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Blazers hold off KingsBasketball Betting Lines03/10/2010 - Portland, OR (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Brandon Roy scored 19 points and pulled down eight rebounds as Portland beat Sacramento for the fifth straight time, 88-81, at the Rose Garden. Nicolas Batum and Andre Miller each tallied 14 points for the Trail Blazers, who won for the fourth time in five contests and continue to hold the eighth spot in the Western Conference. Marcus Camby had a solid defensive effort with eight rebounds and five blocks, while LaMarcus Aldridge scored 13 and Martell Webster added 11 off the bench. Tyreke Evans had 18 points, six rebounds and six assists for the Kings, who dropped their third in a row. Carl Landry scored 17 and Beno Udrih 13, but Sacramento was held without a point for a key three-minute stretch late in the game. A pair of free throws from Landry had the Kings within 81-78 with 3:35 left in the game, but Batum countered with a layup to start Portland's push to seal the victory. Roy drained a jumper with 2:07 left and then converted 1-of-2 foul shots with 1:23 left. Miller's two foul shot capped Portland's big 7-0 run with 30.8 seconds left for the 88-78 cushion. Sacramento held a 29-25 lead after one quarter that saw its share of momentum shifts. Portland used a 10-1 run late in the second to lead 52-40 before Landry ended the half on a jam. Portland saw its lead trimmed to a pair at one juncture of the third, but then widened the margin to 73-62 moving to the fourth as Webster drained a three- ball in the final minute. Game Notes Camby missed the previous game due to a sprained ankle...Before Tuesday, Portland had scored 100 points or more in seven straight games for the first time since an eight-game streak from November 8-21, 1995.
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Edmonton, AB (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chris Kelly registered a goal and an assist to lead the Ottawa Senators to a 4-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers at Rexall Place. Mike Fisher, Matt Cullen and Milan Michalek also scored for the Senators, w
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Garon solid in net as Blue Jackets down Ducks >>
Anaheim, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mathieu Garon was strong with 36 saves to lead the Columbus Blue Jackets to a 5-2 win over the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center. Fedor Tyutin, Jakub Voracek and Antoine Vermette all recorded a goal and two assi
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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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