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09/02/2010 - Inglewood, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 2010 Oak Tree racing meet will be conducted at Hollywood Park. The announcement became official on Thursday.
"It's an honor to run the Oak Tree stakes races at Hollywood Park," said Martin Panza, Hollywood Park's vice-president of racing and racing secretary. "Oak Tree has seven Grade 1's that are very prestigious and extremely significant in getting horses ready for the Breeders' Cup. We look forward to having those races run here."
The Oak Tree Racing Association's 42nd season will be held from Thursday, September 30 through Sunday, October 31. The association's thoroughbred season had been held at Santa Anita Park beginning in 1969.
Questions about the condition of Santa Anita's synthetic track forced Oak Tree to move its 2010 races to Hollywood Park. Santa Anita, which is owned by MI Developments, intends to change its main racing surface to dirt in time for the 2010-11 meeting.
Earlier this summer MID Chairman Frank Stronach agreed to a special one-year lease contract with Oak Tree that would have allowed the non-profit organization to operate this fall as originally scheduled. MID voided the original lease with Oak Tree in May, which was scheduled to be good through 2016.
Two-time champion mare Zenyatta is scheduled to have her final Breeder's Cup prep during the Oak Tree meet. The six-year-old will start in the $250,000 Lady's Secret Stakes on Saturday, October 2. The 1 1/16-mile race had been slated to be renamed in honor of the reigning Eclipse Award winner. However, the original name has been re-instituted.
<< Deutsche Bank extends sponsorship through 2012
Norton, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Deutsche Bank has exercised a two-year option to
remain as the title sponsor of the PGA Tour playoffs event at the TPC Boston
through 2012.
The Deutsche Back Championship debuted in 2003, marking the return o
<< Cane Pace kicks off Triple Crown series
Freehold, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Pacing's Triple Crown gets started on Labor
Day with the running of the $300,000 Cane Pace at Freehold Raceway. Eight
three-year-old pacers have been entered for the one-mile stakes.
The Triple Crown
<< A's P Braden leaves game
Bronx, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Oakland Athletics pitcher Dallas Braden left
Thursday's start against the New York Yankees with cramping on a hot day at
Yankee Stadium.
Braden exited in the sixth inning with Oakland trailing, 1-0. T
<< Celtics roll the dice with West
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Miami Heat may have dominated the
offseason headlines, but the Boston Celtics are still the top dogs in the East.
After taking the Los Angeles Lakers to seven games in the NBA Finals last
season, the v
Wozniacki rolls into third round in Flushing >>
Flushing Meadows, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki was an
easy second-round winner Thursday at the 2010 U.S. Open.
The 2009 runner-up Wozniacki double-bageled Taipei's Kai-Chen Chang 6-0, 6-0
in a mere 47 minutes at Ashe
Sabathia domiantes as Yanks sweep A's >>
Bronx, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - CC Sabathia became baseball's first 19-game
winner with a one-hitter over eight innings as the Yankees completed a four-
game sweep of Oakland with a 5-0 win.
Sabathia (19-5) now has a streak of 21 unbe
Penn St prez welcomes Nebraska crossover game >>
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) -Penn State president Graham Spanier likes the revised Big Ten football schedules that include a regular high-profile game with Nebraska.The conference announced Wednesday new divisional alignments and schedules for football
Nike to alter uniform ad that upset mine activists >>
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) -West Virginia University says Nike will modify the graphic in a promotional ad for a new football uniform that depicts a mountaintop removal mine.A statement issued late Thursday from Nike said the same thing WVU said earlier
Is there such a thing as a trap game in the NFL?
I once asked that question to Pete Korner, who at the time was office manager and a senior linesmaker for Las Vegas Sports Consultants.
Korner almost ripped my head off. There is no such thing as a trap game, he loudly berated me. It’s a myth. The numbers are made using power ratings, he said.
There are trap games, though. They just might not be what you think. The perception is of a good team, say Philadelphia, laying a small number against New Orleans.
Using the highly-respected power ranking from The Gold Sheet, you’d find the Eagles with a power rating of 4 and the Saints at 8. When you factor the game being played in New Orleans, you could see why the line opened so short at less than a field goal.
For some, this makes it enticing to take the Eagles. That’s not a real trap game, though.
A real trap game, says professional gambler Dave Malinsky, is thinking you’re getting value betting a bad team, which brings us to the Oakland Raiders-Denver Broncos matchup.
The Raiders are +15 in this long-standing division rivalry. Denver is on a short week having dispatched Baltimore Monday. However, the Raiders haven’t covered the spread their last 10 games.
Many bettors don’t trust the Raiders to give a full effort. Few think much of Art Shell and his Oakland’s coaching staff.
So oddsmakers have to do something to make Oakland attractive if they hope to get equal action.
Now Malinsky is a value shopper. But he won’t touch the Raiders even getting more than two touchdowns.
“I try to eliminate the undisciplined, unfocused teams because they’re the ones most likely to suffer the bad beats,” he said.
Near the top of Malinsky’s list of stay-away teams is the Miami Dolphins, who have yet to cover a spread this season.
“Whatever you think of Nick Saban, you have to look at the penalties and turnovers,” Malinsky said.
It’s easy to point out the Dolphins failed to get the money this past week against New England because Olindo Mare missed a field goal and had another field goal blocked. But even though the Dolphins outgained the Patriots, 283-213, they committed eight penalties.
Bad teams not only cost themselves victories, but pointspread covers as well. The Arizona Cardinals and Green Bay Packers are two more examples.
