Federer gains quarterfinal berth, rematch with Soderling

Tennis Betting Lines

09/07/2010 - Flushing Meadows, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Roger Federer continued to roll at the U.S. Open on Monday, this time scoring a straight-set victory over Austrian Jurgen Melzer to reach the quarterfinals.

The second-seeded Federer earned a 6-3, 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 win over the No. 13 seed Melzer. The super Swiss has not dropped a set at this fortnight and will next take on Swede Robin Soderling.

The fifth-seeded Soderling took down No. 21 seed Albert Montanes of Spain, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-3. Although Federer is 12-1 lifetime against the reigning two-time French Open runner-up, Soderling beat the 16-time Grand Slam champion in the quarterfinals at this year's French Open. That snapped Federer's streak of 23 consecutive Grand Slam semifinal appearances.

I'll be the second straight year the two have met at the U.S. Open. In 2009, Federer won in four tough sets in the quarterfinals.

"I'm looking forward obviously," Federer said. "He's always been a dangerous player. He's able to do it consistently at the highest level and looks like he's going to finish in the top-5 at the end of the year. This is obviously a tough draw for me."

The former world No. 1 Federer titled here from 2004-08 and was last year's runner-up to Argentine slugger Juan Martin del Potro. This year's Aussie Open champ earned his 26th successive Grand Slam quarterfinal.

After finishing off the second set with a powerful forehand, Federer gained a break midway through the third before beating Melzer for a second time this year. Their other match was in the round-of-16 at Wimbledon, also a three-set win for Federer.

Also on Monday, former runner-up Novak Djokovic handled American Mardy Fish, while Frenchman Gael Monfils also moved into the quarterfinals.

The third-seeded Djokovic drubbed a lethargic 19th-seeded Fish in surgeon-like 6-3, 6-4, 6-1 fashion at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. Djokovic moved on in 1 hour, 50 minutes by piling up six service breaks against the typically-big-serving Fish.

Fish, who labored here on Labor Day, had won 18 of his previous 20 matches, including a pair of titles and a runner-up finish against Federer at an ATP Masters/U.S. Open Series tournament in Cincinnati.

"It's been a great summer, obviously, for many reasons," Fish said. "Sort of put myself back into a position where I feel like I belong, and I put in a ton of hard work."

The 23-year-old Djokovic will compete in his fourth straight U.S. Open quarterfinal. The steady Serb reached at least the semifinals in his previous three trips to New York, and has reached at least the quarters in 13 of his last 15 Grand Slam events overall.

"I played a great match today, Djokovic said. "Conditions were tough as well with a strong wind. I was using my serve in important moments extremely well and opening the court and kind of not giving him enough chances to come to the net and be aggressive."

Djokovic is a former Australian Open titlist and lost to Federer in the 2007 U.S. Open finale. He'll face an acrobatic Monfils in a quarterfinal here on Wednesday.

The enigmatic Monfils reached his third career, and first-ever U.S. Open, quarterfinal with a hard-fought and entertaining 6-4, 7-5, 7-5 victory over compatriot Richard Gasquet. The 17th-seeded Monfils advanced in 2 hours, 35 minutes by firing 14 aces and breaking Gasquet's serve five times in a match between two of the most talented players on the ATP World Tour.

Monfils is the first Frenchman in 10 years to reach the U.S. Open quarterfinals.

The fourth round concludes on Tuesday with top seed Rafael Nadal, the reigning French Open and Wimbledon champion, continuing his quest for a first U.S. Open title by facing fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez. The last time Nadal lost before the quarterfinals at a Grand Slam was at the 2009 French Open.

Another battle of Spanish players has No. 8 Fernando Verdasco playing 10th seed David Ferrer. the other two matches will see 12th-seeded Russian Mikhail Youzhny battling Spain's Tommy Robredo, and 20th-seeded American Sam Querrey battling 25th seed Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland.

Due to the matchups, Spain is guaranteed the first all-Spanish quarterfinal in the U.S. Open in the Open Era.

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NFL Football Betting : Odds on NFL Division to Win the Super Bowl

NFL Super Bowl Betting

The AFC South and the NFC East are the favorite divisions to have the next Super Bowl champ among them in the NFL betting odds. But more down to the point, these football odds are in favor of the Indianapolis Colts, by far the strongest team in the AFC South, and the Dallas Cowboys of the NFC East.

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The NFC South is also very strong, at +600 in the NFL futures, considering that it is home to the defending Super Bowl champions. However, some predictions have the Atlanta Falcons with possibilities of claiming the divisional title this season in place of the Saints, as no team has won back-to-back division championships since the division realignment took place. Let’s not overlook the AFC North at +500. As TO goes to Cincinnati to join Chad OchoCinco and Adam “Pac-Man” Jones, this team looks to claim the division title again. And it is likely they will do so. The Bengals lost in the AFC Wild Card spot in a hard-fought battle against the New York Jets last season. Lest not forget the Pittsburgh Steelers, the XLII Super Bowl Champions… All these teams present interesting odds and matchups for the upcoming season, but the safest and surest bet seems to be with the Colts in the AFC South and the Cowboys in the NFC East. Play this weekly NFL Football Contestto see if you can win.

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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.”

To visit this internet sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your sports betting needs and World Series odds.