NYRA notifies employees of pending closures

Horseracing Betting Lines

05/21/2010 - Elmont, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New York Racing Association (NYRA) announced Friday that it has notified its employees of the pending end of racing operations and track closings on Wednesday, June 9. The NYRA operates Belmont Park, Saratoga Race Course and Aqueduct Racetrack.

The notices, sent out on Thursday, were necessary due to the financial problems that the organization is having. More than 1,400 employees received the notices in accord to the requirements of the Federal and New York State Workers Adjustment and Retraining Notification Acts.

While the NYRA is pursuing solutions with the State of New York that would avoid the end of racing operations, it is still likely that layoffs would begin as soon as June 9.

The NYRA is franchised by the State of New York to operate the three racetracks through 2033.

Wwwnetbet Horseracing Betting News

<< MLB - Stay away from high-priced favorites
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Favorites of -180 or more are 61-35 through the first six weeks of the baseball season. That's a solid 64% clip, a higher mark than all but one major league club. However, when a team is favored by such

<< World Cup 2010 Preview: Dutch want elusive title
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Bert van Marwijk took over the Netherlands following Euro 2008, when the Oranje breezed through the group stage only to be eliminated in the first knockout round in their second straight major tournam

<< Zheng, Dulgheru will decide Warsaw champion
Warsaw, Poland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Fifth-seeded Zheng Jie of China and reigning champion Alexandra Dulgheru of Romania will square off in Saturday's final at the $600,000 Warsaw Open, a final French Open tune-up. Zheng handled Hung

<< Serbia trims roster to 24 players
Belgrade, Serbia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Radomir Antic trimmed Serbia's World Cup roster to 24 players Friday, leaving one more player to be cut before the last squad has to be submitted June 1. Forwards Dejan Lekic and Miralem Sulejmani, mi

<< Subway Series commences as Yanks visit Mets
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Big Apple bragging rights between the New York Yankees and Mets will be on the line again in the 2010 version of the Subway Series, which kicks off Friday night at Citi Field. The Mets will play host for this three-game se

It is time to bring Strasburg to DC >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Of all the surprises through the first month-and-a-half of the major league season, nothing may be more shocking than the fact that the Washington Nationals are .500 heading into this weekend's slate of interleague play.

World Cup 2010 Preview: Lowered expectations for Nigeria >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - No African nation has ever reached the semifinals of the World Cup, but if you were to rewind time about 15 years, Nigeria would be the odds on favorite to do it. With players like Sunday Oliseh, Vi

Breeders' Cup ultimate goal for Mine That Bird >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Now that Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas has 2009 Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird in his barn, the veteran horseman needs to map out a way to get the gelding to the 2010 Breeder

Nats release Taveras >>
Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Washington Nationals released Willy Taveras on Friday, six days after designating the outfielder for assignment. Washington signed the 28-year-old to a minor-league deal prior to the season. Tavera

AL Central: What lies ahead for Royals? >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Now that the manager has been replaced and the Royals are settling back into their customary place toward the bottom of the American League Central standings, the next question is, where do they go from here? Well, let's t

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.