Aloha should mean goodbye

Golf Betting Lines

01/16/2012 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Aloha is Hawaiian for either hello, or goodbye.

The PGA Tour should bid a permanent goodbye aloha to opening the season in Hawaii.

The tour heads to the mainland of the United States this week after a fortnight in the 50th state. The Hyundai Tournament of Champions and Sony Open in Hawaii are things of the past; hopefully, the permanent past.

Hawaii seems lovely. Never been myself, but "The Descendants" sure looked nice in the background. This is nothing against Hawaii itself. I've never been on a honeymoon, and I'm not "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," but the time for professional golf in the Aloha State has passed.

The season has opened in Hawaii since 1999 and with each passing year, the tour's top stars have skipped it more frequently than an 8:30 Friday morning class.

The tournament is reserved for the previous year's winners. It's an exclusive event and the intention is to reward golfers with a week in paradise and an enormous paycheck. (Jhonattan Vegas finished dead-last this year and pocketed $64,000.)

This year, Phil Mickelson, Masters champion Charl Schwartzel, world No. 1 Luke Donald, U.S. Open winner Rory McIlroy, Open champion Darren Clarke, Martin Kaymer, Adam Scott and Dustin Johnson all passed.

The biggest star in the field was Steve Stricker. Granted, he won the tournament, but that's not exactly what you should be looking for from the "Tournament of Champions."

Tiger Woods, back when he won official PGA Tour events, made it acceptable to withdraw before the tournament. He hasn't played in Hawaii since the 2005 season-opener.

Hawaii is beautiful, but who wants to travel that far? Players could make a two-week stay of it in Hawaii and play the Sony, but most of them don't want to make such a commitment that early in the season.

Do I think more stars would play if they didn't have to take a five-hour flight from California? Yes, that is my contention.

Few golfers speak out publicly why they don't want to play in this event, and there's zero evidence to suggest that a change to Los Angeles or even Las Vegas would enhance the star power.

The only thing backing up this theory is the years-long absence of golf's biggest names. We'll never know until the plug is pulled on the Hawaii experiment.

Aside from the fact the Hawaii swing is getting dimmer, there are other logistic problems.

The five-hour time difference on the east coast puts the championships squarely in prime-time. It's on against the NFL playoffs. You don't need to waste your time checking the ratings. Brady v. Tebow did better than Maggert v. Every.

Why try and compete against that? If the tour played in the western time zone, the rounds could still be over before 8:00 p.m. (et) and thus not have to fight for sports viewers.

Is this an east-coast bias? You bet it is, but remember, this is the media capital of the world. We don't owe Hawaii a blessed thing, other than a hearty thank you for Don Ho and embarrassing shirts for middle-aged men.

The LPGA Tour is headed to Hawaii in April with the LPGA LOTTE Championship. It's been wildly heralded as a huge move for the tour, although Dottie Pepper in last week's "Sports Illustrated" illustrated some unmentioned problems with this event.

"Three months before the event there's still no plan to get it on TV," wrote Pepper. "The equipment that brings us golf and football from Hawaii in January and February is back on the mainland by April. Those trucks may have to float west after the Kraft Nabisco, which will cost a lot but be well worth it. Last year Golf Channel aired more hours of live coverage and showed features about many of the players, and the LPGA's ratings grew 30 percent. Will it last?"

Events in Hawaii aren't bringing much more to the pig roast than some gnarly surfing opportunities for those involved. What was once a great perk has become a chore and it's not working.

Send everybody to Vegas or L.A. and it will work out better for all involved.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

- PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem got a four-year extension and will be on the job through 2016. He gets a lot of credit for keeping the tour thriving through choppy economic times. Finchem will be close to 70 when that extension runs out. There is no clear successor for the gig, so the tour has four years to find one.

- I'm available for aforementioned position.

- If Hawaiian events are outdated, so were five-round tournaments, so good news this week's Humana Challenge was trimmed to four. Pres. Clinton is heavily involved, thus the appearance of Greg Norman, a good buddy of the former President.

- According to ESPN, a poorly-kept secret may be reality. ESPN is reporting that Tiger Woods will team with Tony Romo at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Doesn't make pro-ams any more interesting.

- Movie moment - Normally I try to catch Oscar nominated films before the awards and nominations are around the corner. Which would I like to see less - a French silent film, or a movie about a horse? In its defense, it is a "War Horse."

