08/21/2008 - Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Toronto FC acquired forward Carlos Ruiz from the Los Angeles Galaxy in exchange for first and second-round picks in the 2009 Major League Soccer Supplemental Draft and salary budget considerations, the teams announced on Thursday.
"We're looking forward to bringing in another quality striker," TFC manager and director of soccer Mo Johnston said. "We've now got [Chad] Barrett and [Danny] Dichio who is on the road to getting healthier and this will also help bring young Ibee [Abdus Ibrahim] along properly. We're very excited to get Ruiz in here - he holds the ball up well and is a clinical finisher."
Ruiz, 28, leaves L.A. as the second leading scorer in Galaxy history with 50 regular season goals for the club. The Guatemalan forward is the all-time leader in postseason goals in MLS, and is currently eighth on the all-time goals list with 82.
In 2002 Ruiz joined MLS and in his first season scored 24 goals and added one assist in 26 games with the Galaxy. In 2005 Ruiz was traded to FC Dallas for a second-round draft pick and an undisclosed amount of money. After spending three seasons in Texas, he returned to the Galaxy before this season. Ruiz injured his knee in the season opener keeping him out of the lineup for the better part of a month. He has only seen spot duty with the Galaxy since.
Internationally, Ruiz has been a member of the Guatemalan national team since 1998 and is their current leading goal scorer. He has over 70 caps for his country.
Earlier this week, presumably in anticipation for the acquisition of Ruiz, Toronto waived midfielder Laurent Robert, which cleared an international roster spot.
The 33-year-old midfielder joined the club April 2 as a free agent and started 16 of 17 games. He logged 1,364 minutes while scoring one goal and three assists.
<< Heat re-sign Wright
Miami, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Miami Heat re-signed guard/forward Dorell
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round in the 2004 NBA Draft, has app
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New Haven, CT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Top-seeded Fernando Verdasco of Spain and
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Verdasco held off German Mi
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New Haven, CT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Top-seeded Anna Chakvetadze of Russia was
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L.A. clears salary cap space then adds U.S. midfielder Lewis >>
Carson, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Los Angeles Galaxy signed U.S. national team
midfielder Eddie Lewis, the team announced on Thursday. To make room for Lewis
on the club's 18-man senior roster, the Galaxy traded forward Carlos Ruiz to
Toronto
Marlins let one slip away in San Francisco >>
San Francisco, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Marlins reliever Kevin Gregg's wild
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Mahan's 62 gives him Barclays lead >>
Paramus, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Hunter Mahan fired a nine-under 62 on Thursday
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Chalmers and Tidland share lead in PA >>
Moscow, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Greg Chalmers and Chris Tidland both fired
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Rick Price posted a six-under 64 and is alone i
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. “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).
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.
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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