Cardinals release Leinart, reduce roster to 53

Football Betting Lines

09/04/2010 - Tempe, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Arizona Cardinals have officially released quarterback Matt Leinart, as part of a group of Saturday moves to pare their roster to the 53-player maximum.

Leinart, the 2004 Heisman Trophy winner and No. 10 overall pick in the 2006 draft, had been expected to open behind center for Arizona in 2010. But Leinart fell out of favor with head coach Ken Whisenhunt during the preseason, and was demoted behind former Brown Derek Anderson prior to the team's third warm-up game.

Leinart leaves Arizona with a 7-10 record as a starter over parts of four seasons, with 14 touchdown passes, 20 interceptions and a 70.8 career passer rating.

Rookies Max Hall (BYU) and John Skelton (Fordham) will start the year as Anderson's backups.

Also on Saturday, the Cardinals waived-injured linebacker Chris Johnson (ankle) and running back Alfonso Smith (neck).

On Friday, the club announced the release of linebackers Stevie Baggs, Monty Beisel and Cody Brown, tight end Anthony Becht, defensive linemen Jeremy Clark and John Fletcher, defensive backs Trevor Ford and Justin Miller, wide receivers Ed Gant, Mike Jones, Onrea Jones and Isaiah Williams, offensive linemen Herman Johnson, Jonathan Palmer and Tom Pestock and fullback Charles Scott.

Additionally, the team placed linebacker Gerald Hayes on the physically unable to perform list and waived-injured linebacker Mark Washington.

Arizona opens its 2010 regular season next Sunday, when the Cardinals travel to meet the NFC West rival St. Louis Rams.

Wwwplayblackjack Football Betting News

<< Florida begins life after Tebow with win over Miami-Ohio
Gainesville, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Janoris Jenkins returned an interception 67 yards for a touchdown in the first half and Jeffery Demps rumbled 72 yards for a score in the fourth quarter, as fourth-ranked Florida began life without Tim Tebow a

<< Robinson rushes for three TDs as Iowa wins opener
Iowa City, IA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Adam Robinson ran for 109 yards and three touchdowns, leading ninth-ranked Iowa in a 37-7 rout of Eastern Illinois to open each school's 2010 season. Robinson received 24 carries for the Hawkeyes (1-0

<< Rams tab rookie Bradford as Week 1 starter
St. Louis, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The St. Louis Rams announced on Saturday that rookie and top overall pick Sam Bradford will be the team's starting quarterback in Week 1 against Arizona. Bradford is one of three quarterbacks on th

<< Bolden solid in debut as Penn State dominates Youngstown State
University Park, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - True freshman quarterback Rob Bolden threw for 239 yards and two touchdowns in his collegiate debut, leading Penn State to a 44-14 rout of Youngstown State in the 2010 opener for both schools. Bold

<< Falcons get to 53; CB Jackson among cuts
Flowery Branch, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Atlanta Falcons have released 21 players as part of their Saturday "cut-down-day" maneuvers. Atlanta waived or released tight end Robbie Agnone, wide receiver Troy Bergeron, safety Eric Brock, wide r

20th-ranked FSU routs Samford >>
Tallahassee, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Christian Ponder threw for 167 yards and four touchdowns in just one half of action, as 20th-ranked Florida State began the post-Bobby Bowden era with a 59-6 rout of Samford at Doak Campbell Stadium

White Sox take opener of DH with Red Sox >>
Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Paul Konerko had three hits and scored two runs, as the Chicago White Sox topped Boston, 3-1, in the front end of a day-night doubleheader from Fenway Park. A.J. Pierzynski went 2-for-4 with an RBI for the

Zambrano sharp again as Cubs down Mets >>
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Carlos Zambrano allowed two runs in seven strong innings, and the Chicago Cubs ensured themselves a series victory with a 5-3 win over the New York Mets at Wrigley Field. Zambrano (7-6) struck out eigh

Serbia, Spain advance to World Championship quarters >>
Istanbul, Turkey (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Aleksandar Rasic's free throw with one second left gave Serbia a 73-72 victory over Croatia and berth in the quarterfinals of the FIBA World Championship. The Serbs led by seven during the fou

Cubs' Silva to return Tuesday >>
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chicago Cubs right-hander Carlos Silva will make his return to the rotation on Tuesday against the Houston Astros. The club made the announcement Saturday, shuffling their rotation so that rookie Case

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.