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04/08/2010 - Leverkusen, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Bayern Munich lost to Manchester United in the Champions League on Wednesday, but former legend Franz Beckenbauer said it was "one of the nicest defeats in the history of Bayern."
Bayern lost to United 3-2 in the second leg of their Champions League match at Old Trafford, but scored the final two goals to level the series on aggregate 4-4 and advanced on away goals.
The German club is in the Champions League semifinals for the first time since 2001, sits atop the Bundesliga with five matches remaining and advanced to the Pokal Cup final, but "we've won nothing yet," captain Mark van Bommel said.
Bayern visits Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday for the third game of a crucial run on the road. Bayern won at Schalke last weekend, 2-1, to snap a two-game skid, then earned the result it needed in England.
A win at BayArena this weekend would send Leverkusen nine points off the pace, and leave Bayern ahead of Schalke regardless of its result against Hannover.
"All we're thinking about now is Leverkusen, we have to focus completely on them. It'll be an even more difficult game than the visit to Schalke, and we can't afford any more slip-ups in the league," Van Bommel said.
Bayern dropped back-to-back Bundesliga games after leading, losing 2-1 to both Eintracht and Stuttgart, to allow Schalke to move into the top spot before the match last week in Gelsenkirchen.
Franck Ribery and Thomas Muller scored just one minute apart midway through the first half, and Bayern held on after Hamit Altintop was sent off late in the opening half as the Munich side regained the league lead.
"It's our own fault that we're only a point clear at the top, and not a couple more. We want to win the league, which means we have to win in Leverkusen to keep Schalke behind us," said Van Bommel, who will miss the first leg of the Champions League semifinals against Lyon through suspension.
Bayern has featured a balanced offense, with Arjen Robben - who scored a great volley for the series-winning goal against United - and Mario Gomez both on 10 goals. Muller and Olic each have eight, while Ribery has four in five starts.
Leverkusen features one of the top scorers in the league in Stefan Kiessling, who is tied with Schalke's Kevin Kuranyi for second place with 18 goals. Eren Derdiyok is second on the club with 12 goals.
Leverkusen, which enters the week six points back of Bayern, opened the season on a 24-game unbeaten streak but has slipped from the top spot since losing to Nurnberg in early March.
Bayer has dropped four of its last five and now holds just a one-point lead on Borussia Dortmund for third place and the last Champions League berth.
Jupp Heynckes, who led Bayern over the final five games of last season, needs to get his new club back on track over the final five weeks of this season to secure a spot in Europe's top club event.
On Friday, Monchengladbach hosts Eintracht to open the weekend's matches. Also Saturday, Hannover hosts Schalke, Hoffenheim hosts Koln, Mainz hosts Borussia Dortmund, Hertha Berlin hosts Stuttgart, and Werder Bremen hosts Freiburg. On Sunday, Bochum hosts Hamburg and Nurnberg hosts Wolfsburg.
<< Woods cheered in return to golf
Augusta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tiger Woods took one last practice putt and
began the short walk to Augusta National's first tee, the most anticipated
golf shot in recent memory just minutes away.
Just 18 days earlier, in one of his televised
<< Vanderbilt C Ogilvy entering NBA Draft
Nashville, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Vanderbilt center A.J. Ogilvy has chosen to
forego his senior season of eligibility and enter the 2010 NBA Draft.
Ogilvy also plans to hire an agent, which will officially end his collegiate
career.
"W
<< Niemann leaves with bruised shoulder
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) -Tampa Bay right-hander Jeff Niemann left with one out in the second inning of Thursday night's game against Baltimore after being hit in the right shoulder by Miguel Tejada's line drive.The team said Niemann has a bruised
<< Assured of best record, Cavs rest James
CHICAGO (AP) -With the league's best record locked up and their eyes on a playoff run, the Cleveland Cavaliers held LeBron James out of Thursday's game against the Chicago Bulls.Coach Mike Brown said James has ``some bumps and bruises'' and acknowle
Couples leads Masters; Woods two back in return >>
Augusta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Fred Couples fired his lowest round ever at The
Masters, a six-under 66 on Thursday, and earned the first-round lead at The
Masters at Augusta National.
Tiger Woods made his return to golf and it was a trium
Wisconsin rips RIT, advances to NCAA men's ice hockey final >>
Detroit, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Derek Stepan posted two goals and two assists
as Wisconsin routed RIT, 8-1, in a Frozen Four matchup from Ford Field.
Justin Schultz and Blake Geoffrion posted a goal and one assist each for the
Badgers (2
MLS increases roster size from 24 to 26 per team >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Major League Soccer announced Thursday it has
added two additional roster slots per club for home grown players identified
and developed by the team.
MLS made the adjustment as part of its ongoing efforts
Real signs Beckerman to four-year deal >>
Sandy, UT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Real Salt Lake signed captain Kyle Beckerman to
a new four-year contract Thursday.
Beckerman, an 11-year MLS veteran, has started 83 games since joining Real in
a trade with the Colorado Rapids during the 2007
The most popular sports to bet on are NFL and college football along with NBA and NCAA basketball. There are multiple betting opportunities within those sports, beginning with the basic wager on a game’s outcome (also called betting the side). College Football Point spreads are used in both football and basketball in an attempt to even the attractiveness of each team in a match-up. ( See our article detailing how and why point spreads are made)
But you could also simply bet on the money line, or straight-up winner of the game. Oddsmakers use the money line so that more money must be risked on the favorite or expected winner and less money on the underdog to balance the action on both sides. While money line gambling is an attractive option for football and basketball bettors who only care about picking a winner, it is the primary option for those bettors who enjoy wagering on MLB baseball and individual sports like boxing, tennis, golf and racing events such as NASCAR. ( More details on playing the Money Line)
Another bet across all major team sports including football, basketball, baseball, and hockey involves wagering on the amount of scoring in a game, called an Over/Under total. For example, the Over/Under total on Super Bowl XXXIX was 48, which means a bettor could wager whether there would be more or less than 48 points scored by both teams combined in the game.
The final score of Super Bowl XXXIX was 24-21; the scoring of both teams added up to 45, which means the game went Under . So Under bettors won, and Over bettors lost.
Sports gambling doesn’t end there. Betting sides and totals are the most common wagers available everywhere, but many sportsbooks also offer future bets on big upcoming events like who will win next year’s Super Bowl and what movie will win Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
The main advantage of futures is that you can get appealing odds by betting far in advance. For example, with NFL futures you often can get much higher odds on a team by betting before the season even starts. A NFL future bet on a team to win the Super Bowl odds might be 20/1 in the preseason; but by midseason, their odds might decrease to 10/1 if they turn out to be legitimate championship contenders.
Involves one individual wager, whether it be on your team to cover the point spread, to win the game straight-up on the money line, or to go over/under the total.
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs.
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.”
To visit this internet sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your sports betting needs and World Series odds.
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