Allsopp, Hamid lead D.C. over K.C. for first win

Soccer Betting Lines

05/05/2010 - Washington, D.C. (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Danny Allsopp scored twice and 19-year-old goalie Bill Hamid won his first MLS start, leading D.C. United to its first win of the year, 2-1 over the Kansas City Wizards on Wednesday at RFK Stadium.

United (1-5-0) snapped its season-opening, five-match losing streak and handed new coach Curt Onalfo his first win. Onalfo coached K.C. from 2007-09.

K.C. (2-3-1), which beat D.C. 4-0 in both teams' season opener, lost for third time in its last four games. The Wizards ended a 402-minute scoring drought in stoppage time when Kei Kamara scored his third goal of the season.

Allsopp handed United its first lead of the season in the 12th minute with his first MLS goal. Defender Rodney Wallace played a long ball, and Allsopp fought off Pablo Escobar to control the pass, then slipped around Jimmy Conrad on the left side of the area to send a deflected shot past goalie Jimmy Nielsen.

Hamid made his first save five minutes later, denying Chance Myers on the edge of the six-yard box. Hamid made another save in the 26th when he pushed a shot from Roger Espinoza over the bar.

Allsopp rewarded Hamid with a two-goal lead in the 34th. Adam Cristman grabbed a bad pass from Escobar and slid a pass to an open Allsopp, who fired into the bottom-left corner from 18 yards to beat Nielsen again.

United, which had scored in only one of its first five games, matched its goal total for the entire season. D.C. scored twice in a 3-2 loss to the expansion Philadelphia Union, but had been shutout in its other four matches.

Hamid made his biggest stop in the closing seconds of the first when he lifted a low, one-hop shot from Jack Jewsbury over the bar for his third save.

Kansas City tested Hamid two more times in the opening minutes of the second, but the rookie denied substitute Kamara just 15 seconds after half, and again off a header in the 48th.

Hamid made another fine play on a cross from Ryan Smith that sailed toward the upper-right corner in the 60th. Hamid had to jump to get the ball, then extend his arms to keep the ball from crossing the line as he collided with the post.

Christian Castillo beat Nielsen on a 45-yard free kick in the 77th but drilled the left post, as D.C. sat on its lead over the final 45 minutes and failed to create many chances.

Kamara scored Kansas City's first goal since his match-winner against Colorado when he slid to reach a pass from Josh Wolff and sent the ball just inside the right post to spoil Hamid's shutout bid.

D.C. allowed a league-high 13 goals in its first five matches, but Hamid saved five shots as United allowed less than two goals for the first time. Hamid was handed the start in place of Troy Perkins, a U.S. national backup who appeared in the first five matches.

United visits FC Dallas on Saturday to wrap up a two-game week. Kansas City is off until May 15, when it hosts the Chicago Fire.

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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.

Super Bowl XLIII Betting - Super Bowl 2009

Super Bowl 2009, the Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Let’s take a look at the Super Bowl 2009 betting odds and the betting line and figure out where they’ve been and where they are going to go.

MySportsbook.com put up the Super Bowl 2009 betting odds late on Sunday night with the Pittsburgh Steelers favored by 6.5 points and a total betting line at 47.5 points.

Since then, however, the Super Bowl 2009 betting odds have seen a good deal of movement and you’ll want to be on top of where they are likely to move to make sure you get the best line value for the big game.

Since opening, the Super Bowl 2009 betting lines went to Steelers -7 in the span of roughly 3 hours but were quickly bought back down just minutes later to 6.5 again.

After that is took about 5-6 more hours before the betting line went back to -7 where it has sat for a while now and is likely to remain. The opening betting total of 47.5 was bet down right after the line became available and went to 47 within minutes.

Roughly a day later it has been bet even further down to the 46.5 tally it currently is set at.

Roughly 60% of gamblers seem to be on the Cardinals here so the point spread will be bet down and a 7.5 would not last very long at all with many taking the early 6.5 in hopes of finding a potential middle in the Super Bowl 2009 betting odds.

If you like Arizona and see a 7.5, I’d take it as soon as possible because it’s unlikely to last. For Pittsburgh backers, the -7 might be the best you’ll be able to find but a 6.5 is definitely possible close to game time.

Regarding the Super Bowl 2009 betting odds for the total, most tracked gamblers are already on the over and with those who took the under 47.5 already securing a middle on the over 46.5, the only way I see it moving is back up to 47 so if you like the over, I’d recommend betting now.

Get free Super Bowl XLIII Betting from top rated online sportsbook MySportsbook.com. Mysportsbook.com online Super Bowl betting with credit cards