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07/23/2010 - Seattle, WA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Following a successful first season in Major League Soccer, Seattle Sounders FC has fallen on hard times as they enter Sunday's contest with the Colorado Rapids at Qwest Field in seventh place in the Western Conference standings.
Seattle had won just once in its last seven games prior to a 1-0 win over D.C. United on July 15, with the lone goal coming in the 89th minute from Roger Levesque.
"The three points is everything - we're just so happy," Seattle goalkeeper Kasey Keller told mlssoccer.com. "We needed something to go our way. We've played well enough to win games, and we've given up late goals for draws, and it just felt good to keep that clean sheet, and to win 1-0, and for Roger to pop up at the end."
The Sounders will be hoping that the win can help turn around what has been a forgettable season to this point as the club owns just five wins from its first 17 games.
Seattle is 11 points back of second-place Real Salt Lake in the West, and with only the top two sides in each conference automatically qualifying for the playoffs, they have much work to do.
One player who could provide a boost is striker and designated player Blaise Nkufo, who was added to the team's active roster on July 15.
Nkufo played with Switzerland at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa this summer, and he could form a potent partnership up top with Fredy Montero, who leads Seattle with six goals this season.
The Rapids have lost only once in their last eight games, but they have been left frustrated by a string of draws that has left them tied for fourth place with the San Jose Earthquakes.
Colorado was held to a 1-1 draw by the Kansas City Wizards last time out, and although he was disappointed with the result, coach Gary Smith still felt good about where his team is going.
"Expectations get so high when a group's playing well, to then maybe come into a game and be below form creates huge disappointment for everyone," Smith told mlssoccer.com. "I went away and thought about it. It was the first time in 10 or 12 games when we haven't controlled proceedings and looked the better team."
Sunday will mark the first of three successive games against Western Conference foes for the Rapids, with matches against FC Dallas and San Jose to follow, so Smith's team will have a good chance to improve upon its current standing.
<< Wells, Cubs blank Cards to begin weekend series at Wrigley
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Randy Wells turned in seven scoreless innings,
and three different players hit home runs, as Chicago downed St. Louis, 5-0 in
the opener of a three-game set between these perennial rivals at Wrigley
Field.
<< Melzer and Golubev advance to semis in Hamburg
Hamburg, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jurgen Melzer and Andrey Golubev were
two of four quarterfinal winners at the German Open Tennis Championships
on Friday.
Melzer dispatched Potito Starace of Italy, 6-4, 6-1, in only 69 minu
<< Kings sign free agents Wright and Jeter
Sacramento, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Sacramento Kings have signed
forward/guard Antoine Wright and guard Pooh Jeter, the team announced Friday.
Wright averaged 6.5 points and 2.8 rebounds per game in 67 contests for
Toron
<< Timberwolves' Kahn fined for inappropriate remarks
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Minnesota Timberwolves president of basketball
operations David Kahn has been fined $50,000 for his recent remarks about
forward Michael Beasley, for whom the team recently traded.
Kahn spoke about Beasl
Chen and Dambaugh in U.S. Girls' Junior final >>
Village of Pinehurst, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Doris Chen and Katelyn Dambaugh
won both of their matches on Friday to advance to the final of the U.S. Girls'
Junior Championship.
Chen first knocked off stroke-play medalist Danielle Ka
Orioles' Wigginton suspended, will appeal >>
Baltimore, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Baltimore Orioles infielder Ty Wigginton has
been suspended by Major League Baseball for three games for his on-field
argument and subsequent volatile reaction with an umpire in Thursday's game
against
Coaches: Players also responsible for agent probe >>
HOOVER, Ala. (AP) -Tennessee coach Derek Dooley and Auburn's Gene Chizik both say the onus isn't just on agents to follow the rules, college athletes know the difference between right and wrong.``A lot of this has got to go back to the young guy,''
Thomas and Liu in finals of U.S. Junior >>
Ada, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Justin Thomas and Jim Liu both won twice on Friday
to advance to Saturday's 36-hole final of the U.S. Junior Amateur
Championship.
Thomas, 17, earned a 2 & 1 victory over Scott Wolfes
March Madness odds and printable March Madness brackets
With the field of 64/65 set, MySportsbook.com has the Florida Gators as the 4-1 favorite to successfully defend their National Championship. Men’s Division-1 College Basketball has not seen a team repeat as National Champions since Duke won back to back championships in ’91 & ‘92. After losing three out of four late in the season, the Gators are full of momentum as they won their last four games by an average of 18 points. Not surprisingly, right behind the Gators are the other three top seeds: Kansas 5-1, UNC 6-1, and Ohio State 7-1. Many consider Kansas to be the hottest team in the country, having won 11 straight. With Kansas, it is hard to ignore all of the early exits from the “dance” in recent years. With an impressive ACC Tournament, UNC ensured themselves the other top seed. UNC has about as much talent as any other team in the tournament but with a team that’s best players are primarily freshman and sophomores, could youth be a concern. Behind freshman sensation, Greg Oden, OSU will look to do what their football team failed to do just a few months earlier. OSU seems to have peeked at the right time, as they currently have a 17 game winning streak. Since the tournament field was expanded in 1985, there has never been an instance where all four #1 seeds advanced to the Final Four. It is obvious that each of the top seeds have the talent to make it through to Atlanta. But as everyone knows, when makes the NCAA Tournament so special are all of the spoilers and “Cinderella” stories that knock off the favorites on a daily basis.
