Raiders introduce Allen as head coach
Football Betting Lines
01/30/2012 - Alameda, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie called two people after he interviewed Dennis Allen for the open head coach position in Oakland: his wife and owner Mark Davis.
"They could feel the excitement I had," McKenzie said, "and I wanted to let them know that I think I found my guy."
Allen was introduced Monday as the new head coach of the Raiders, saying his goal was a team that played with passion, emotion, discipline and a respect for game and those who played it before them.
"You don't win games in the National Football League by talent alone," Allen said. "There are a lot of other things that are a part of that, and those are the things that we're going to develop and those are the things we're going to preach on a day-to-day basis to our players.
"Because we do have talented players. We have enough talent on our team to compete for a championship, and that's what our goal is going to be every year. (But) we've got to play smart, we've got to play tough, we've got to play disciplined and we got to be committed to doing the things that it takes to win in the National Football League. And those are the things we're going to do."
The Raiders hired Allen to replace Hue Jackson, who was fired earlier this month on McKenzie's first official day as general manager after just one season at the helm and an 8-8 record.
McKenzie pledged a detailed search for Jackson's replacement, but quickly landed on Allen after being impressed by his initial interview.
"To say I was excited after the interview with coach Allen would be a major understatement," said McKenzie, who met with Allen again at the Senior Bowl. "I was extremely excited."
McKenzie said Allen exceeded his expectations as a potential coach who was eager to lead and passionate about the game and about teaching players.
Allen, who was hired after one season as defensive coordinator of the Denver Broncos, showed flashes of that passion in Monday's press conference when he laid out his goals for the team.
He said the offense would be "up-tempo" with a focus on being aggressive and having an explosive passing game. He said he believed all the pieces were in place to accomplish that. Allen also stressed an aggressive mentality for his defense with a focus on rushing the quarterback and stopping the run.
"This is a new day in Oakland Raiders football," Allen said. "We're progressing forward and we're going to set our own goals."
Prior to being hired by the Broncos in January 2011, Allen was with the New Orleans Saints for five seasons, serving as assistant defensive line coach from 2006-07 and as the secondary coach from 2008-10.
The Broncos had the NFL's 20th-ranked defense during the regular season and won the AFC West at 8-8. They edged Oakland for the division title on a tiebreaker, then beat Pittsburgh in the wild card round of the playoffs before losing to New England in the divisional round.
Allen is Oakland's seventh different head coach since Jon Gruden left after the 2001 season. Bill Callahan spent two years as head coach and guided the Raiders to the Super Bowl after the 2002 season, losing to Gruden's Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Raiders haven't had a winning season since.
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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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