Commentator captures 66th MassCap

Horseracing Betting Lines

09/20/2008 - East Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Odds-on favorite Commentator easily out- classed six other competitors to take Saturday's $500,000 Massachusetts Handicap (MassCap) at Suffolk Downs. The MassCap is the second consecutive win for Commentator in the Breeders' Cup Challenge "Win and You're In" program.

A two-time winner of the Whitney Handicap, Commentator stalked the pace set by 50-1 longshot Riversrunrylee in the 1 1/8 mile race. In the early going Cuba was running third and Won Awesome Dude was in fourth.

Up the backstretch Riversrunrylee still set the pace as the 1-9 favorite pressed the leader on the outside. On the turn for home Commentator, ridden by John Velazquez, took the lead and proceeded to run away from the competition.

Finishing 14 lengths back in second was Won Awesome Dude followed by Cuba and Dr. Pleasure in fourth. Rounding out the order of finish was Volcanic Force, Beck and Call, and Riversrunrylee.

The time for the 66th MassCap was 1:48.97 on a fast track.

Commentator, a seven-year-old gelding, is trained by Hall of Famer Nick Zito for Tracy Farmer. This summer Commentator captured his second Whitney Handicap at Saratoga to go along with his 2005 victory. The Whitney victory in July guaranteed Commentator a spot in the Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita on October 25.

"I've had a great number of horses in my life and he has a bit of Seabiscuit in him," Farmer said. "He understands what he is supposed to do. He's just a special horse. It's almost like he's my child. He's someone that keeps coming back and running.

"He is one of my favorite horses of all time, and he's had setbacks of several different minor problems that have kept him from running, but he's always come back fine."

The MassCap win was worth $300,000 and is Commentator's 13th career victory in 20 starts. He now has lifetime earning's of more than $1.84 million.

Also this year Commentator won the Richter Scale Handicap at Gulfstream Park and was second to Divine Park in the Met Mile Handicap at Belmont Park on Memorial Day.

Owner Tracy Farmer isn't sure if the gelding will have another start this year or be retired soon.

"He'll either run or this may be his last race at this age. Who knows? We certainly are not going to run him if he doesn't want to run and if he's not in winning form, and having said that, I have no idea if he's going to run until he's 10 or if this is his last race."

Commentator returned $2.20, $2.20 and $2.20. Won Awesome Dude paid $4.60 and $3.00, and Cuba paid $2.80 to show.

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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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