I'm new to the betting world and so I just hope I can make sense with what I'm trying to say here ...

For the last couple months I've been betting exclusively on RLMs which means spending time during the day finding public betting percentages. Of course, you never know which public percentages are accurate, so needless to say my 'system' hasn't been very profitable. I'm about even.

Anyway, I was doing some research tonight on which sites (free and paid) offer the most accurate public percentages, and what I've found is that a number of people think percentages are worthless and that public perception is more important. (For example -- Aaron Rodgers looked great last week and the Packers had no trouble with Minnesota. Now they're going up against an inexperienced quarterback and should roll to another victory. So public perception will probably be with Green Bay, right?)

My question, however, is that wouldn't it be logical to assume that public percentages mirror public perception? Or am I missing something here? In other words, for those who think public perception is more important than public percentages ... what is the difference?

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Bonus question: How does Vegas set their lines?

Do they do it in accordance with how many points they think a particular team is going to win by? Or do they do it in accordance with public perception?
Please, go easy with me as it's my first post. And thanks in advance for any replies.