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RSL puts unbeaten run on line at ChicagoSoccer Betting Lines07/07/2010 - Bridgeview, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Real Salt Lake puts its nine-game unbeaten run on the line when it travels to Chicago to take on the Fire in Major League Soccer action at Toyota Park on Thursday night. RSL (8-3-3) is coming off a 5-0 thrashing of the New England Revolution in its last league fixture last week, and will be aiming to take the momentum on the road. RSL goalkeeper Nick Rimando also earned his 100th regular season win in the contest. "He's a fantastic goalkeeper," RSL coach Jason Kreis said. "I feel for him a lot of times because I know how he feels. He's a smaller guy; maybe it's that Napoleonic complex that we both have, but he feels like he hasn't gotten any accolades in this league that he's deserved. For me he's such an important part of how we built this team and he's been fantastic every single year. He was our MVP and last year he was the MLS Cup MVP and now I think that he's playing the best soccer that I've seen him play in three years, and that's saying a lot." "It feels really good," Rimando said of reaching the milestone. "Apparently there's only a few guys that have 100, and I don't get it if I'm not at a club like this. The guys in front of me have made it so much easier to reach this mark. We're an offensive team, we've scored a lot of goals this season, but at the same time we're not letting anything in. Our whole team goes forward and our whole team comes back, and that's what makes it so easy for me." Chicago (4-4-5) will be trying to come back from a 2-1 loss at the hands of the Columbus Crew this past Saturday. The Fire were vastly outplayed, with their only goal being an own goal by Crew defender Frankie Hejduk. "We've had battles against Chicago every single time," Hejduk told mlssoccer.com. "I don't think this was much of a battle as it normally is. We outclassed them a little bit. Aside from the own goal we really outclassed them and outplayed them."
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Bastad, Sweden (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Top-seeded Flavia Pennetta and fourth- seeded Argentine Gisela Dulko were among Wednesday's second-round winners at the $220,000 Swedish Open. The Italian Pennetta blew past 17-year-old American wil
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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. |
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