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Sportsbooks to bet on football

Recently I had an email debate with an angry reader who said I did not understand "the science of oddsmaking", as he called it.

He said I was wrong for suggesting oddsmakers care about who wins or loses games.

"Oddsmakers only care about splitting the betting public 50/50 on both sides of the line and keeping the commission (a.k.a. juice)," he wrote.

He might have been right about not understanding "the science of oddsmaking". After all, I'm not an oddsmaker. That said, I stick to my assertion that oddsmakers (a.k.a. sportbooks) often do care about who wins games.

Granted, as a general rule, sportsbooks try to balance their action so that they're not exposed to big losses. However, there are times when this is difficult to pull off, regardless of how much a line has moved. There are also times when that general rule is ignored and a book pursues risk.

Generally speaking, it's safe to say the books in Vegas are risk-adverse. Unlike in the past when the wise guys ruled the town, Vegas is now corporate and the goal of most casinos is to make as much money as possible with as little risk as possible.

Thus, Vegas sportsbooks try everything in their power to balance the action. They're satisfied simply collecting the juice. But these profits are small, especially compared to the take from other casino games, namely slot machines.

Because the profits at Vegas sportsbooks are so small, you could argue that many casinos operate sportsbooks simply as a novelty to keep the tourists happy.

With a growing aversion to risk, it should come as no surprise that Vegas bookmakers have been panicking this NFL season.

Despite huge pointspreads, a disproportionate percentage of bettors are still laying their money on favorites like the Eagles, Colts, Pats and Vikings rather than the dogs (a common trend for the largely recreational bettors that visit Vegas).

And much to the dismay of the books, those favorites are finding ways to cover the thick chalk. In fact, prior to Week 7, the four teams listed above are a combined 16-2-2 (88 percent) against the spread. (The tables turned dramatically in Week 7, but more on that later.)

The result has been an early-season beating for the books, and a bonanza for bettors.

While Vegas increasingly hates risk, it's no longer a major player in the sports betting world. Most of the betting action now takes place offshore where sportsbooks are not as obsessed about balance. In fact, some books encourage exposure to risk because the rewards can be so much bigger.

Consider MySportsbook.com. On its website, the book has odds pages which actually display the amount of action it's getting on games. In other words, you can see how much action the book is taking on both sides of a pointspread, moneyline or over/under.

One look at these numbers and it's obvious MySportsbook.com does not balance every game. In fact, far from it.

Take last weekend's matchup between St. Louis and Miami. By game time on Sunday, 83 percent of the betting action at MySportsbook.com was on the Rams; only 17 percent was on Miami.

What's interesting is that MySportsbook.com opened the pointspread with Miami at +6 1/2. By game time, the spread had lowered to +5.

That goes contrary to the balancing theory. If MySportsbook.com had wanted to balance the action, it would have given Miami more points; instead, it took away 1 1/2. World Series odds are now up as well.

MySportsbook.com exposed itself to even more to risk, and rolled the dice on the underdog Dolphins. Why? I contacted a representative with the book to find out. His answer was simple.

"The line moved early based on 'smart money' from sharp players," said Jeff Gilroy, a spokesperson for the book. "We also knew from early in the week that we would need Miami, therefore (we dropped) the spread to encourage Rams money.

"At the end of the day, we liked the home team."

So the conclusion is this: MySportsbook.com respected the sharp action, and gambled that the sharp bettors had a better take on the game than the recreational bettors, who were hammering the visiting Rams.

In the end, the gamble paid off. Miami, desperate for a win in front of its home fans, pounded the overrated Rams, who are terrible on the road and even worse on grass. Final score: 31-14 Fish.

MySportsbook.com was also heavily exposed on numerous favorites in Week 7, including Philadelphia, Seattle and Denver. All three failed to cover.

The fact that sportsbooks are exposed to risk on certain games is really nothing new. The fact, that Sportsbook.com is willing to show the public where it's exposed is intriguing.

Armed with this type of information, bettors can make more educated wagers. They can get an idea where the sharp money is going and conversely where the public money is headed.

MySportsbook.com is opening up its cashbox, letting bettors look inside and challenging them to take their best shot at grabbing the cash.

To visit this online football betting got to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting odds needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.