Sports Betting News: NFL Team History | NFL Football Betting | College Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | College Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting
10/26/2007 - Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Chicago Blackhawks placed forward David Koci and defenseman Andrei Zyuzin on the injured reserve list on Friday. They also recalled center Dave Bolland from Rockford (AHL).
Koci, 26, left the Blackhawks' 3-1 loss to Boston in the first period, after breaking his nose. He had fought with the Bruins' 6-foot-9, 255-pound defenseman Zdeno Chara.
Koci (6-6, 238) had already injured the nose in Chicago's game at Toronto on October 20. He has no goals, but 24 penalty minutes, in seven games this season.
Zyuzin, 29, landed on the IR because of a strained muscle in his backside. He has one goal and one assist in seven games.
Bolland, 21, has scored four goals and one assist for Rockford. He made his NHL debut with the Blackhawks last season, playing one game on October 25. Bolland had 17 goals and 32 assists with Norfolk (AHL) in 2006-07.
<< City out to prove itself against Chelsea
London, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Manchester City manager Sven-Goran
Eriksson has made quite a splash in his first year as manager at the club,
leading the team to seven wins in their first 10 games and a third-place
positio
<< Nets decline option on Wright
East Rutherford, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New Jersey Nets have declined to
exercise their fourth-year option on the contract of swingman Antoine Wright.
Wright will remain under contract with the Nets through the 2007-08 season,
howev
<< Title already starting to slip away from AC Milan
Milan, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - If you took one look at the Serie A
standings prior to this weekend's games, you would not find AC Milan in the
top half of the table.
Rather, Milan would be sitting in 11th place, 10 points
<< Bordeaux, Valenciennes set for top-six tussle
Bordeaux, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Bordeaux and Valenciennes will take to
the pitch at Parc Lescure on Saturday separated by only one point, with both
sides sitting in top-six positions.
However, both teams will be playing in plac
Weather plays major factor in Breeders' Cup >>
Oceanport, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Steady rain continues to fall at Monmouth
Park early Friday afternoon as the first race of the day began. The main track
was listed as muddy for the two-year-olds in the six-furlong sprint.
The turf course is
Nationwide Tour Championship on; Q School location changed >>
Ponte Vedra Beach, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The PGA Tour made two important
announcements Friday regarding the Nationwide Tour Championship and the first
stage of the PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament.
The Nationwide Tour Championship, s
McDonald should help Celtic rebound against former club >>
Glasgow, Scotland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Scott McDonald has scored five times
in six games for Celtic, but he was not in the lineup for the team's Champions
League loss to Benfica on Wednesday.
Celtic manager Gordan Strachan said that he ne
Panthers sign D Cullimore >>
Sunrise, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Florida Panthers signed defenseman Jassen
Cullimore on a one year deal Friday and assigned him to their AHL affiliate
in Rochester on a two week conditioning stint.
The 34-year-old Cullimore has pla
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.
MySportsbook.com is the best at processing US credit cards for deposits. Welcome to the most player friendly online sportsbook on the planet!
The principals behind MySportsbook are obviously a management group that understands the players needs as evidenced by their commitment to provide easy depositing with their high credit card acceptance rate and free weekly $10 bets they offer to clients with active betting accounts.
The perks don't end there! MySportsbook offers casino, poker and horses as well. Twice named Best Sportsbook by eGaming Review, this place is rock solid financially so you don't ever have to sweat the payout as you may with some other online bookies operating with less betting volume and client base.
Sign up today and grab your share of a 10% bonus that is added instantly to your betting account. Enjoy 52 risk free bets throughout the year as well!
Reasons to Play There: You have to see their no hitter, cycle hitter and slaughter rule promos for baseball. Worth a laugh and probably a few bucks throughout the MLB season. They offer supersized bonuses of 15% if you up your minimum deposit to $500 or more. Lay -105 on Friday NBA! Contests during the NFL football season!
Sports Betting News: NFL Team History | NFL Football Betting | College Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | College Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting