Dolphins release QB White, TE Martin on cut day

Football Betting Lines

09/04/2010 - Davie, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Quarterback Pat White and tight end David Martin were among the prominent players released by the Miami Dolphins on Saturday, as the team pared its roster to the 53-player minimum.

White was selected in the second-round (No. 44 overall) of the 2009 Draft after a star-studded career at West Virginia, but did not develop enough as a passer to warrant a roster spot and scarcely played during the preseason.

Martin, an eight-year NFL veteran who appeared in 31 games with the Dolphins in 2007-08, was released after being re-signed by the team last month. Martin missed all of the 2009 season due to knee surgery.

Also released by the Dolphins were safety Jonathon Amaya, defensive tackle Ryan Baker, defensive end Lionel Dotson, guard Ray Feinga, linebacker J.D. Folsom, offensive lineman Andrew Gardner, offensive lineman Andrew Hartline, cornerback Kevin Hobbs, fullback Rolly Lumbala, linebacker Chris McCoy, defensive back Nate Ness, wide receiver Julius Pruitt, linebacker Austin Spitler, defensive tackle Montavious Stanley, guard Donald Thomas, wide receiver Patrick Turner, linebacker Erik Walden and safety Ross Weaver.

Thomas started 12 games for the Dolphins at guard last season, while Turner was a third-round pick of the team in 2009.

Miami opens its regular season next Sunday, when it travels to meet the AFC East rival Buffalo Bills.

Wwwplayersonly Football Betting News

<< Titans include Simms, Gado, Rolle in roster cuts
Nashville, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Tennessee Titans narrowed their roster to the NFL maximum of 53 players on Saturday, releasing 20 as part of their "cut- down day" maneuvers. Released were defensive end Eric Bakhtiari, defensive end Rahe

<< Notre Dame tops Purdue in Kelly's debut with Irish
South Bend, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Dayne Crist passed for 205 yards and a touchdown, as Notre Dame topped the Purdue Boilermakers, 23-12, in Brian Kelly's Fighting Irish debut. Kelly, a proven winner that resurrected both th

<< England's Dawson ruled out of Swiss match
London, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - England defender Michael Dawson was injured against Bulgaria on Friday in Euro 2012 qualifying and will be sidelined six to eight weeks. Dawson sprained the medial ligament in his left knee and one of his

<< Trade-happy Eagles also list Demps, Harris among cuts
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Defensive backs Quintin Demps and Macho Harris, both of whom were contributing members of the Philadelphia Eagles last season, were among the players released as the team pared its roster to the 53- player ma

<< Cahill shuts down Angels
Oakland, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Trevor Cahill tossed six scoreless innings to help the Oakland Athletics defeat the Angels, 3-1, in the second test of this three-game series. Cahill (15-6) allowed four hits to go with a career-high six

Rockies send flailing Padres to ninth straight loss >>
San Diego, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Todd Helton and Carlos Gonzalez both knocked in two runs to help the Colorado Rockies send the spiraling San Diego Padres to a ninth straight loss with a 6-2 win at PETCO Park. Troy Tulowitzki had two hits

WR Hardy among Bills' cuts >>
Orchard Park, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former second-round pick James Hardy was among the players released by the Buffalo Bills on Saturday, as the team reduced its roster to the 53-player maximum. Hardy, the No. 41 overall pick out of Indiana

TE Havner chopped as Packers reach 53-man limit >>
Green Bay, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tight end Spencer Havner was among the players released by the Green Bay Packers on Saturday, as the team reduced its roster to the 53-player maximum. Havner, who appeared in every game for Green Bay last yea

Bengals acquire safety Nelson from Jaguars >>
Cincinnati, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - On NFL cut-down day, the Cincinnati Bengals made a move to bolster their defensive backfield by acquiring safety Reggie Nelson from Jacksonville. The Bengals sent cornerback David Jones to the Jaguars in

Thrashers sign veteran F Modin >>
Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Atlanta Thrashers appear to have signed veteran forward Fredrik Modin. TSN of Canada on Saturday quoted the Swedish paper Aftonbladet as saying it's a one-year deal, but no terms of the deal were discl

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.