Bucs beat Cleveland for only road win of season

Football Betting Lines

12/24/2006 - Cleveland, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Michael Pittman ran for 86 yards and a touchdown, as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers battered Cleveland, 22-7.

Derrick Brooks returned an interception for a touchdown for the Buccaneers (4-11), who snapped a four-game losing streak. Tim Rattay, making his first start of the season, went 16-for-26 with 212 yards and was picked off once for Tampa Bay, which secured its first road win since winning at Carolina, December 11, 2005.

Derek Anderson had a tough day as he went 10-for-27 with just 123 yards and was intercepted four times for Cleveland. Reuben Droughns carried the ball 19 times for 92 yards for the Browns (4-11), who have dropped their last three games.

After stopping the Browns on their first possession, the Buccaneers marched the ball down the field and capped off a 12-play, 75-yard drive that ate up over six minutes of the clock with a 23-yard field goal by Matt Bryant for a 3-0 lead with 7:05 left in the first quarter.

Tampa Bay threatened on its first drive of the second quarter when the team got the ball deep in Cleveland territory, but with the ball at the nine-yard line on a 4th-and-1, Mike Alstott was stuffed for no gain and Cleveland got the ball back.

However, Jermaine Phillips picked off a pass by Anderson and six plays later Bryant punched a 24-yard field goal through the uprights for a 6-0 lead with 6:18 left in the first half.

The Buccaneers scored on their first possession of the second half when Pittman took the ball around the right end and into the end zone from 11 yards out to complete a nine-play, 74-yard drive less than six minutes in. The extra point attempt was blocked and Tampa Bay led 12-0.

The Browns almost got on the scoreboard on their next possession, but a 31- yard field goal attempt by Phil Dawson was blocked by Jeb Terry.

After stopping Tampa Bay on its next possession Cleveland got the ball back, but a pass by Anderson was picked off by Brooks and he rumbled into the end zone from 21 yards out for a 19-0 lead 48 seconds into the fourth quarter.

Cleveland finally got on the scoreboard, but not with its offense as Kamerion Wimbley sacked Rattay, who coughed the ball up and Daven Holly grabbed it and took it into the end zone from 40 yards out to make it a 19-7 game with 11:33 to play.

A 37-yard field goal by Bryant with 5:46 to play capped the scoring.

Game Notes

Tampa Bay hosts Seattle next Sunday and Cleveland travels to Houston to wrap up the season...Tampa Bay outgained Cleveland, 355-187...Alstott finished the game with 22 carries for 56 yards...Tampa Bay held the ball for 37:16 while Cleveland only had the ball for 22:44...Phillips had two interceptions in the game.

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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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