Leaving a trail: Turkoglu snubs Portland, to sign with Raptors

Basketball Betting Lines

07/04/2009 - Portland, OR (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Sharp-shooting forward Hedo Turkoglu appeared headed to the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday afternoon, but by nightfall those talks apparently broke off.

In the latest turn of events, TNT basketball analyst David Aldridge reported late Friday night that Turkoglu has verbally committed to a five-year, $60 million contract with the Toronto Raptors, citing league sources.

According to the report, Toronto renounced its rights to forward Shawn Marion and guards Anthony Parker and Carlos Delfino, freeing up enough salary cap space to add the Turkish star.

The Oregonian newspaper originally reported Turkoglu agreed to a five-year, $50 million contract with Portland, but later in the day indicated he had rejected such an offer.

The 30-year-old Turkoglu, a first-round draft pick of Sacramento in 2000, had spent the previous five years with the Magic and averaged 16.8 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.9 assists over 77 games last season. He helped the Magic into the NBA Finals, but last week opted out of the final season of his deal that would have paid him $7.3 million.

Not only that, but the Magic already made a big move to replace Turkoglu by working out a trade with New Jersey for Vince Carter on draft night.

The 6-foot-10 Turkoglu spent his first three seasons with the Kings before joining the San Antonio Spurs for one seasons. For his career, he's averaging 12.3 points and 4.2 rebounds and is a career 38.5 percent shooter from three- point range.

Webmilllion Basketball Betting News

<< Roughriders hang on to top Lions in season opener
Regina, SK (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Darian Durant threw for 313 yards and had a rushing touchdown to help the Saskatchewan Roughriders to a 28-24 win over the British Columbia Lions in the season opener for both clubs. Durant went 18-for-32

<< Sadowski, Giants' offense destroy Astros
San Francisco, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ryan Sadowski got plenty of run support while throwing seven scoreless innings, as the Giants erupted offensively in a 13-0 whipping of the Astros. Sadowski (2-0), who made his major league debut Sunda

<< Kings acquire F Smyth in multi-player deal
Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Los Angeles Kings boosted their offense on Friday, acquiring All-Star forward Ryan Smyth from the Colorado Avalanche in a three-player deal. Smyth, 33, tied for the Avalanche lead in points last seas

<< Report: NHL to investigate Blackhawks' qualifying offers
Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Chicago Blackhawks are reportedly under investigation by the NHL for failing to tender qualifying offers to several restricted free agents by the league's set deadline. According to TSN Canada, th

<< Late miscue forces 'Quakes to share points with RSL
Sandy, UT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The San Jose Earthquakes and Real Salt Lake battled to a 1-1 draw in Major League Soccer action at Rio Tinto Stadium on Friday night. Arturo Alvarez scored the game's first goal for San Jose before a Chr

Ramirez quiet in return but Dodgers still double-up Padres >>
San Diego, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Manny Ramirez returned from a 50-game suspension and played only 5 1/2 innings, going 0-for-3 with a walk, two groundouts and a pop out, but the rest of his Dodger teammates picked up the slack

Huff leads O's past Angels >>
Anaheim, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Aubrey Huff went 2-for-4 with a three-run home run, as the Baltimore Orioles hung on to edge the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, 6-4, in the second test of a four-game series. Luke Scott stroked a two-ru

Raburn, Tigers use three-run 16th to edge Twins >>
Minneapolis, MN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ryan Raburn's RBI single in the 16th proved to be the game-winner as the Detroit Tigers took an 11-9 win over the Minnesota Twins in a 16-inning contest to open a three-get set at the Metrodo

Twins place Slowey on DL; recall Swarzak >>
Minneapolis, MN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Following the Twins' 16-inning 11-9 loss to the Tigers, Minnesota placed pitcher Kevin Slowey on the 15-day disabled list with a strained right wrist. Slowey started on the mound for the Twins Friday bu

Giants option INF Downs; activate INF Aurilia >>
San Francisco, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Following the Giants' 13-0 win over the Astros, the team optioned infielder Matt Downs to Triple-A Fresno to make room for infielder Rich Aurilia, who was activated from the bereavement list. The 25-ye

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.

You've come to the right place if you're searching for a great legal online sportsbook ! The sportsbooks featured on this page accept sports wagers for the NBA, MLB, NHL, NFL, NCAA, Tennis, Soccer, Auto-Racing, Golf, Boxing, Horseracing, and many more. Using the information displayed on this page, you'll be able to make a wise-decision when selecting an online sportsbook and wagering service.

If you've never wagered at an online sportsbook before, you will find the process of starting to be straightforward. First, you choose a sportsbook from the list provided below. We feature the top sportsbooks on the web, with rankings based on company size, reputation, security, web site usability, and payment options. Once you've chosen the betting site that's right for you, the next step is online registration. You'll need to provide some basic information to create your account and receive a username and password. At this time, you'll also select a payment option. The books reviewed accept Visa, Mastercard, BankWire, and several others. Once you have an account created with the Sportsbook, you're ready to start wagering. You'll want to get familiar with their website and contact their Customer Service department if you have any questions.

Also, make sure you read the terms and conditions, which is usually located at the bottom of the homepage. The terms and conditions will outline all of the rules and regulations for the sportsbook. Once you are comfortable with the website and fully understand all of the rules, you are ready to start betting on your favorite sports teams or even on some hot current events!

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs.