Cowboys edge Redskins in Romo's return

Football Betting Lines

11/17/2008 - Landover, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tony Romo returned after a three-game absence and hit Martellus Bennett with a 25-yard, fourth-quarter touchdown that proved to be the game-winner, as the Dallas Cowboys pulled out a critical 14-10 win over NFC East rival Washington.

Romo, playing with a heavy bandage over a broken pinkie on his throwing hand suffered October 12 against the Cardinals, did enough to win in his return to the lineup, throwing for 198 yards with two interceptions on 19-of-27 passes for Dallas (6-4), which dropped two of three without its star signal-caller.

Marion Barber rushed for a TD and was effective in running out the clock in the fourth quarter, finishing with 114 yards on 24 carries. Barber also had six catches for a team-high 39 yards.

Jason Campbell threw for a mediocre 162 yards with a touchdown and an interception on 22-of-34 efficiency for Washington (6-4), which has dropped two straight.

Clinton Portis, who was a game-time decision after suffering a sprained MCL in his left knee in a November 3 loss to Pittsburgh, carried the ball 15 times for 68 yards in the loss. Chris Cooley led the Redskins in receiving with seven grabs for 47 yards.

With the 'Boys trailing 10-7, Terence Newman, who returned after missing five games with a groin injury, intercepted Campbell at the Dallas 33-yard line more than six minutes into the third quarter.

After a series of punts, Dallas went on an eight-play, 67-yard drive early in the fourth. After a key third-down conversion toss to Miles Austin, Romo found Bennett for the go-ahead 25-yard score with 10:36 to play.

Washington then put together a decent drive but failed to penetrate the red zone. Facing 4th-and-4 at the Dallas 37, Campbell's attempt to hit Santana Moss on a quick out-route fell incomplete and the rest of the game fell on the legs of Barber.

After being bottled up for most of the game, Barber ran 10 times on the ensuing drive for 39 yards to go along with a 10-yard reception on 3rd-and-8 at the Washington 36.

The hard-running back sealed the game with a three-yard run to the right sideline on 4th-and-1 with a minute to play, as Washington could do nothing but watch the clock run out.

The 'Skins took their first possession of the game and relied heavily on Portis. The injured back ran for nine yards on 4th-and-1 from the Dallas 11, and Campbell found Mike Sellers in the end zone on the next play after a play- action fake.

Romo was picked off on two of the Cowboys' next three possessions, but came back to hit Terrell Owens on a 25-yard gain down to the Redskins' two-yard line late in the second quarter.

Barber took it into the end zone from there to tie the game with 1:01 left in the half, but Rock Cartwright's subsequent 58-yard kickoff return set up Shaun Suisham's 41-yard field goal just before the half.

Game Notes

Both teams were coming off a bye...The Cowboys lead the all-time regular season series with Washington, 57-37-2, but were 26-24 home losers when the teams met in Week 4. The teams engaged in conventional home-and-home splits in both 2006 and 2007...Jay Ratliff had two sacks for Dallas...DeAngelo Hall, playing in his first game with Washington, recorded an interception.

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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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