Surging Bolts host low-scoring Kings

Hockey Betting Lines

02/07/2012 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Kings have struggled to score goals over the first two games of their season-long road trip, failing to earn a point despite excellent goaltending.

In fact, Lightning forward Martin St. Louis had more goals in his last memorable trip to the ice than the Kings have mustered so far over their past six periods.

Los Angeles looks to get something going this evening in Tampa and avoid its first three-game slide in two months.

The Kings have scored just one time so far on their six-game road trip. They dropped a 1-0 decision in St. Louis on Friday despite 32 saves by Jonathan Quick and then wasted 20 stops by backup Jonathan Bernier in his first start since Jan. 9 the following night in a 2-1 defeat at Carolina.

Los Angeles got a first-period goal from Anze Kopitar, but fell to 9-1-1 this season when leading after the first period. The back-to-back losses leave the Kings four points behind the Sharks for first place in the Pacific Division and seventh overall in the West.

"We've played six periods on the road and gave up three goals and didn't get nothing out of it. That's a tough one to swallow," said Kings head coach Darryl Sutter, whose club sits last in the NHL with 2.09 goals per game.

Los Angeles will try to avoid losing three straight for the first time since a five-game slide from Dec. 3-13 and faces a Tampa Bay team that had no problem scoring goals on Saturday versus Florida.

The Lightning rolled to a 6-3 win over their Southeast Division rival, wrapping the season set against the Panthers with a 4-1-1 mark. St. Louis paced the offense with his fifth career hat trick in what was his 900th career game.

"It's nice to get on the scoreboard and help your team win," said St. Louis, who has six goals and 10 assists over a nine-game point streak.

"Obviously with the win, three goals, my kids being there, I think I have a lot of reasons why I'll remember this game."

Tampa Bay has earned seven of a possible eight points so far on its five-game homestand and is 6-0-1 in its past seven games. That has the club eight points back of Florida for first place in the Southeast Division and it will look to move above .500 for the first time since it was 11-10-2 on Nov. 28.

Vincent Lecavalier added a goal and three assists on Saturday, while Steven Stamkos potted his NHL-leading 34th goal of the year. Mathieu Garon ended with 17 saves to move to 5-0-1 in his last six starts.

Dwayne Roloson is expected to get the start tonight, his first since Jan. 21, and head coach Guy Boucher will also have the option of putting both Adam Hall and Marc-Andre Bergeron into his lineup.

Hall was expected to miss eight weeks with a torn muscle in his forearm following a fight on Jan. 5, but was cleared to play on Monday. So was Bergeron, who has sat out the last nine with an upper-body injury and the two are considered questionable.

Los Angeles has won its past two meetings with Tampa Bay, including a 1-0 home victory in the lone encounter last year. Quick stopped all 24 shots faced in that one.

Wwwquam Hockey Betting News


<< Elliott returns to Ottawa as Blues visit Sens
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Ottawa Senators decided last season that they wanted to upgrade their goaltending position. Now the man that they dealt away reappears in town as an All-Star. Brian Elliott makes his return to Scotiabank Place this eve

<< Pens close out road trip with test against Habs
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Pittsburgh Penguins have gone through a rough patch to begin February, but they'll try to get back on track tonight when they visit the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre. The Penguins ended January on an eight-game

<< Panthers, Caps again do battle for first place
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Another battle for first place in the Southeast Division is on tap tonight, as the Washington Capitals host the Florida Panthers at the Verizon Center. Florida enters tonight with a one-point lead over the Capitals for the

<< Devils aim to keep rolling against East-leading Rangers
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New Jersey Devils have matched their longest winning streak of the season and will try to keep rolling tonight, when they face the Eastern Conference-leading New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. The Devils have u

<< Heat battle Cavs down south
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - When LeBron James and Cleveland get together, it's always a little extra special. James and the Miami Heat will finish a brief two-game homestand tonight by welcoming the Cavaliers and the new face of their franchise,

Pacers try to rebound vs. Jazz >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Indiana Pacers had their season-high four-game winning streak cut short the last time out and tonight they'll try and start a new run with the Utah Jazz in town. Indiana dropped an 85-81 decision versus the Orla

Rinne, Preds host showdown with Canucks >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - There may not be a more confident goaltender in the league right now than Nashville's Pekka Rinne. Vancouver should have plenty of positive feelings heading into Tuesday night after the way it won its last game. The Preda

Leafs try to stay hot in Winnipeg >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - It certainly seems as though the Toronto Maple Leafs made a collective New Year's resolution of ending the franchise's longest playoff drought ever. The Leafs look to continue their climb up the Eastern Conference standing

Lehtonen, Stars welcome Coyotes to Big D >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The last time that Kari Lehtonen faced the Coyotes, the Stars netminder suffered an injury that temporarily derailed his solid season. The Finn has finally begun to find his form once again and carries a personal three-gam

Sliding Blackhawks aim to get back on track in Denver >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Chicago Blackhawks are trying to remain positive, but that has been tough to do over their longest losing streak of the season. The Colorado Avalanche are going through the same struggles, but at least the 'Hawks are stil

MySportsbook.com is an online sportsbook that aims to keep betting fun. The company sees itself as a premier provider of a top-shelf gambling entertainment experience. MySportsbook knows that this can not be accomplished if gamblers are struggling through the betting process, so the emphasis is put on simplicity and ease of use.

Established in 1997, MySportsbook was the first sportsbook to offer the Instant eCheck method, and has since continued on to be one of the most innovate and fastest growing internet sportsbooks the industry has seen. A player doesn’t have to look very far before coming across one of the many sportsbooks that have cloned MySportsbook’s written policies, web pages and advertising campaign, hoping to bottle some of MySportsbook’s magic.

Although MySportsbook’s growth is largely attributed to their talented in-house marketing team, every successful bookmaker will agree that bringing the players in is only half of the battle. In a time when most internet sportsbook were nickel-and-diming players, MySportsbook was creating ways to make bonuses automatic and absent of fine print, while offering all payouts free of charge. This sportsbook also accepts Visa & Mastercard sportsbook.

Almost everything on the online sportsbook site is set in the model of simplicity, making the CS clerk’s job easy as well. Each account action made online results in an automated email sent to the client. When calling MySportsbook, the player feels as if his call is in the united states as no accents can be heard through a state of the art telecommunications system. Few online sportsbooks can compete with My Sportsbook when it comes to offering a fun and hassle-free experience to the small to moderate sized gambler.

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your bet on football needs.

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.