14th-ranked Purdue takes on Penn State in Big Ten battle

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

01/06/2009 - University Park, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 14th-ranked Purdue Boilermakers will try to avoid an 0-2 start to Big Ten play tonight, as they square off against the Penn State Nittany Lions at the Bryce Jordan Center.

The Boilermakers kicked off their Big Ten slate a week ago, dropping a 71-67 overtime decision to Illinois. It was the second overtime loss this season for Purdue, which fell to 0-5 in such games under head coach Matt Painter. With the setback, the Boilermakers saw their six-game win streak come to an end, as they dipped to 11-3 on the season.

As for PSU, it too comes into the contest on a low note, falling 65-61 at Wisconsin on Saturday. The loss snapped the team's five-game win streak and dropped it to 12-3 overall and a level 1-1 in league play. The Lions, who are 2-3 in their last five meetings against ranked teams, now return back home, where they have go a solid 9-1, including five straight wins.

The head-to-head to series, though, is led by Purdue, which holds a 20-9 advantage over PSU and has won the last four meetings.

The Boilermakers have really clamped down on defense this season, forcing 18.0 turnovers per game and holding foes to a mere 35.8 percent shooting from the floor. E'Twaun Moore has made his presence felt at both ends of the floor and he leads Purdue in scoring (14.6 ppg), to go with 21 steals. Robbie Hummel turns in 13.8 ppg and a team-high 8.1 rpg for Purdue, while JaJuan Johnson adds 12.6 ppg and 5.5 rpg to the mix. In the team's last game, Johnson recorded a double-double with 16 points and 15 rebounds, but it wasn't enough for Purdue in an overtime loss to Illinois. Moore logged a team-high 17 points, and Hummel snared 11 caroms in the setback. The Boilermakers did themselves in with poor shooting, connecting only 38.1 percent from the floor, 4-of-16 from long range and 15-of-27 at the foul line.

The Lions are shooting a solid 39.8 percent from three-point range for an average of 71.7 ppg, and they are also crashing the boards following any missed shots, outrebounding foes by 6.1 rpg. Talor Battle, a 42.6 percent shooter from long distance, has been outstanding for PSU and he leads the team in scoring (18.7 ppg), assists (5.1 apg) and steals (22). Stanley Pringle has provided a nice complement to him with 14.9 ppg, 3.3 apg and 19 steals, while Jamelle Cornley contributes 14.5 ppg and a team-high 7.1 rpg. On Saturday, Pringle poured in a career-high 26 points and doled out five assists, but the Lions just didn't have enough to upend Wisconsin. Cornley also had a big game with 20 points and seven rebounds, but Battle was held to only six points in the setback. Wisconsin held a 12-8 edge in free-throw points and a 26-16 advantage in points in the paint and that was good enough to hand PSU the loss.

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

Ryder Cup Odds

Europe
Tie
USA
4-5
10-1
6-5


Ryder Cup Top US point scorer
Tiger Woods
Jim Furyk
Phil Mickelson
Chris DiMarco
David Toms
Stewart Cink
Chad Campbell
Scott Verplank
Zach Johnson
Vaughan Taylor
JJ Henry
Brett Wetterich
9-4
4-1
5-1
7-1
8-1
12-1
15-1
15-1
25-1
30-1
30-1
50-1


Ryder Cup Top European scorer
Sergio Garcia
Luke Donald
Padraig Harrington
Colin Montgomerie
Darren Clarke
David Howell
Lee Westwood
Paul Casey
Henrik Stenson
Jose Maria Olazabal
Paul McGinley
Robert Karlsson
5-1
5-1
6-1
13-2
8-1
9-1
9-1
11-1
12-1
12-1
20-1
25-1

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com

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.”

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