Be sure to logon to MySportsbook.com to see check out all of the early lines and “March Madness” props. Also be sure to enter the “$10,000,000 Perfect Bracket Contest”. If someone has the skills to predict every winner, they will be set for life and walk away with $10,000,000. Even if no one can cash in on the Grand Prize, with a $35,000 guaranteed prize pool and a Mazda RX-8 to the first prize winner, Sportsbook.com’s bracket is a must for all “March Madness” fans.
MySportsbook.com’s odds to win the Championship and Regions:
| EAST | National Championship | Region |
| Arkansas | 300-1 | 50-1 |
| Belmont | 1000-1 | |
| Boston College | 100-1 | 40-1 |
| Eastern KY | 1000-1 | |
| George Washington | 75-1 | |
| Georgetown | 10-1 | 3-2 |
| Marquette | 100-1 | 40-1 |
| Michigan State | 100-1 | 25-1 |
| New Mexico St. | 500-1 | 200-1 |
| UNC | 6-1 | 6-5 |
| Oral Roberts | 500-1 | |
| Texas | 15-1 | 5-1 |
| Texas Tech | 200-1 | 5-1 |
| USC | 75-1 | 20-1 |
| Vanderbilt | 100-1 | 30-1 |
| Washington State | 40-1 | 15-1 |
| WEST | ||
| Duke | 50-1 | 10-1 |
| Florida A&M | 1000-1 | |
| Gonzaga | 200-1 | 40-1 |
| Holy Cross | 300-1 | |
| Illinois | 300-1 | 60-1 |
| Indiana | 75-1 | 40-1 |
| Kansas | 5-1 | 13-10 |
| Kentucky | 100-1 | 40-1 |
| Niagara | 1000-1 | |
| Pittsburgh | 40-1 | 8-1 |
| Southern Ill. | 50-1 | 12-1 |
| UCLA | 10-1 | 3-2 |
| VCU | 500-1 | 100-1 |
| Villanova | 100-1 | 40-1 |
| VA Tech | 50-1 | 15-1 |
| Weber St | 1000-1 | |
| Wright St | 1000-1 | 300-1 |
| MIDWEST | ||
| Arizona | 50-1 | 30-1 |
| Butler | 40-1 | 30-1 |
| Davidson | 300-1 | |
| Florida | 4-1 | 4-5 |
| Georgia Tech | 75-1 | 25-1 |
| Jackson State | 1000-1 | |
| Maryland | 30-1 | 6-1 |
| Miami-OH | 300-1 | |
| Notre Dame | 100-1 | 20-1 |
| ODU | 500-1 | 100-1 |
| Oregon | 40-1 | 6-1 |
| Purdue | 300-1 | 60-1 |
| Texas A&M CC | 1000-1 | |
| UNLV | 100-1 | 30-1 |
| Winthrop | 500-1 | 100-1 |
| Wisconsin | 15-1 | 7-2 |
| SOUTH | ||
| Albany | 200-1 | |
| BYU | 200-1 | 40-1 |
| Central CT St. | 1000-1 | |
| Creighton | 100-1 | 35-1 |
| Long Beach St. | 500-1 | 200-1 |
| Louisville | 40-1 | 10-1 |
| Memphis | 30-1 | 4-1 |
| Nevada | 75-1 | 35-1 |
| North Texas | 500-1 | |
| Ohio State | 7-1 | 6-5 |
| Penn | 500-1 | |
| Stanford | 200-1 | 50-1 |
| Tennessee | 100-1 | 20-1 |
| Texas A&M | 12-1 | 11-5 |
| Virginia | 75-1 | 18-1 |
| Xavier | 100-1 | 40-1 |
About MySportsbook.com MySportsbook.com is the largest sportsbook and casino on the planet, where millions of adult Americans bet on sports, play poker and enjoy blackjack and other casino games online in a regulated and licensed jurisdiction. Named the "Best US Sports Book" by the industry's top magazine, eGaming Review, MySportsbook.com has been leading the online gaming industry since 1996. Dwarfing its nearest competitors in the US, MySportsbook.com has been the first to achieve every significant industry milestone, from record turnover to active users to number of bets--achieving a peak of fifteen bets per second. As the US online gaming leader, the firm and it's products have been featured on CBS 60 Minutes, CNN, ESPN, Wall Street Journal, Barrons, Financial Times, USA Today and in every major newspaper in the US.
To bet on March Madness games this online sportsbook accepts credit cards.
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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