Comcast SportsNet New England confirmed the procedure took place on Friday
morning, reporting that recovery time is expected to be 10 weeks.
The 22-year-old sustained the injury, called a high ankle sprain, during the
third quarter of a 23-20 victory over Baltimore in the AFC Championship Game.
He was limited to two receptions for 26 yards in the Pats' Super Bowl defeat
to the New York Giants last Sunday.
Gronkowski turned in a record-breaking year for the Patriots, setting an NFL
mark for tight ends with 17 touchdown receptions. He also scored once on the
ground and finished the campaign with 90 catches -- second on the team behind
only Wes Welker's 122 -- for 1,327 yards.
<< Djokovic-less Serbs leads Swedes 2-0 in Davis Cup
Nis, Serbia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Playing without its world No. 1 superstar
Novak Djokovic, Serbia jumped out to a commanding 2-0 lead over visiting
Sweden in a best-of-five opening-round Davis Cup affair.
World No. 9 Janko Tipsar
<< Kvitova pulls out of Qatar Open
Doha, Qatar (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova will not
play in next week's Qatar Ladies Open due to an unspecified injury.
The world No. 2 Kvitova was slated to be the second seed in Doha, behind world
No. 1 and Austr
<< Kerber ousts Sharapova in Paris
Paris, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Capable German Angelique Kerber upset top-
seeded Maria Sharapova in Friday's quarterfinal action at the Open GDF Suez.
The ninth-seeded Kerber upended the Australian Open runner-up Sharapova 6-4,
6-4 at St
<< NCAA proposals would enhance player safety
Charlotte, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The NCAA Football Rules Committee wrapped up
three-day meetings Thursday by recommending several rules proposals for the
2012 season that are intended to enhance player safety.
The proposed changes include:
<< Report: West Virginia, Big East to settle lawsuit
Charleston, WV (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - West Virginia and the Big East have
reportedly agreed to end their legal issues in a move that will enable the
university to leave the conference and join the Big 12 in July.
According to the Ch
Nalbandian, Monaco give Argentines 2-0 lead over host Germans >>
Bamberg, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Last year's runner-up Argentina got
opening singles wins from David Nalbandian and Juan Monaco on Friday, as the
host Germans trail their South American counterparts 2-0 in a best-of-five
opening
Lifetime achievements awards behind this season's All-Star snubs >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - For the most part, the NBA's coaches do an
outstanding job picking the reserves for the NBA All-Star Game.
With so few slots available there are always a number of players who are going
to feel slighted bu
Cavs' Irving out at least two more games >>
Cleveland, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Cleveland Cavaliers rookie point guard Kyrie
Irving will miss at least the next two games as he continues to recover from a
concussion.
Head coach Byron Scott said Irving is getting better, but will be held
Lifetime achievement awards behind this season's All-Star snubs >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - For the most part, the NBA's coaches do an
outstanding job picking the reserves for the NBA All-Star Game.
With so few slots available there are always a number of players who are going
to feel slighted bu
Penguins' Staal to return Saturday >>
Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Pittsburgh Penguins activated forward
Jordan Staal from injured reserve, in anticipation of his return to the lineup
on Saturday against the Winnipeg Jets.
Pens head coach Dan Bylsma confirmed Staa
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.
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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