Celtics re-sign Nate Robinson

Basketball Betting Lines

07/19/2010 - Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Boston Celtics have re-signed guard Nate Robinson.

Terms of the deal were not released, but the Boston Herald reported last week that the diminutive guard agreed to a two-year, $8 million pact.

Boston acquired the three-time NBA Slam Dunk champion in a five-player deal with the Knicks in February, and the 5-foot-9, 180-pound sparkplug proved vital off the bench for the Eastern Conference champions.

Though his minutes went down considerably following the trade, Robinson donated 6.5 points and 2.0 assists in 26 regular season games as a backup to Rajon Rondo.

The 26-year-old netted three double-digit scoring games in the postseason, including a 13-point effort in a series-clinching win over Orlando in the conference finals.

"It is great to have Nate back and we think that he can contribute more significantly this upcoming season after a full training camp with the team," said Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge. "He helped us win some crucial playoff games this past postseason and we believe that we will see great things from him this coming season."

Robinson spent the first four-plus years of his career in New York. Over 338 career games, the Washington product has averaged 12.0 points and 2.7 assists per contest.

Nbcsporta Basketball Betting News

<< Padres extend manager Black's contract
San Diego, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The San Diego Padres announced Monday that they have extended manager Bud Black's contract through the 2013 season with club options for the 2014 and 2015 campaigns. "I am really happy to announce that

<< Liverpool wins race to sign Joe Cole
Liverpool, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former Chelsea midfielder Joe Cole has agreed to sign a four-year contract with Liverpool, the club announced on Monday. The 28-year-old Cole left the Blues last month after he was not offered a

<< Kovalchuk heading back to New Jersey
Newark, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ilya Kovalchuk is heading back to New Jersey and will re-sign with the Devils. According to the team's website, the Devils will hold a Tuesday afternoon press conference at the Prudential Center to make it

<< AP Source: Rich Cho named new Blazers GM
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -A person with knowledge of the hiring process says the Trail Blazers have named Oklahoma City assistant GM Rich Cho as Portland's new general manager.The person spoke to The Associated Press on Monday on condition of anonymity b

<< Mainz seals Fuchs loan deal
Mainz, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mainz have completed the one-year loan signing of Christian Fuchs from Bochum. The Austrian midfielder has the option of making the deal permanent next year following Bochum's relegation from the Bun

Wrong year for Life At Ten to be so good >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - When the two leading thoroughbreds in training are also the top female racehorses in the country, it becomes difficult for any other filly or mare to get recognized. This is the situation that confronts fi

Hurricanes sign C Nash >>
Raleigh, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Carolina Hurricanes have signed center Riley Nash to a three-year, entry-level contract. The deal will pay Nash $550,000 in 2010-11, $600,000 in 2011-12 and $700,000 in 2012-13 at the NHL level. H

NL West: Injuries piling up in LA >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Imagine the San Diego Padres trying to stay atop the NL West standings without Adrian Gonzalez, Chase Headley and Yorvit Torrealba. The Los Angeles Dodgers would certainly enjoy seeing that happen, but they're the one

Zenyatta continues in first, Life At Ten enters NTRA Poll >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - As the 2010 thoroughbred racing season enters the heart of the summer programs, Zenyatta remains the leader in the NTRA National Poll for week 20. The top 10 features one new addition with five- year-ol

Cho named new Blazers general manager >>
Portland, OR (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Portland Trail Blazers have named Rich Cho as the team's new general manager. No financial terms of the deal were announced. Cho had spent the past nine seasons as assistant GM of the Seattle

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.