Wmavs Basketball Betting News

<< Mets sweep Braves in rain-shortened affair
Flushing, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mike Pelfrey worked five frames to extend a career-best scoreless streak to 24 innings, as the Mets completed a three-game series sweep of Atlanta with a 1-0 victory amid driving rain that shortened the fin

<< Sedin caps comeback as Canucks eliminate Kings
Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Daniel Sedin scored the game-winner off a broken play with 2:03 remaining, and the Vancouver Canucks advanced to the Western Conference semifinals with a 4-2 win in Game 6 to eliminate the Los Angeles

<< Americans rally past Russia into Fed Cup final
Birmingham, AL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Bethanie Mattek-Sands won her reverse singles matchup on Sunday, then teamed up with Liezel Huber to win the deciding doubles match to help the United States advance past Russia to the Fed Cup

<< Hill sparks Spurs to Game 4 win, Mavs on the brink
San Antonio, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - George Hill made 11-of-16 from the floor -- 5-of-6 from three-point distance -- for a playoff career-best 29 points, and the San Antonio Spurs took a stranglehold in their Western Conference quarter

Former Warriors owner Mieuli passes away >>
Oakland, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former Golden State Warriors owner Franklin Mieuli passed away on Sunday of natural causes at the age of 89. Mieuli was the Warriors for 24 years after buying a partial stake in the club when it moved fro

Kentucky Derby Takes a Turn for the Worse >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - For the second straight year, the Kentucky Derby favorite will not be in the starting gate on the first Saturday in May. If you remember, I Want Revenge was pulled prior to the 09 running and now

Thunder Bay hoping to elevate status of junior baseball at Worlds >>
Toronto, Canada (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - It's one of the best-kept secrets in baseball, but if Bryce Harper joins the fray, that's likely to change in a hurry. But it's not to say Harper - baseball's latest highly-touted uber prospect - will be t

Magic try and finish off Bobcats >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Orlando Magic have a chance to put the finishing touches on their Eastern Conference quarterfinals set with the reeling Charlotte Bobcats tonight. Orlando took a commanding 3-0 edge in the series on Saturday when Jamee

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."

Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.

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.