacks are going to stay in,” Korner admits. “If a sharp gets the information first, he could exploit an early line. I’m a full believer in moving the line in the preseason if the books find out something late in the week.”
Determining what each team’s motive is can help bettors handicap. To do this you must pay close attention to the philosophies head coaches employ in exhibition play.
“You need to know what a coach is trying to accomplish,” says Covers Expert Bryan Leonard. “Sometimes a new coach will want to instill a winning attitude. Others just want to make sure their starters don’t get hurt."
So how do you distinguish who’s playing scared and who’s playing for keeps?
“Head coaches on the hot seat or new coaches trying to implement a winning attitude usually try harder to win in the preseason,” Merril says.
Cleveland Browns head coach Romeo Crennel fits this criteria. He’s entering his third season as the sideline boss and has yet to lead the Browns to more than six wins.
Cleveland is an enticing bet as well because of the unresolved quarterback situation. General manager Phil Savage sacrificed the Browns’ first-round pick in next year’s draft for Brady Quinn, but the former Notre Dame quarterback hasn’t signed or reported to training camp yet.
Charlie Frye and Derek Anderson split time at QB last season and it looks like either player (or even Quinn) could be the opening-day starter.
“If a team has quarterback depth and the pecking order hasn’t been decided, it’s a big advantage,” Leonard says.
Even in the third week of the preseason when starters generally play the most, the final outcome of the game is in the hands of fringe players. A team's talent, all the way down to the last man on the roster, is something to consider.
The New England Patriots have long been considered one of the deeper teams in the NFL and coach Bill Belichick has said in the past he’s unafraid of stars getting hurt in games with nothing on the line. He shocked his colleagues in 2003 by playing some of his starters on special teams in the preseason.
“We want to have the team ready to play a tough, physical game and preparation has to go into that and I imagine a certain amount of injuries go with it,” Belichick told the Providence Journal in August 2003.
Bettors can only hope to find more teams that share the Pats' business-like approach to the preseason (New England is 17-9-3 against the spread since 2000) and take advantage of teams who detest the exhibition schedule.
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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. “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).
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.
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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