Isiah Thomas: LeBron should go to NY

Basketball Betting Lines

06/29/2010 -

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -Former New York Knicks coach Isiah Thomas thinks LeBron James should continue his career in the Big Apple.

James, who has played his first seven years with the Cleveland Cavaliers, officially becomes a free agent on July 1.

Thomas, who led the Detroit Pistons to two NBA titles and is in the Hall of Fame, said New York offers the biggest stage and would provide James with his greatest challenge. He said James' presence in New York would be good for the league.

Thomas, now the head coach at Florida International, made the statement Tuesday after participating in an Indiana University panel discussion about diversity in sports journalism.Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

Wwwldell Basketball Betting News

<< Heat make qualifying offer to C Anthony
Miami, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Miami Heat have made a qualifying offer to center Joel Anthony. Anthony played in a career-high 80 games last season, logging 16 1/2 minutes per game. The 27-year-old UNLV product has spent three seas

<< Trail Blazers waive Ryan Gomes
Portland, OR (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Portland Trail Blazers on Tuesday waived forward Ryan Gomes. Gomes and Luke Babbitt, the 16th overall pick in the 2010 NBA Draft, were acquired by Portland in a draft day trade with the Minnesota T

<< Yao exercises player option with Rockets
Houston, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Houston Rockets center Yao Ming has exercised the player option in his contract that will allow him to return to the team for the 2010-11 season. Yao had the option of terminating his contract early

<< Sampras, Agassi, McEnroe, Lendl to play at MSG
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - New York's Madison Square Garden will host an exhibition tennis event in February, as Pete Sampras will play former long- time rival Andre Agassi and John McEnroe will take on former arch-rival Ivan Lendl.

<< Report: Oilers waive Moreau, two others
Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Edmonton Oilers have apparently waived captain Ethan Moreau and forwards Robert Nilsson and Patrick O'Sullivan, according to a report on TSN.ca on Tuesday. The reported moves were necessary as th

Cardinals place 3B Freese on DL >>
St. Louis, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The St. Louis Cardinals placed third baseman David Freese on the 15-day disabled list on Tuesday. The move, which is retroactive to June 28, is due to a bone bruise in Freese's right ankle which has been bot

Braves activate OF Diaz from DL >>
Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Atlanta Braves activated outfielder Matt Diaz from the 15-day disabled list on Tuesday. Diaz, who was placed on the DL on May 15 and underwent surgery on his infected right thumb shortly after, takes t

A Little Warm comes up hot in Delaware >>
Stanton, DE (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Three months after finishing second in the Louisiana Derby, A Little Warm got back into action Tuesday afternoon at Delaware Park. The three-year-old colt returned to racing in a 1 1/16-mile allowan

Athletics' Braden scratched from start >>
Baltimore, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Oakland Athletics pitcher Dallas Braden was scratched hours before his scheduled start against the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday due to elbow stiffness. In 15 starts this season, Braden is 4-7 with a 3

Strasburg should be Stars-burg >>
Ryan Franklin spent more than 15 seasons trying to become an All-Star, wending through Bellingham and Appleton and Port City, working as a starter, middleman and setup guy, waiting for that special night to hear the PA announcer call his name, jog 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.