I always wondered how the various sportsbooks came up with the odds for the so-called “entertainment” betting lines. According to an article in today’s NYPost, it’s all very similar to how sporting lines are determined – through extensive research:

“Although there are no hard formulas . . . analysts do tend to attack each line with a similar methodology.

Take their efforts to determine the odds on the identity of Anna Nicole Smith’s baby-daddy. First, they scour the most popular entertainment Web sites, reading every fragment on the candidates’ behavior.

Next, they do a Google search to scratch up more information and to try to get a feel for whether the information on each of the potential fathers is positive or negative, plausible or implausible.”

It makes me chuckle thinking of some smoky back room filled with grizzled, cigar-chomping sports handicappers sitting next to a guy who is the world’s foremost expert on Lindsey Lohan. Must make for an interesting work environment.

For the record I pick that Birkhead dude at 5-1.

Read the rest at the NYPost