Iamidolphins Football Betting News

<< Detroit QB Stafford named Comeback Player of the Year
Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Detroit quarterback Matthew Stafford was named the NFL's Comeback Player of the Year Saturday, as voted by the Associated Press. Stafford, who threw for a career-high 5,038 yards and 41 touchdow

<< Ravens center Matt Birk named Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year
Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Baltimore Ravens center Matt Birk was honored as the 2011 NFL Man of the Year on Saturday. The award recognizes a player's off-the-field community service as well as his playing excellence. "I am

<< Miller, Newton garner rookie awards
Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Denver linebacker Von Miller and Carolina quarterback Cam Newton were named the defensive and offensive Rookies of the Year, respectively, for the 2011 season. The voting, as conducted by the Associated

<< Packers QB Rodgers voted NFL MVP
Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers was named the NFL's Most Valuable Player Saturday, as voted by the Associated Press. Rodgers won the award in a landslide as he received 48 of the 50 possib

Monaco and Berlocq advance to the VTR Open final >>
Vina del Mar, Chile (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Juan Monaco and Carlos Berlocq were both semifinal winners on Saturday at the VTR Open tennis event. Top-seeded Argentine Monaco had little trouble in a 6-1, 6-4 win over Frenchman Jeremy C

Dolson helps UConn dominate Rutgers >>
Storrs, CT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Stefanie Dolson had 16 points to lift No. 3 Connecticut to a 66-34 win over 13th-ranked Rutgers on Saturday. Tiffany Hayes scored 14 points with seven assists for the Huskies (21-2, 9-1 Big East), who won

Oladipo helps Indiana past Purdue >>
West Lafayette, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Victor Oladipo set a career-high with 23 points to go with eight rebounds as No. 20 Indiana held off Purdue for a 78-61 win at Mackey Arena on Saturday. The Hoosiers got impressive efforts from freshme

Vucevic leads balanced attack as Sixers drop Hawks >>
Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - With a career-high 15 points, Nikola Vucevic was one of six 76ers to score in double figures as Philadelphia took down the Atlanta Hawks, 98-87. Spencer Hawes returned from a 10-game absence and netted

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.