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Astros sign Jack Cust

Baseball Betting Lines

01/18/2012 - Houston, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Astros have signed outfielder Jack Cust to a one-year contract, the team announced Wednesday.

The deal is worth $600,000 and includes a club option for the 2013 season.

Cust, 33, spent last season with Seattle and hit just .213 with three homers and 23 RBI in 67 games. However, he did post a .344 on-base percentage.

Cust has played in 670 games in parts of 10 majors league seasons with Arizona, Colorado, Baltimore, San Diego, Oakland and the Mariners. He is a career .242 hitter with a .374 OBP, 105 homers and 323 RBI.

Houston will need to clear a spot on the 40-man roster to make room for Cust.

<< De Laet sent back to United from Norwich
Norwich, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Norwich City has canceled the season-long loan deal of defender Ritchie De Laet and returned him to his parent club, Manchester United. De Laet initially moved to Norwich in June, but a series of inj

<< Stamps DL Claybrooks retires, named defensive line coach
Calgary, AB (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Calgary Stampeders defensive lineman DeVone Claybrooks announced his retirement on Wednesday, and was named the club's defensive line coach. "I want to thank the Calgary Stampeders organization for thre

<< Jonathan joins Parma on loan
Parma, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Parma has secured the services of defender Jonathan on loan for the rest of the season from Inter Milan. The 25-year-old moved to Inter from Santos over the summer but has only managed to appear in

<< Milan's Boateng to miss four weeks
Milan, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - AC Milan midfielder Kevin-Prince Boateng is expected to miss the next four weeks because of a thigh injury, the club announced on Wednesday. Boateng sustained the problem in Sunday's 1-0 defeat to In

<< Ticats safety Barker retires
Hamilton, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Hamilton Tiger-Cats revealed on Wednesday that safety Dylan Barker was forced to retire due to a chronic back issue. "I would like to thank everyone involved with my CFL career, especially the Hamilton

Banks becomes DC at Illinois >>
Champaign, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Illinois has named Tim Banks its new defensive coordinator. Banks spent the last five seasons as a co-defensive coordinator -- three at Central Michigan and the last two at Cincinnati. Under h

Lille defender Basa to undergo shoulder surgery >>
Lille, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Lille will be without defender Marko Basa for the next three months after he undergoes a shoulder operation set for Thursday. Basa sustained the injury in last Wednesday's Coupe de la Ligue defeat to

Ilgauskas joins Cavaliers front office >>
Cleveland, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Zydrunas Ilgauskas is back with the Cavaliers, who announced Wednesday that their former long-time center is joining the front office as special assistant to the general manager. Ilgauskas, 3

Utah kicks leading scorer off team >>
Salt Lake City, UT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Utah guard Josh Watkins, the leading scorer on the men's basketball team, has been dismissed for an unspecified violation of team rules. Watkins had been suspended earlier this season for "conduc

Former Alcorn State QB Bridge lands at South Alabama >>
Mobile, AL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Some might have considered quarterback Brandon Bridge to be a FBS-level talent when he played on the FCS level at Alcorn State. The Canadian import will be getting an opportunity to play at the higher level.

Mayweather picked to beat De La Hoya
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA -- Golden Boy Oscar De La Hoya and his rival Floyd Mayweather Jr. arrived at the MGM Grand here Wednesday amid the pomp and pandemonium befitting two of the biggest stars in the sport who are about to duke it out for the WBC super welterweight crown this Saturday (Sunday in Manila).

As of Wednesday, MySportsbook.com closed its book with Mayweather a favorite to defeat De La Hoya at -170 (a $100 bet wins $70), while De La Hoya is a +140 underdog (a $100 bet wins $140).

Mayweather arrived at about 11:30 a.m. on a big truck with his face and a big "World's Best Pound-for-Pound" sign scribbled across the vehicle. He was accompanied by his entourage made up of rappers and his training team.

A crowd of close to 3,000 eager fans packed the MGM Grand lobby, with their cameras in tow, all trying to vie for position to get a good angle at Mayweather, who is acknowledged as the world's best fighter pound-for-pound.

Eric Gomez, Golden Boy Promotions vice-president, described the fan turnout as "amazing" and swore he had never seen anything quite like this event.

"The crowd was fantastic. Everybody was just too eager to see the two fighters," said ALA manager Michael Aldeguer, who was among those who waited at the lobby together with his ward Rey "Boom Boom" Bautista and AJ Banal.

De La Hoya made his own grand entrance at the hotel lobby at around 12:30 p.m. accompanied by GBP chief executive officer Richard Schaefer and trainer Freddie Roach.

The same group of fans who trooped to see Mayweather also lingered around to get a close look at De La Hoya, who has been secretly working out at a Las Vegas gym for days after arriving from his main training camp in Puerto Rico.

The golden boy then took part in a closed-door afternoon workout with Bautista and Banal. The two, along with Aldeguer and wife Christine, as well as an HBO crew were the only ones allowed inside the gym.

De La Hoya and Mayweather take part in today's final press conference before the official weigh-in this Friday.

Ring Magazine, the acknowledged bible of boxing, reported in its June 2007 issue that 12 out of 20 boxing experts it interviewed have favored Mayweather to defeat De la Hoya, with only 8 favoring the latter.

But Filipino ring icon Manny Pacquiao said in a recent interview with The Freeman's Emmanuel Villaruel that De La Hoya will win by unanimous decision over Mayweather.

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your bet on boxing 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.