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04/03/2010 - Stickney, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - American Lion, ridden by David Flores, came from California and posted a wire-to-wire victory in Saturday's $500,000 Illinois Derby at Hawthorne Race Course. The three-year-old colt covered the 1 1/8-miles in 1:51.31 on a fast track.
Owned by WinStar Farm, American Lion quickly took the lead in the Kentucky Derby prep. Racing to the outside of the leader in second was 6-5 favorite Yawanna Twist. Boulder Creek was running in third with Turf Melody fourth in the eight-horse field.
American Lion continued to lead around the final turn even as Yawanna Twist and jockey Edgar Prado began to draw closer. Only a head separated the top two runners at the top of the stretch.
Flores was able to find his mount one more gear as Yawanna Twist made a final challenge for the lead. American Lion repelled the challenge and went on to post a 2 3/4-length win over Yawanna Twist.
Finishing third was Backtalk at 7-2 followed by Turf Melody, Dave in Dixie, Boulder Creek, Stephen's Got Hope and Game Ball.
Trained by Eoin Harty, American Lion picked up $291,000 with Saturday's victory, putting the colt in position for the Run for the Roses. The son of Tiznow has won three of six career starts with $413,600.
The Illinois Derby was the colt's first win of 2010. He was third to Caracortado in the Robert B.Lewis Stakes and fourth to Sidney's Candy in the San Felipe Stakes, both at Santa Anita. Sidney's Candy won Saturday's Santa Anita Derby.
In November, American Lion won the Hollywood Prevue at Hollywood Park.
American Lion returned $8.60, $3.80 and $2.80. Yawanna Twist paid $2.80 and $2.20, and Backtalk paid $3.00 to show.
<< Chicago earns point at Colorado
Commerce City, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Brian McBride converted a penalty kick in
the 51st minute, and the Chicago Fire tied the Colorado Rapids 2-2 on Saturday
at Dick's Sporting Goods Park.
Omar Cummings and Conor Casey gave Colorado the lea
<< Sidney's Candy wires field to win Santa Anita Derby
Arcadia, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Front running Sidney's Candy took the lead out
of the gate and went on to post a commanding win in Saturday's $750,000 Santa
Anita Derby. Odds-on 4-5 favorite Lookin At Lucky finished third in the 10
horse f
<< Alford gets extension at New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The University of New Mexico and Steve
Alford agreed to a two-year contract extension through the 2019-20 season,
school vice president of athletics Paul Krebs announced on Saturday.
The Lobos are
<< Oakland's Crisp heads to DL with broken finger
Oakland, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Oakland Athletics outfielder Coco Crisp
will begin the season on the disabled list with a fractured left pinkie.
Crisp sustained the injury while sliding into second base in the third inning
of Oaklan
Consistent Morton would be big Pirates plus >>
PITTSBURGH (AP) -The Pittsburgh Pirates gutted their roster the last two seasons by trading off nearly every accomplished major league player they possessed, and they've yet to show they got much back in the deals.That's one reason why they badly ne
Ankle injury sidelines Nuggets' Andersen >>
DENVER (AP) -Denver forward Chris Andersen missed the Nuggets' game Saturday night against the Los Angeles Clippers because of a sprained left ankle.Andersen twisted his ankle midway through the fourth quarter of a 109-92 win over Portland on Thursd
Butler finds new way to beat Michigan St. 52-50 >>
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -Butler has reached the national title game the same way it got into Saturday's national semifinal - by changing the script.Despite poor shooting, losing two players to injuries and having only two players reach double figures, all
Butler makes MSU mistakes hurt >>
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -There's no nickname for them. The column on stat sheets says ``Points Off Turnovers.'' It doesn't need any more description.Butler took advantage of them and reached the national championship game in its hometown.The Bulldogs turn
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. “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).
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.
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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NEW YORK (AP) -By staying away from the cupcakes, Southern California earned itself a slim new ranking.
No. 1 always seems to fit USC.
Southern California jumped two spots to No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 on Tuesday, rewarded by voters for opening the season with a dominant performance on the road against a BCS conference opponent.
Georgia and Ohio State, the preseason Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, started their seasons with glorified scrimmages at home against FCS (formerly I-AA) teams. USC, however, traveled across country to face Virginia and could not have been more impressive in a 52-7 victory.
Georgia fell to No. 2 and Ohio State to No 3.
"We realize that rankings so early in a season are certainly fluid. But rankings do help establish a pecking order for things later in the season," USC coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. "As for moving into the No. 1 spot, it's nice to know that people think highly of our team."
Since reaching No. 1 on Dec. 7, 2003, the final-regular season AP poll of that season, USC has been No. 1 in 39 polls, by far the most of any team during that time.
"Some have said the voters are taking our schedule into consideration," Carroll said. "Our philosophy has always been to schedule outstanding opponents. We need to play challenging games like we just did, traveling across the country to open the season at Virginia. Games like that bring out our best and make us stronger as a team."
The latest voting was close. USC received 21 first-place votes and 1,539 points from the 65-member media panel. Georgia had 20 first-place votes and 1,506 points. Ohio State got 15 first-place votes and 1,497 points.
"I'd say we've evolved as pollsters," said Stewart Mandel of SI.com, who moved USC up to No. 1. "In the past, voters just kind of automatically moved teams up and kept teams where they were if they won."
Georgia beat Georgia Southern 45-21 on Saturday and Ohio State opened with a 43-0 win over Youngstown State.
"There's a bit of a growing backlash for the amount of teams that open with I-AA cupcakes," said Mandel, whose book "Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls" chronicles college football's controversies. "To see a team [USC] go on the road and play a New Year's Day bowl team from last season, and not only play them but destroy them, how could you not reward that team?"
USC also jumped past Georgia to No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, which has the same top five as the AP poll.
"It's definitely a privilege to be No. 1. But it's not heartbreaking to me if we drop," Georgia offensive lineman Josh Davis said. "It doesn't matter right now what we're ranked. What matters is our next game and right now, that's Central Michigan. The only time the polls matter is in December. That's when the polls matter."
While the Bulldogs opened easy, their schedule ultimately should be as difficult as any team's. Georgia's big nonconference test is at No. 15 Arizona State on Sept. 20. The Bulldogs also face six Southeastern Conference rivals that've been ranked in the first two polls.
As for Ohio State, the Buckeyes play at USC on Sept. 13 before getting into the Big Ten schedule.
But of the teams in this week's top 10, USC and Texas are the only ones that don't play an FCS opponent, and the Trojans are the only team that doesn't play a team from a non-BCS conference.
Get the latest 2009 BCS Championship odds at MySportsbook.com.
The last team to drop from No. 1 after a victory was USC last season. LSU jumped from No. 2 to No. 1 when it beat Tulane 34-9, the same week the Trojans edged Washington 27-24 on the road.
The last preseason No. 1 team to lose the top spot after winning its opening game was Florida in 2001. The Gators beat Marshall 49-14, but preseason No. 2 Miami opened with a 33-7 victory over Penn State and the Hurricanes jumped to No. 1 with Florida slipping to second.
The next four teams in the new Top 25 stayed the same: No. 4 Oklahoma (two first-place votes), No. 5 Florida (five first-place votes), No. 6 Missouri (one first-place vote), No. 7 LSU (one first-place vote) and No. 8 West Virginia.
No. 9 Auburn and No. 10 Texas each moved up a spot, taking advantage of Clemson's big drop. Clemson, ninth in the preseason, fell out after losing 34-10 to Alabama on Saturday.
Also falling out after losses were Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.
Moving into the rankings were No. 21 Fresno State, No. 22 Utah, No. 23 UCLA and No. 24 South Carolina.
Alabama moved up 11 spots after its big victory over Clemson.
The second 10 started with No. 11 Wisconsin, followed by Texas Tech, Alabama and Kansas. BYU and Arizona State were tied for 15th. Rivals BYU and Utah are both ranked for the first time since 1996.
South Florida was No. 17, ahead of Oregon, Penn State and Wake Forest at No. 20.
The final five were all the teams to move into the ranking, except for Illinois, which dropped four spots and tied South Carolina for No. 24.
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