Bayern slips by Fiorentina on away goals

Soccer Betting Lines

03/09/2010 - Florence, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Arjen Robben's brilliant goal in the 65th minute capped a stretch of four combined goals in 11 minutes, as Bayern Munich slipped into the quarterfinals of the Champions League despite a 3-2 defeat at Fiorentina on Tuesday.

Stevan Jovetic scored two goals and Juan Vargas added one to put Fiorentina in position to advance to the last eight on three occasions, but Mark van Bommel scored Bayern's first and Robben added the deciding away goal.

Bayern won the first leg 2-1 in Munich, and although the final aggregate ended 4-4, advanced because of its two away goals at Stadio Artemio Franchi.

Arsenal joined Bayern in the quarterfinals with a 5-0 win over FC Porto at the Emirates to overcome a first-leg deficit and advance on aggregate 6-2.

Fiorentina didn't look like a club that had lost seven of its last nine in all competitions, and in the process ended Bayern's 18-game unbeaten streak in all events but still failed to advance.

Fiorentina's Vargas decided to try and test Bayern goalie Hans-Jorg Butt from 35 yards on the first chance for either side, but his free kick just cleared the bar and dropped into the top of the net with the goal covered.

Vargas delivered on his next chance in the 27th when he battled Bayern central defender Daniel van Buyten to win a rebound on the left edge of the six-yard box and fired inside the far post from a tight angle.

Bastian Schweinsteiger helped create the first of two good chances for Bayern when he was able to head the ball through traffic to Robben on the right side of the area. Robben only had Fiorentina goalie Sebastien Frey to beat, but the French star made a great save to tip the ball wide in the 34th.

Miroslav Klose, who replaced an injured Mario Gomez in the 30th minute, had the second shot just seconds before half when he ran onto a cross from Thomas Muller but, despite getting under the ball, headed over from 10 yards.

Fiorentina was handed another great chance five minutes into the second half, but Butt made his biggest save of the match. Alberto Gilardino ran onto a ball on the top of the six that magically rolled by two Bayern defenders but didn't finish from just yards out as Butt deflected the ball wide.

Jovetic didn't waste Fiorentina's next chance, finishing off a back heel from Gilardino to pick out the bottom corner in the 54th to open the scoring streak that included two goals for each club.

Van Bommel unleashed a world-class strike from 20 yards that skimmed just off the inside the left post in the 60th, putting the series level at three goals apiece and even on away goals at one apiece. Jovetic followed in the 64th off another Gilardino assist to hand his side the series lead once again, only to watch Robben equalize shortly after the restart.

Robben delivered another world-class strike just over a minute later, when he sent a left-footed shot from 28 yards over the outstretched arms of a diving Frey and into the upper-left corner to send Bayern through to the final eight for the second straight season.

Fiorentina has not advanced to the last eight since the 1969-70 European event when it lost to Celtic in the quarterfinals.

In London, Nicklas Bendtner scored a hat trick as Arsenal rolled into the last eight over Porto.

Bendtner scored his first two goals in the ninth and 25 minutes, and after two goals from Samir Nasri and Emmanuel Eboue in the second half, finished his hat trick from the penalty spot in extra time.

Arsenal, which dropped the first leg in Portugal 2-1, advanced despite playing without Cesc Fabregas. The Gunners are in the last eight for the third time in a row, and for the fourth time in the last five tournaments.

Porto was eliminated in the knockout stage by and English club for the third time in the last four tournaments.

On Wednesday, Real Madrid will try to overcome a 1-0 defeat in the first leg when Lyon visits the Bernabeu, and Manchester United will try to hold onto its 3-2 edge when AC Milan visits Old Trafford.

Inter Milan visits Chelsea, CSKA visits Sevilla, Stuttgart visits Barcelona, and Olympiacos visits Bordeaux next week to wrap up the Round of 16.

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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.”

To visit this internet sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your sports betting needs and World Series odds.

American Idol odds : Blake Lewis the Early Standout

An important American Idol betting lines recap from February 20 Guys episode. The 12 men came out flat overall with Blake Lewis appearing to have the early edge after the first hour and a half.

Rudy - was quite good singing "Free Ride" to start off.  Randy was not impressed though.  Paula thought he started off fantastic.  "Never had anyone stop off so lively" said Paula but Simon (who does not like Rudy) does not feel he has a distinct voice and was not impressed either. 

Brandon was a little pitchy according to Randy and Paula agreed.  Simon said he was a good singer but the song was "too safe" and he needs to make an impact.  He was listed at +1200 odds or $1200 paid out on a $100 bet should he win the competition. 

Big favorite Sundance came in with a flat version of "Knights in White Satin" and the judges let him have it, including Paula.  Randy claimed the song was out of pitch throughout.

Korean American - and a Jenny Woo favorite - Paul Kim was up next.  Another pitchy flat one but Randy said he still liked his potential.  Kim at +3000 odds was said to have sung a "third rate version of that (George Michael) song" according to Simon Cowell.  He sang "Careless Whisper".

22 year old Chris Richardson was up next.  He was listed with +1100 odds coming in.  He got the best response from the judges though Simon did not believe the vocal was that great. 

Nick was boring and pitchy.  Simon didn't think he was that bad though and predicted he would be back next week.  Nick Pedro was a big +3000 dog coming into this competition. 

Beat boxer Blake Lewis was listed with early +1000 odds or $1000 payout on a $100 bet if he were to become the next American Idol winner odds .  These of course were the early odds.  He was considered original for picking an "odd song".  He did not beat box and the judges felt it was the best vocal of the night. 

Sanjaya came in as the second biggest favorite after Chris Sligh but his performance Tuesday night was not very good. 

Chris Sleigh was the early favorite at +450 odds.  Great voice and a great sense of humor.  He's a real standout.  Randy felt it was on point but maybe ahead of the chorus a little bit.  Simon Cowell said he felt like he was in some "sort of weird student gig". 

Jared Cotter followed.  He was listed with +2000 odds early on to win the competition.  The judges felt he needs to take more risks but looked good. 

22-year old AJ Talbado, who has tried out for American Idol five times, was up next.  "Kind of a theme park performance" said Simon.  Though the judges felt he performed okay.  Simon did feel AJ might be better than he originally thought.

Phil - this season's military favorite - came into this competition with +1200 odds to win the competition.  He was the last to perform.  He was certainly strong enough to get through this stage of the competition and perhaps the best one after a shaky start. 

Tomorrow night, the ladies perform and I sure hope they do a better job than the boys.  Check out all the American Idol betting odds here.

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com - this sportsbook accepts credit cards.