Playoff-hopeful Flames, Red Wings square off in key battle

Hockey Betting Lines

03/15/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The last time the Flames took on the Red Wings, they walked away with two points and the eighth spot in the Western Conference.

Calgary will hope for similar results tonight at Pengrowth Saddledome versus Detroit, which will by aiming to hold onto the conference's final playoff position in the opener of a three-game tour of Western Canada.

The Flames visited the Red Wings last Tuesday and rallied for a 4-2 victory as Rene Bourque assisted on the tying goal early in the third period before netting the game-winner with 12:44 to play in the frame. An empty-net goal by Christopher Higgins sealed Calgary's win and moved the club a point up on Detroit in the standings.

However, after both teams picked up victories on Thursday, the Red Wings jumped back ahead of the Flames for the eighth spot with a 3-2 overtime victory on Saturday, giving them 78 points to Calgary's 77. The Flames then failed to alter the standings again on Sunday, dropping a 3-1 decision in Vancouver to remain a point back of the Red Wings.

Brian Rafalski, who had a pair of assists for the Red Wings last week versus the Flames, made sure Detroit walked away with two points on Saturday as he scored an overtime power-play goal 31 seconds into the frame. The defenseman one-timed a Nicklas Lidstrom feed through a screen from the left circle.

"Every point is crucial right here," Rafalski said. "Obviously, going into Calgary on Monday could decide the playoffs. We wanted to make sure we got the two [points] here."

Pavel Datsyuk and Patrick Eaves each had a goal for the Red Wings, who blew an early two-goal lead but have won five of seven since the Olympic break. Jimmy Howard made 24 stops for Detroit.

Knowing the Red Wings had moved past them in the standings, the Flames carried a four-game winning streak into Vancouver on Sunday. However, Calgary yielded three first-period goals and never recovered in the two-tally deficit.

Miikka Kiprusoff stopped 17-of-20 shots faced in the first period before being lifted and Vesa Toskala halted all eight shots fired his way in the second. Calgary did not allow a shot in the third frame, but only managed one goal by Robyn Regehr in the period.

"We spotted them three goals. It could have been more in the first period," Jarome Iginla said. "After that we played a lot better. We take our own blame, but you also have to give them credit."

Calgary won both meetings in Detroit this season but did drop a 3-1 decision at home to the Red Wings back on Oct. 31. Tonight marks the final regular- season meeting between the clubs.

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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.”

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