Clark, Wilson share Canadian Open lead

Golf Betting Lines

07/23/2010 - Etobicoke, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tim Clark fired a six-under 64 Friday to grab a share of the lead after 36 holes of the Canadian Open.

Clark was joined in the lead by Dean Wilson, who carded a 65 in round two. They are tied at 10-under-par 130.

First-round leader Brent Delahoussaye posted a one-under 69 and slipped into a tie for third at minus-nine. He was joined there by Steve Wheatcroft, who shot four-under 66 Friday.

The second round was completed Friday despite a two-hour weather delay prior to the start of the round.

With a slightly different setup this week, players started on the first and ninth tees at St. George's Golf & Country Club for the first two rounds.

Clark, who finally broke through for his first PGA Tour win earlier this year at the Players Championship, started his round on the ninth, where he collected his first birdie.

The South African dropped in back-to-back birdie chances from the 11th to move to minus-seven. Clark parred four straight before a birdie on the 17th.

Around the turn, Clark birdied the third and fifth to climb to 10-under. He parred his final three holes.

"I certainly didn't expect to be scoring on this course," Clark admitted. "I thought in the Pro-Am it was going to be pretty tough. But you know, I've been hitting the driver really well and driving it in the fairway is a huge key on this golf course. I've done that and been able to stay out of trouble."

Wilson, whose lone PGA Tour win was at The International in 2006, got going with a birdie on the first. He gave that stroke back with a bogey at the fourth.

The 40-year-old atoned for that error with a birdie on the par-three sixth. Around the turn, Wilson moved to seven-under with a birdie at the 10th.

Wilson birdied 13 and 15 to move to nine-under. He was the first in the clubhouse at 10-under as he birdied the 17th.

"I'm happy the way I've been playing. I've missed a few cuts, so it's nice to get in contention and get in the mix," said Wilson, who has missed the cut in five of his last six starts. "So it just feels nice to have a little bit of control over my game."

J.J. Henry carded a five-under 65 Friday to move into a share of fifth at eight-under-par 132. He stands alongside Hunter Mahan (67), Rob Grube (66) and Brock Mackenzie (68).

Defending champion Nathan Green shot 65 to climb into a share of ninth at minus-seven. He was joined there by Bob Estes (67), Tim Herron (63), Vance Veazey (69) and Matt Jones (67).

NOTES: One day after Delahoussaye fired a 62 to match the tournament's 18-hole scoring record, Kevin Sutherland shot 62 on Friday...No. 8 Paul Casey, the highest ranked player in the field, tripped to a three-over 73, which put him over the cut line, which fell at one-under-par 139 with 79 players moving on to the weekend...Sean O'Hair, Fred Couples and Mike Weir were among those joining Casey with the weekend off.

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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.”

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