Buescher takes pole for Texas truck race

Autoracing Betting Lines

11/03/2011 - Fort Worth, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Texas-native James Buescher claimed the pole for the WinStar World Casino 350k Camping World Truck Series race after topping points leader Austin Dillon in Thursday's qualifying at Texas Motor Speedway.

Buescher, who hails from nearby Plano, TX, turned a lap at 181.062 mph around the fast 1.5-mile track for his third career pole in the series. His maiden pole came at Texas in June. Buescher has yet to win a truck race.

Dillon will start alongside Buescher on the front row after posting a lap at 180.783 mph.

Blake Feese qualified third, while Sprint Cup Series regular Kyle Busch took the fourth spot. Busch has won the last two fall truck races at Texas.

Ricky Carmichael and Justin Lofton will start from row three, followed by Nelson Piquet Jr. and Ty Dillon, who is Austin's younger brother, in row four.

Ron Hornaday Jr. and his team owner, Kevin Harvick, will occupy the fifth row. Hornaday won this year's spring race here.

Dillon presently holds an 11-point advantage over Buescher. Hornaday and Johnny Sauter are both 15 points behind the leader. Sauter qualified 12th.

Tim Andrews, Norm Benning and Derek White failed to qualify.

Friday's 147-lap truck race at Texas is scheduled to start just after 8:00 p.m. (et).

Wwwgoldenpalacecasino Autoracing Betting News

<< Rangers hand Ducks 4th straight loss
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Erik Christensen and Marian Gaborik scored on backhands in the shootout, and the New York Rangers handed the Anaheim Ducks their fourth straight loss, 2-1 on Thursday night. Jeff Woywitka scored his first

<< Jets blank Islanders
Uniondale, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ondrej Pavelec stopped all 34 shots he faced to lead the Winnipeg Jets to a 3-0 victory over the New York Islanders at Nassau Coliseum. It was Pavelec's first shutout of the year and the seventh of his

<< Toronto rolls past Columbus
Columbus, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Clarke MacArthur scored a pair of goals, leading the Toronto Maple Leafs to a 4-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets from Nationwide Arena. John-Michael Liles and Joey Crabb scored the other goals,

<< Canada announces roster for WC qualifiers
Ottawa, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Canada manager Stephen Hart announced his 18-man roster Thursday for two upcoming FIFA World Cup qualifiers, sticking with the majority of the team that played in the country's recent matches. Nineteen-year-old

<< Mexico leaves Marquez off roster
Mexico City, Mexico (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mexico coach Jose Manuel de la Torre left Rafael Marquez off the 20-man roster announced Thursday for an upcoming friendly against Serbia. Marquez, 32, is usually the captain for Mexico, but was n

Flames hand Red Wings sixth straight loss >>
Detroit, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jarome Iginla had two goals and one assist Thursday night and the Calgary Flames beat Detroit, 4-1, to hand the Red Wings their first six-game losing streak in almost four years. Lee Stempniak also scored

Verlander named Player of the Year by peers >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander was honored as Player of the Year in voting among his major league peers. Verlander, also named the American League's Most Outstanding Pitcher, had a career year a

Anderson leads by 3 in California >>
Desert Hot Springs, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Stuart Anderson fired an eight-under 64 Thursday to grab a three-stroke lead after the opening round of the Desert Dunes Classic. Anderson claimed his fourth tour title earlier this year at the Can

Kallstrom signs two-year extension with Lyon >>
Lyon, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Midfielder Kim Kallstrom signed a two-year contract extension with Lyon on Thursday as the Swedish international extended his stay with the French club through the summer of 2014. Kallstrom, 29, joined Lyo

Cullen leads Wild past Canucks >>
St. Paul, MN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Matt Cullen scored two goals and added an assist, leading the Minnesota Wild to a 5-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks from Xcel Energy Center. Pierre-Marc Bouchard scored and dished out two helper

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.

FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million

Football Betting

In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.

And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.

Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.

So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.

Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)

The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.

As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.

The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.

In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.

Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.

And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.

So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.

There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.

So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.

And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.

There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)

Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.

Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.

Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.

So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.

NFL Betting Lines

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