Another purse boost for Louisiana Derby

Horseracing Betting Lines

08/10/2010 - New Orleans, LA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - For the second straight year the Louisiana Derby at the Fair Grounds will receive an increase in purse money. The 1 1/8- mile race for three-year-olds will be worth $1 million an increase of $250,000.

"Our goal is to make the Louisiana Derby the number one Kentucky Derby prep race and a $1 million purse puts us on par with any of them," said Fair Grounds Vice President and General Manager Eric Halstrom. "When you consider the nice monthly progression of our three-year-old stakes series, comprised of three graded races that can help a horse accrue the earnings they need to make the Kentucky Derby, along with the reputation of our main track as a forgiving surface that gets horses exceptionally fit, there's no better place to get a promising three-year-old ready for the Triple Crown.

"I'm especially pleased that we were able to substantially boost the Louisiana Derby purse to this historic level without impacting any of the money committed to our hefty overnight purses."

The Louisiana Derby, which will be conducted for a 98th time on March 26, 2011, had its purse boosted this year from $600,000 to $750,000. The other two graded stakes for three-year-olds at the Fair Grounds are the Lecomte and Risen Star Stakes.

"A Louisiana Derby purse boost will make it easier for the top few finishers to amass the graded earnings they need to make the gate for the Kentucky Derby," said Donald R. Richardson, Vice President of Racing for parent company CDI. "This year it took more than $225,000 in graded earnings to be in the Kentucky Derby field, the highest cutoff ever. Next year I believe horsemen are going to be more careful about choosing to run only in the richest graded events."

The 2010 Louisiana Derby was won by Mission Impazible, who finished ninth in the Run for the Roses. Finishing second behind Mission Impazible was A Little Warm, winner of last month's Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga. Drosselmeyer was third and went on to capture the Belmont Stakes.

The track's 2010-11 live racing season will beginning Thanksgiving Day, November 25 and conclude on Sunday, March 27.

Yeoma Horseracing Betting News

<< Bruins: Savard deal investigated like Kovalchuk's
BOSTON (AP) -The Boston Bruins say they're cooperating with the NHL in its investigation of Marc Savard's contract.The league is looking into Savard's contract after voiding one with a similar structure that went to Ilya Kovalchuk. The Devils had ag

<< Pa. coach Paterno nominated for Medal of Freedom
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) -Penn State football coach Joe Paterno has been nominated for the highest civilian award in the country.Congressmen including Glenn Thompson, Mark Critz and Tim Holden say the Hall of Fame coach deserves a Presidential Medal

<< Celtics sign F Harangody
BOSTON (AP) -The Boston Celtics have signed Luke Harangody, their second-round draft pick.The deal is for two years. Terms were not disclosed.The 6-foot-8 forward was the 52nd pick in this year's draft.At Notre Dame, Harangody finished as the No. 3

<< D'Antoni OK with Isiah role, Coach K would pass
NEW YORK (AP) -Mike D'Antoni sounds OK with it. Mike Krzyzewski wouldn't do it.Isiah Thomas' return to the New York Knicks as a consultant while still coaching a college team has raised plenty of questions - starting with whether it's even legal.D'A

<< Aging 'El Duque' aims for one more shot in majors
VIERA, Fla. (AP) -Orlando Hernandez isn't ready to give up baseball.The four-time World Series champion is now a 44-year-old pitching for the Washington Nationals' affiliate in the Gulf Coast League for rookies. Known as ``El Duque,'' he's now just

Major schedule changes have come, but does there need to be more >>
Sparta, KY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - With the 2011 schedule for all three of its national touring series expected to be released within the next couple of weeks, NASCAR is making some significant revisions to its Sprint Cup schedule, in hop

Missouri State G/F Pickens out for season >>
Springfield, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Missouri State guard/forward Keith Pickens is expected to miss the upcoming season following knee surgery. Pickens ruptured his left patellar tendon during off-season conditioning last week. Surg

Montana's Wilson to be held out >>
Missoula, MT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - University of Montana senior cornerback Jimmy Wilson, whose athletic eligibility was restored following his acquittal on murder charges, will be held out of the beginning of fall camp drills because of an alleged

Seahawks sign LB Hagler among four roster moves >>
Renton, WA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Seattle Seahawks made four roster moves on Tuesday, most notably agreeing to a contract with veteran linebacker Tyjuan Hagler. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The six-year pro started seven ga

Berdych moves on; Roddick pulls out in Toronto >>
Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Wimbledon runner-up Tomas Berdych was an easy second-round winner at the $2.43 million Roger Cup, an ATP Masters event. Former champion Andy Roddick pulled out of the draw here on Tuesday, citing an illness. 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.

Pro Football Odds : NFC SOUTH BETTING ODDS

NFL Sports Betting

NFL betting action is back! At MySportsbook, all of the pro football odds are posted for the NFC North. Check out how we see the four teams in this cloudy division stacking up this year in the chase for the playoffs! Green Bay Packers (+125) - With QB Aaron Rodgers leading the offense and DC Dom Capers working his magic on defense, the Packers are a real force to be reckoned with.

Virtually nothing changed on this offense for Green Bay from last year to this year, save for the addition of rookie OT Brian Bulaga to the bunch. Expect more huge numbers from the Pack, and a relatively favorable schedule should get them over the hump and into the playoffs once again this season. My NFL Betting Predictions: 11-5, 1st place in NFC North Minnesota Vikings (+130) - There are still too many unknowns about the Vikes this year. There is a huge difference between QB Brett Favre and either Tarvaris Jackson or Sage Rosenfels under center. Plus, is Favre comes back, is he really going to be able to keep his pick total under double digits again? Depth at running back looked like it might have been an issue with RB Chester Taylor fleeing in free agency, but drafting RB Toby Gerhart should pick up the difference. This defense is still suitable, but with a first place schedule, making the playoffs is going to be very tough regardless of whether #4 comes back or not.

There is a huge difference between QB Brett Favre and either Tarvaris Jackson or Sage Rosenfels under center. Plus, is Favre comes back, is he really going to be able to keep his pick total under double digits again? Depth at running back looked like it might have been an issue with RB Chester Taylor fleeing in free agency, but drafting RB Toby Gerhart should pick up the difference. This defense is still suitable, but with a first place schedule, making the playoffs is going to be very tough regardless of whether #4 comes back or not. Play this weekly NFL Football Contestto see if you can win.

Chicago Bears (+350) - The Bears are probably a bit of an overhyped team once again this year.No, we don't think it is plausible for QB Jay Cutler to have as bad of a season as he did last year, and we do think the additions of RB Chester Taylor and DE Julius Peppers are going to help immensely, but there's still something in the water in the Windy City that we aren't so sure about. Maybe Chicago finds its way to .500... but then again, maybe it doesn't. If Favre comes back, Cutler might be the worst quarterback in this division this year.

Detroit Lions (+1500) - The Lions are probably once again going to be the whipping boys for the rest of the teams in the NFC North, but they aren't just going to roll over and die once again. There is some real talent amassing on this team offensively, as the combination of QB Matt Stafford, RB Jahvid Best, WR Calvin Johnson, and TE Brandon Pettigrew should put a bunch of points on the board if the offensive line can even remotely hold up. The questions really lie on defense, where it feels like DT Ndamukong Suh is going to be trying to stop opposing teams all by himself. This year should show some marked improvement in the Motor City.

The Patriots will make NFL betting fans a lot of money this season, get in early and enjoy the cash.

NFL Betting

To visit this sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your NFL football betting needs.