Many bettors don't have a clue where betting odds for their favorite sports come from. How and who makes those point spreads for Sunday's football games? Who decides who's the favorite and the underdog and how? It all starts in a place called Las Vegas.
Oddsmaking companies in Las Vegas such as LVSC (Las Vegas Sports Consultants, Inc.) provide sportsbooks and casinos with their odds and betting lines. They have been in business since the early 80's and are one of the most important lines makers in Nevada.
There a group of odds makers (more hardcore sports fans than anything else) figure these odds analyzing trends and statistics of each team and using their own personal criteria. Every individual expert has his own team rating and ranking system, this is used to come up with an initial betting line that then is discussed with the other lines making experts in a meeting. They take into account other aspects and agree to a final line that is then released to sportsbooks around the world.
One thing most people don't realize is that the final goal of betting lines is not to predict a winner in a particular sporting event; it's designed to split the opinion of bettors, make then wager as evenly as possible on both sides of the event. Let's take for example a game between Broncos (+1) and 49ers (-1), sportsbooks don't want 90% of their bettors take San Francisco at -1 and the remaining 10% betting on Denver. They need to have as close to a 50%-50% ratio as possible.
In order to achieve this balance on both sides of the betting line, wagering establishments move the line on one side if the other is getting too much action, that's why there are differences in betting odds from every sportsbook.
Instead of thinking of this as something negative for bettors, many use it to their benefit and look around for differences that would actually suit them better.
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