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Stamps seek 3-0 start in mid-week clash with ArgosFootball Betting Lines07/13/2010 - Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - With their nine-game losing streak now a memory, the Toronto Argonauts try to continue their strong play on Wednesday night as they host the Calgary Stampeders at the Rogers Centre. Getting an early jump on the third week of the season, due to a soccer game set between Manchester United and Celtic FC on Friday, Toronto has plenty to be pleased about following its narrow 36-34 win over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers last Friday night at Canad Inns Stadium. Quarterback Cleo Lemon threw for 162 yards and ran for a touchdown, while running back Cory Boyd carried the ball 19 times for 109 yards and a score. The win on the road came in a familiar place as Manitoba was also one of just two locations outside of Toronto where the Argos were able to pick up victories in 2009. Kicker Grant Shaw was huge for the Argonauts as well, knocking through all four of his field goal attempts including a 13-yard effort late in the fourth frame to put his team far enough ahead to secure its first win of the season. Also on special teams, Chad Owens reeled in a missed 45-yard field goal attempt by Alexis Serna and raced nearly untouched 117 yards for another touchdown for the visitors. As for the Stampeders, they too leaned heavily on their special teams unit as new kicker Rob Maver converted a 23-yard boot with 10 seconds left on the clock to secure his team's thrilling 23-22 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on the road. Maver was good on all three of his field goal chances in the meeting, turning Calgary into one of only two teams in the CFL to start the season a perfect 2-0, the other being Saskatchewan which is also in the Western Division. Henry Burris was a bit shaky at times, yet the quarterback still made good on 24-of-37 passes for 257 yards and a pair of touchdowns, while moving beyond his one interception and lost fumble. Nik Lewis and Romby Bryant caught touchdown passes of 15 and 17 yards, respectively, while Joffrey Reynolds ran for 98 yards on 15 carries, easily outgaining the entire Hamilton squad which finished with a mere 48 yards on 17 attempts. An established champion in the CFL, Burris has been one of the most consistent passers during his career, especially in the last six seasons when he's thrown for at least 4,200 yards. Already having set the standard for the most passing yards and completions in a Stampeders uniform, Burris also notched the 200th passing score of his career over the weekend. However, even though the signal- caller has connected on 66.2 percent of his throws over the first two games, among the regular starters in the league, he is the only one without a completion of at least 40 yards. In fact, his longest pass to date has been only 28 yards and that might be something that the Toronto pass defense centers on this week. Ironically Reynolds, who is third in the league at the moment with 214 yards rushing through two weeks, has a long run of 28 yards to match the effort of Burris thus far. As for the running attack of the Argonauts, Boyd bounced back from a weak first game when he gained just 32 yards on eight carries, but if not for one 23-yard burst he would have the lowest average per carry among starting backs in the league in the early going. With Lemon still learning the finer points of Canadian Football, the Toronto offense is only going to take what the Stamps defense gives it and that may not be very much this week. Nevertheless, chances are Lemon will still perform much better than the quarterback contingent that tried to move the ball for the Argonauts last season, a group of gunslingers who combined to rank second- to-last in the league with 4,128 yards through the air with a league-low 14 TDs and a lofty 25 interceptions. Working in Lemon's favor is the fact that Calgary had one of the weaker pass defenses in the league last year, registering just 13 interceptions and permitting 408 completed passes (second-most behind Winnipeg). In 2009 these two teams also met during the third week of the campaign, with Calgary crushing the Argos by a score of 44-9 at home. Six weeks later the matchup was much tighter as the Stamps slipped by with a 23-20 final on the road. As far as the regular-season series is concerned, Calgary has used a six-game win streak against Toronto to push its advantage to 41-36-1 overall, thanks in part to a 30-16 win in the first game of this season. A short week to prepare probably doesn't help either team and the fact that Calgary didn't bother to return home after defeating Hamilton means the Stamps are following along what Burris referred to as an NHL schedule. But don't expect Calgary to be caught off-guard in this meeting, knowing that a win would put huge pressure on the rest of the division this early in the campaign.
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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?" A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."
Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook. In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small. "Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets." But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?" Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year. This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here. Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions. In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries. No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning. And that's all any bettor can ask for. To visit this sports book go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs. It's less than a month until the NHL hockey betting season opens at MySportsbook.com and preparations are underway for another battle in the race to hoist Lord Stanley's mug in 2007. As cup crazy fans prepare to place their bets, one online sportsbook ,MySportsbook.com, is offering hockey betting lines on the 2007/2007 Stanley Cup , who will bring it home this upcoming season. Despite a poor showing in last season's playoffs and the loss of Steve Yzerman to retirement, the Detroit Red Wings are early favourites at this online sportsbook with wagering odds of 6-1. The Wings will look to offensive powerhouse Pavel Datsyuk and newly appointed captain Nicklas Lidstrom to lead one of the league's most prominent franchises. Always a threat are the Ottawa Senators, with newly acquired goaltender Martin Gerber from the Stanley Cup champion ,Carolina Hurricanes. The Sens are second best in the rankings at a 7-1 bet, and odds makers at this sportsbook are optimistic that the Ottawa squad will fare better than last season's Eastern Conference semi-final upset to the Buffalo Sabres. Also worth noting are the defending Stanley Cup champs Carolina Hurricanes, a 10-1 bet to repeat. Behind the Canes are the New Jersey Devils, Calgary Flames, Buffalo Sabres, Philadelphia Flyers, and Anaheim Mighty Ducks all sit at 12-1. In the basement are the Washington Capitals, Chicago Blackhawks, and St. Louis Blues who all have 100-1 odds to win. To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your hockey betting needs. |
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