British Amateur champ Manassero turns pro

Golf Betting Lines

05/03/2010 - Turin, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Italy's Matteo Manassero, who became the youngest British Amateur champion ever last year, turned professional on Monday in time to make his pro debut at the BMW Italian Open.

After being the youngest ever British Amateur champion at age 16, Manassero will be the second-youngest European Tour member ever. He will be 17 years and 17 days old on Thursday -- nine days older than Seve Ballesteros was when he made his professional debut.

"I feel ready to turn pro and am happy to play my first event as a professional in Italy at the BMW Italian Open," said Manassero. "I am grateful that the Italian Federation and the sponsors have given me the opportunity to start my professional career at home in front of my family and friends and all those who have supported me throughout my amateur career."

The young Italian played alongside Tom Watson and Sergio Garcia at the British Open last year and finished tied for 13th. He was the youngest player to earn low amateur honors in 60 years.

Manassero tied for 36th at the Masters earlier this year for low amateur honors and he became the first British Am winner since Garcia to make the cut at Augusta. Manassero was also the youngest to ever compete at the Masters.

Wwwhighrollercasino Golf Betting News

<< Welsh resigns as Hofstra's hoops coach following arrest
Hempstead, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Hofstra University announced Monday that Tim Welsh has resigned as head men's basketball coach, just three days after he was arrested for a reported DWI. The school said in a statement that Welsh resign

<< AL West: Mariners' rotation getting healthy, bats still cold
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The imposing starting rotation which Seattle Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik dreamt up this offseason is nearly in place. Former Cy Young winner Cliff Lee, acquired in an offseason trade from Philadelphia, made h

<< ISU's Boozer to leave team after arrest
AMES, Iowa (AP) -Iowa State reserve guard Charles Boozer says he's leaving the team to seek treatment for unspecified problems.Boozer was arrested over the weekend after a woman told police he slapped and kicked her.Police say Boozer was charged wit

<< Red Stars grab first win of season
Cambridge, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Chicago Red Stars claimed their first win of the season on Saturday at Harvard Stadium as Casey Nogueira and Cristiane scored second-half goals in a 2-0 win over the Boston Breakers. Following a score

<< Diamondbacks recall Valdez to start against Astros
Houston, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Arizona Diamondbacks recalled right-hander Cesar Valdez from Triple-A Reno to make his major league debut in Monday's series opener at Houston. The 25-year-old Valdez went 1-1 with a 3.80 earned run a

Capps earns monthly closer honor >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Washington Nationals closer Matt Capps has been selected as the Major League Baseball Delivery Man of the Month for April. Capps finished the first month of the season with 10 saves in as ma

Van Nistelrooy could be left out by Dutch >>
Amsterdam, Netherlands (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Hamburg striker Ruud van Nistelrooy looks set to miss this summer's World Cup in South Africa after being left out the Netherlands' 26-man training squad for the tournament. The 33-year-old former

Benayoun unsure over Liverpool future >>
Liverpool, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Liverpool midfielder Yossi Benayoun is unsure whether he will still be at Anfield next season. The Israel international has been a popular figure on Merseyside following his transfer from West Ham an

Columbia names Kyle Smith new men's hoops coach >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Columbia has named Kyle Smith its new men's basketball coach. Smith has spent 18 years as an assistant coach, including the past nine seasons at St. Mary's in California. He helped the Gaels to a r

McIlroy to No. 9 in world rankings >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Rory McIlroy won for the first time on the PGA Tour on Sunday and moved to No. 9 in the latest world rankings. Ahead of McIlroy, the top eight were unchanged from last week with Tiger Woods followed by Ph

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.