The Cardinals couldn’t have been in a better position this past Sunday, up 14-0 at home against a mediocre Kansas City Chiefs squad. But they couldn’t hold it. The Packers got a push against St. Louis, but also could have won losing by three when Brett Favre fumbled at the St. Louis 11-yard line with 44 seconds left.
“The Packers were in a position to beat Philadelphia, too,” Malinsky said. “But they couldn’t even cover double digits.
“These teams just make mistakes and it costs you … they always will look good from a value standpoint. They really will. But that’s the trap.”
Houston and Tennessee rank among the six-worst teams. Malinsky wouldn’t be afraid to take either of these teams, however, if the price were high enough.
The Texans are bad, Malinsky said, but they have some discipline. The Titans showed they could not only come up with an outstanding game plan, but execute it as well, losing by one to the Colts on the road as an 18 ?-point underdog this past Sunday.
“Jeff Fisher is a worker,” Malinsky said of the Titans coach. “I’m not sure how hard Art Shell wants to work when he gets out of bed.”
Fisher, though, could be out as Tennessee coach after this season. Is he still worth backing in the right spot, with the right price, as a lame duck coach?
“It’s in his nature to keep working hard and not worry about any possible lame duck status,” Malinsky said. “He’s coaching for his resume.”
Note: Monday night game will be picked Monday. Lines used are from football betting lines.
Recently I had an email debate with an angry reader who said I did not understand "the science of oddsmaking", as he called it.
He said I was wrong for suggesting oddsmakers care about who wins or loses games.
"Oddsmakers only care about splitting the betting public 50/50 on both sides of the line and keeping the commission (a.k.a. juice)," he wrote.
He might have been right about not understanding "the science of oddsmaking". After all, I'm not an oddsmaker. That said, I stick to my assertion that oddsmakers (a.k.a. sportbooks) often do care about who wins games.
Granted, as a general rule, sportsbooks try to balance their action so that they're not exposed to big losses. However, there are times when this is difficult to pull off, regardless of how much a line has moved. There are also times when that general rule is ignored and a book pursues risk.
Generally speaking, it's safe to say the books in Vegas are risk-adverse. Unlike in the past when the wise guys ruled the town, Vegas is now corporate and the goal of most casinos is to make as much money as possible with as little risk as possible.
Thus, Vegas sportsbooks try everything in their power to balance the action. They're satisfied simply collecting the juice. But these profits are small, especially compared to the take from other casino games, namely slot machines.
Because the profits at Vegas sportsbooks are so small, you could argue that many casinos operate sportsbooks simply as a novelty to keep the tourists happy.
With a growing aversion to risk, it should come as no surprise that Vegas bookmakers have been panicking this NFL season.
Despite huge pointspreads, a disproportionate percentage of bettors are still laying their money on favorites like the Eagles, Colts, Pats and Vikings rather than the dogs (a common trend for the largely recreational bettors that visit Vegas).
And much to the dismay of the books, those favorites are finding ways to cover the thick chalk. In fact, prior to Week 7, the four teams listed above are a combined 16-2-2 (88 percent) against the spread. (The tables turned dramatically in Week 7, but more on that later.)
The result has been an early-season beating for the books, and a bonanza for bettors.
While Vegas increasingly hates risk, it's no longer a major player in the sports betting world. Most of the betting action now takes place offshore where sportsbooks are not as obsessed about balance. In fact, some books encourage exposure to risk because the rewards can be so much bigger.
Consider MySportsbook.com. On its website, the book has odds pages which actually display the amount of action it's getting on games. In other words, you can see how much action the book is taking on both sides of a pointspread, moneyline or over/under.
One look at these numbers and it's obvious MySportsbook.com does not balance every game. In fact, far from it.
Take last weekend's matchup between St. Louis and Miami. By game time on Sunday, 83 percent of the betting action at MySportsbook.com was on the Rams; only 17 percent was on Miami.
What's interesting is that MySportsbook.com opened the pointspread with Miami at +6 1/2. By game time, the spread had lowered to +5.
That goes contrary to the balancing theory. If MySportsbook.com had wanted to balance the action, it would have given Miami more points; instead, it took away 1 1/2. World Series odds are now up as well.
MySportsbook.com exposed itself to even more to risk, and rolled the dice on the underdog Dolphins. Why? I contacted a representative with the book to find out. His answer was simple.
"The line moved early based on 'smart money' from sharp players," said Jeff Gilroy, a spokesperson for the book. "We also knew from early in the week that we would need Miami, therefore (we dropped) the spread to encourage Rams money.
"At the end of the day, we liked the home team."
So the conclusion is this: MySportsbook.com respected the sharp action, and gambled that the sharp bettors had a better take on the game than the recreational bettors, who were hammering the visiting Rams.
In the end, the gamble paid off. Miami, desperate for a win in front of its home fans, pounded the overrated Rams, who are terrible on the road and even worse on grass. Final score: 31-14 Fish.
MySportsbook.com was also heavily exposed on numerous favorites in Week 7, including Philadelphia, Seattle and Denver. All three failed to cover.
The fact that sportsbooks are exposed to risk on certain games is really nothing new. The fact, that Sportsbook.com is willing to show the public where it's exposed is intriguing.
Armed with this type of information, bettors can make more educated wagers. They can get an idea where the sharp money is going and conversely where the public money is headed.
MySportsbook.com is opening up its cashbox, letting bettors look inside and challenging them to take their best shot at grabbing the cash.
To visit this online football betting got to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting odds needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.
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