Penn State gives women's hoops coach Washington two-year extension

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

05/25/2010 - University Park, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Penn State head women's basketball coach Coquese Washington has signed a two-year contract extension through the 2013-14 season.

Washington led the Lady Lions to their best finish in five years last season with a postseason berth in the WNIT and 17 overall wins, including eight conference victories.

"We are very pleased with the progress that our women's basketball program has made under Coquese," Penn State director of athletics Tim Curley said. "With the return to the postseason for the first time in five years and back-to-back nationally-ranked recruiting classes, Coquese has established a solid foundation to put Lady Lion basketball back on the track to national prominence."

She became just the fifth head coach in the history of the program in April of 2007, replacing Renee Portland after 27 years on the job.

Collegecluv NCAA Basketball Betting News

<< Bielsa cuts Mancilla from Chile's squad
Santiago, Chile (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chile manager Marcelo Bielsa cut Toluca striker Hector Mancilla from his preliminary World Cup squad, leaving just one more player to be dropped before his final roster has to be submitted. Mancilla won

<< Dundee names Houston permanent manager
Dundee, Scotland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Peter Houston has been confirmed as the permanent manager of Scottish Cup winners Dundee United. The 51-year-old, who also guided the Terrors to third place in the SPL last season, has signed a three

<< Smith to stay with Rangers for one more year
Glasgow, Scotland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Rangers manager Walter Smith agreed to a one-year contract extension, but will retire after the 2010-11 season and turn the coaching duties over to current assistant Ally McCoist. "I am wholly committed

<< Bordeaux names Tigana new coach
Bordeaux, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Bordeaux named former player Jean Tigana its new coach Tuesday. Tigana, who played for Bordeaux from 1981-89 and made more than 50 appearances for France, replaces Laurent Blanc. Blanc will coach Fran

<< Valencia's Zigic set to join Birmingham
Valencia, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Birmingham is closing in on the signing of giant Valencia striker Nikola Zigic. The Blues are reported to have agreed a fee in the region of $7.2 million for the 6-foot-8 hitman, who has been linked wi

Mackay extends Saints stay >>
Perth, Scotland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Defender Dave Mackay has signed a new two- year contract with St Johnstone. The 29-year-old joined the Saints a year ago from Livingston and quickly established himself as a first-team regular at M

Ward signs new three-year deal with Wolves >>
Wolverhampton, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Wolverhampton Irish defender Stephen Ward has signed a new three-year contract with the Molineux club. The 24-year-old joined Wolves as a striker, but has been successfully converted to a

Talbot guides Indians over ChiSox >>
Cleveland, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mitch Talbot threw seven strong innings as the Cleveland Indians downed the Chicago White Sox, 7-3, in the second of a three-game set. Talbot (6-3) gave up two runs on six hits with four strikeouts.

Germany's Trasch to miss World Cup >>
Bolzano, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Germany midfielder Christian Trasch will miss the World Cup after spraining his ankle in a friendly game Monday against Italian club team FC Sudtirol, the team announced Tuesday. Trasch was helped off th

Atletico expects Aguero to stay in Madrid >>
Madrid, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Atletico Madrid President Enrique Cerezo expects striker Sergio Aguero to stay with the Europa League winners next season. The 21-year-old Argentina international continues to be linked with a m

Academy Award Betting Odds for Best Picture Offer Great Value

If there is any category that is not an obvious win for any one nominee in this year's Academy Awards, it would be for Best Picture.  Sure the Departed is a 5/7 favorite, but that's hardly anything when we look at Helen Mirren and her "out-of-reach" 1 to 40 odds (which means you would win a whopping $1 for every $40 bet).

For value, take a look at MySportsbook.com Oscars betting odds on my personal favorite, The Queen - a remarkable 12 to 1 long shot.  The film hasn't won any pre-awards for Best Picture (compared to The Departed and Little Miss Sunshine), but there is a tremendous following and it is a strong enough film to warrant a surprise win.

TV Guide advises Oscar watchers should be cautioned not to discount the  drama "Babel" with its strong social themes about overcoming communication gaps among people of different cultures.

"While 'Babel' lost several guild awards to 'Sunshine' and 'Departed,'  it still enjoys loyal support, and historically Oscar voters favor dramas with social messages over comedies like 'Sunshine' and violent crime movies like 'Departed'."

"It hasn't done well in the guilds, which means there isn't much industry support," said Tom O'Neil of awards site TheEnvelope.com, "But several critics are expecting it to win, and that gets my attention." Babel had 7 to 2 odds at press time.

Who is to say independently produced Little Miss Sunshine won't be this year's Crash.  Last year, Crash won for Best Motion Picture, shocking those who bet on gay cowboy flick, Brokeback Mountain, as the favorite to win. 

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your Sportsbook accepts Visa needs.

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.