Will the Edwards-Keselowski feud boil over to ORP?

Autoracing Betting Lines

07/20/2010 - Clermont, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Series: NASCAR Nationwide. Date: Saturday, July 24. Race: Kroger 200. Site: O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis. Track: 0.686-mile oval. Start time: 8:00 p.m. (et). Laps: 200. Miles: 137.2. 2009 winner: Carl Edwards. Television: ESPN. Radio: Motor Racing Network (MRN) /SIRIUS NASCAR Radio.

While the Sprint Cup Series competes at the "big" track in Indianapolis, the Nationwide Series will race down the road at O'Reilly Raceway Park. Nationwide teams have been running at the 0.686-mile track each year since the inception of the series in 1982.

Obviously, there has been a lot of hype surrounding the latest on-track altercation between Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski. While battling for the lead during the last lap in last Saturday's Nationwide race at Gateway International Raceway, Edwards nudged Keselowski and spun him into the frontstretch wall as they were heading out of the final turn.

Edwards won at Gateway for the third time, while Keselowski slid across the finish line in 14th-place before Shelby Howard plowed into him, causing another spin around. Keselowski saw his points lead trimmed to 168 over Edwards.

"I'm sure he'll say how sorry he is, or how cool he thinks he is, or how great of a guy he is in his own mind, but that's not reality," Keselowski said after the Gateway race.

Gateway was the latest in an on-going feud between Edwards and Keselowski. Will the Edwards-Keselowski rivalry continue at ORP? It certainly will make for an interesting Saturday night here.

"After looking at it, we can each step in the other's shoes and see it from another perspective," Edwards said. "From my side, we'll just go keep racing."

Edwards is the defending race winner at ORP. In last year's event, he had to charge from the rear of the field before passing Kyle Busch for the lead in the closing laps to win at ORP for the first time. Edwards had to start from the back since Colin Braun qualified his car. He was held up in the rain- delayed Sprint Cup qualifying session and then final practice at nearby Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Morgan Shepherd leads all drivers with three victories at ORP. Shepherd won here in 1982, '84 and '88. Busch, Kevin Harvick, Jason Keller and Randy LaJoie are the other drivers with repeat wins at this track.

Forty-four teams are on the preliminary entry list for the Kroger 200.

Worldwideganble Autoracing Betting News

<< Johnson aiming for fourth Brickyard 400 win
Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Series: NASCAR Sprint Cup. Date: Sunday, July 25. Race: Brickyard 400. Site: Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Track: 2.5- mile rectangle. Start time: 1:00 p.m. (et). Laps: 160. Miles: 400. 2009 winner: Jimmie Joh

<< Thompson trumps Spieth for amateur honors at U.S. Junior
Ada, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Curtis Thompson posted a six-under 66 on Tuesday to earn medalist honors after the second round of stroke play at the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship. Thompson finished at 10-under 134 at Egypt Valley Country Clu

<< UIC's Collins announces retirement
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Longtime men's head basketball coach Jimmy Collins announced his retirement Tuesday after 14 years at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The move is effective August 31, 2010 and UIC director o

<< Kang earns medalist honors at U.S. Girls' Junior
Village of Pinehurst, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Danielle Kang struggled to a two- over 74 on Tuesday, but it was still enough to earn medalist honors at the U.S. Girls' Junior Championship. Kang finished 36 holes at three-under 141 at

<< This Week in Auto Racing July 23 - 25
Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - NASCAR is in Indianapolis this weekend, and that means someone will kiss the bricks at the "big" track, while a lot of beating and banging will go on at the nearby "short" track. The IZOD IndyCar Series

Trucks join Nationwide at ORP >>
Clermont, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Series: NASCAR Camping World Truck. Date: Friday, July 23. Race: AAA Insurance 200. Site: O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis. Track: 0.686-mile oval. Start time: 8:00 p.m. (et). Laps: 200. Miles: 137.2. 2009 w

Power looking for his fifth road/street course win in 2010 >>
Edmonton, Canada (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Series: IZOD IndyCar. Date: Sunday, July 25. Race: Honda Indy Edmonton. Site: City Centre Raceway. Track: 1.96-mile, 14-turn temporary street/airport course. Start Time: 6:00 p.m. (et). Laps: 95. Miles: 186.2

Phillies P Moyer leaves game >>
St. Louis, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Jamie Moyer left Tuesday's game against St. Louis after one inning with a left elbow strain. Moyer allowed two hits in one scoreless inning, throwing 18 pitches. It

Malisse advances, Tipsarevic upset in Atlanta >>
Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Seventh-seeded Xavier Malisse was a straight- set winner, while fifth-seeded Janko Tipsarevic was an upset victim in Tuesday's first-round action at the Atlanta Tennis Championships. The Belgian Mali

NCAA probe on agent dealings extends to Alabama >>
Tuscaloosa, AL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The NCAA's investigation into possible improper dealings with sports agents has reportedly reached the University of Alabama. A number of schools have had athletes' names surface in an increasi

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.

FOOTBALL TRASH TALK

NFL Football Trash Talk

Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).

Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.

Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).

Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.

Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.

The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.

What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.

Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.

But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.

In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.