[TwoWays]

http://espn.go.com/chalk/story/_/id/...wing-las-vegas

the tournament started out big time underdog trend but looks like trending back to 50/50

[The Giant]

It was really strange watching the referees attempting to swallow their whistle during the last 5 seconds of that game.

[KVB]

http://espn.go.com/chalk/story/_/id/...wing-las-vegas

the tournament started out big time underdog trend but looks like trending back to 50/50

Classic March Madness. Has anyone not come to expect these kinds of events during the tournament? They happen every year. Every year. With experience, I've even developed a way to spot predict which games may have these endings and why. It's not perfect by any means but at the end of the day it seems to make sense. I guess I've just watched a lot of sports, tracked some of these events well, understand the mechanism behind and tend not to forget what I've seen and why.

Because I haven't lost money in an NCAA Tournament as a whole since the mid 90's I've learned to be entertained by the antics. I think I'd be disturbed if a tournament went by where something like this didn't happen. Real talk.

There are as many ways to handicap sports as there are handicappers, my program during certain times of the year actually refers to some of those tracked results and notes made.

I've found there is often a give and take with these things, until such time as it just becomes a take.

[SomeDayinBuffalo]

Any pro leauge watch's the line. You don't think the NCAA doesn't.....

[Ghenghis Kahn]

i'm gonna stick to my guns. even though utah played real tight, biggest play of the game was that stupid 3rd foul called on delon wright. changed the whole fukking game. i'm actually surprised espn is bringing that shit up though. shit like this happens daily. it's just that this game was on prime time national tv.

[MoMoneyMoVaughn]

[HeeluvaGuy]

Someone help me understand that article. Despite all of the bets on the Blue Devils, didn't the line move down from 5.5 to 5 to 4.5 just before tip? Assuming the bulk of the bets were placed when it was 5 (only because it was 5 for most of the week, I think), do we really believe that the line moved down because there was more money on Duke?

I'm not suggesting that there was a conspiracy to have Duke cover, but the story doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Help me understand...

[KVB]

There could be multiple factors at play here. While there may be a "lot of money" going on to one team, often the nature of that money and the actual number of wagers that constitute that money are taken into account.

It's busy season so that factor near game time may not have a lot of influence. However, understand that, while not as obvious as football, even in basketball certain types of money will treat certain numbers differently. Regardless of the amount of money, some numbers can be harder to move off of or on to than others.

Finally, I think they mentioned parlays being affected. Many times casinos don't even account for parlay bets when adjusting the point spread. Only individual bets and sometimes the individuals betting them. To account for parlay payoffs when adjusting the individual line could lead to ridiculousness. Besides most parlay players do them incorrectly so the books have little fear of the occasional big payout.

Times have changed and I find it hard to believe there isn't some eye on the parlay screen, especially this time of year. I'm sure there's more to it by now than I'm even mentioning.

All this being said, know that Vegas and books in general have no responsibility to report any of these numbers accurately. It really isn't good for business. In fact, reporting misleading information can sometimes be good for business.

So when they say they took in such and such and the line movement doesn't quite matchup, know there are other compression factors involved and that they could simply be misleading with the report or the line. Back office sportsbook accounting is well guarded and information offered is intentional.