Iamidolphins NCAA Basketball Betting News

<< Wellwood's OT goal lifts Jets over Lightning
Tampa, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kyle Wellwood netted the winner at 3:14 of overtime to give Winnipeg a 2-1 decision over Tampa Bay. Blake Wheeler escaped a Bolts checker along the left-wing boards, moved to the net and slipped a pass a

<< Gay leads Memphis past Atlanta
Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Rudy Gay led all scorers with 21 points and added six rebounds as the Memphis Grizzlies dominated the Atlanta Hawks, 96-77, at Philips Arena. The Grizzlies had five players in double figures includ

<< Simmonds leads Flyers over Predators
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Wayne Simmonds scored twice and Ilya Bryzgalov made 26 saves as Philadelphia came away with a 4-1 decision over Nashville on Thursday. Matt Read also tallied and Claude Giroux saw a lengthy

<< Rivers leads Duke over Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, VA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Austin Rivers scored 18 points to lead the way for No. 5 Duke as it defeated Virginia Tech 75-60 at Cassell Coliseum on Thursday. The Blue Devils (17-3, 5-1 ACC) got great efforts off th

Parker, Spurs use late spurt to get past Hornets >>
San Antonio, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tony Parker finished with 18 points and seven assists and provided the Spurs the spark they needed in the fourth quarter, as San Antonio fended off the New Orleans Hornets, 93-81. The final score

Bulls ride Rose in fourth to down Knicks >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Derrick Rose scored 15 of his 32 points in the fourth quarter as the Chicago Bulls held on to take down the New York Knicks, 105-102. Carmelo Anthony had an opportunity to tie the game at the final buzzer,

Stanford fights off ASU behind Ogwumike sisters >>
Tempe, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Nnemkadi Ogwumike and Chiney Ogwumike totaled 42 points and 32 rebounds, carrying No. 4 Stanford past Arizona State, 62-49 for its 67th straight Pac-12 victory. Nnemkadi scored 22 points, her younger sister add

Wild blank Avalanche >>
Denver, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Niklas Backstrom stopped all 37 shots he faced -- including 17 in the third period -- as Minnesota slipped by Colorado, 1-0, at Pepsi Center. Greg Zanon's first-period goal was enough for the Wild, who

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.

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