49ers dismiss offensive coordinator Martz

Football Betting Lines

12/30/2008 - Santa Clara, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator Mike Martz was dismissed from the coaching staff on Tuesday, as announced by head coach Mike Singletary.

Martz, who coordinated the prolific offensive juggernaut Rams to the Super Bowl title in the 1999 campaign, was in his first year in San Francisco, which ranked 12th in the NFC in total points.

The 57-year-old was also the head coach in St. Louis from 2000-05 before becoming the offensive coordinator for Detroit the next two seasons.

"After an evaluation period I felt it was best to go in a different direction," said Singletary. "This was not an easy decision because I appreciate Mike Martz, and I enjoyed working with him. He is a true professional, and I wish him the best in the future. I do recognize the need for a long term solution on the offensive side of the ball."

The 49ers brass overlooked Martz after Mike Nolan was let go following a 2-5 start to the season. Under Singletary, who was named permanent head coach on Sunday, San Fran won five of its final nine games to finish a respectable 7-9, good for second place in the NFC West.

Wwwoasiscasino Football Betting News

<< Giants place CB Madison on IR
East Rutherford, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New York Giants placed cornerback Sam Madison was on injured reserve on Tuesday. Madison broke his right ankle in the regular season finale against the Minnesota Vikings. New York als

<< Stars place two on IR
Frisco, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Dallas Stars placed left wing Fabian Brunnstrom and center Joel Lundqvist on injured reserve on Tuesday. Both were placed on the IR retroactively, with Brunnstrom's dating to December 27 and Lundqvis

<< Stoke City plays down Fuller, Griffin spat
Stoke-on-Trent, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Stoke City chairman Peter Coates does not believe Ricardo Fuller's clash with captain Andy Griffin will lead to dressing room unrest at the Britannia Stadium. Potters manager Tony Pulis has alr

<< Roethlisberger attends practice, doesn't participate
Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was at the team's practice on Tuesday, but did not participate in any drills. Roethlisberger left last Sunday's 31-0 win over Cleveland on a stretcher after

<< Auburn DL Marks to enter NFL Draft
Auburn, AL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Auburn defensive lineman Sen'Derrick Marks will skip his senior season and enter the NFL Draft, the program announced on Tuesday. Marks, a second-team All-SEC selection this season, has made 37 career st

Goins and Perrone win 2008 Media Eclipse Awards >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Photographer Matt Goins and writer Vinnie Perrone have been honored with 2008 Media Eclipse Awards. The Eclipse Awards are distributed by The National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA), Daily Racing

D'Backs sign Snyder >>
Phoenix, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Arizona Diamondbacks agreed to terms with catcher Chris Snyder on a three-year contract through the 2011 season with a club option for 2012 on Tuesday. No further terms of the agreement were disclos

Portsmouth: No bids for Defoe, Johnson >>
Portsmouth, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Portsmouth has angrily denied reports that it has received firm offers for Jermain Defoe and Glen Johnson. England striker Defoe has been linked with January moves to both Aston Villa and former c

AFC South: Colts are California Dreamin' >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - All the leaves are brown and the sky is gray in Indianapolis, but in less than a week the Colts will be safe and warm in San Diego, preparing for the Chargers in the opening round of the AFC Playoffs. Indianapolis, current

Broncos fire Shanahan after team's collapse >>
Englewood, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Longtime Denver Broncos head coach Mike Shanahan was fired Tuesday, just two days after Denver missed the playoffs for the third straight season. The Broncos held a three-game lead in the AFC West wit

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.