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Bulls aim to continue road success in BostonBasketball Betting Lines02/12/2012 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The East-leading Chicago Bulls shoot for their sixth straight win when they finish a grueling nine-game road trip at TD Garden vs. the Boston Celtics. The Bulls, who have the NBA's best record at 23-6, hope to have Derrick Rose back in the lineup this afternoon. The reigning league MVP rested his ailing back against woeful Charlotte on Friday and Chicago still made it look easy by posting a 95-64 rout over the Bobcats in the Queen City. Joakim Noah recorded a double-double of 17 points and 14 rebounds for the Bulls, who improved to an impressive 6-2 on their trip and became the first team to win four consecutive road games by at least 20 points. Carlos Boozer totaled 16 points and six boards in the lopsided win. C.J. Watson started in place of Rose and contributed seven points, five assists and four steals. "I think you have to learn how to play with a lead, you've got to play tough with a lead," said Chicago head coach Tom Thibodeau. The Celtics, meanwhile, lost their second straight contest on Friday in Toronto, falling to the Raptors 86-74. It was a modicum of revenge for Toronto, which was routed by the Celtics 100-64 back on Feb. 1 Kevin Garnett paced the Celtics with 17 points to go with eight rebounds, while Paul Pierce added 12 points and five assists in defeat. The Raptors came out of the gate on fire. A balanced attack led by DeMar DeRozan (nine first-quarter points), Jose Calderon (eight) and James Johnson (eight) was highlighted by a floating alley-oop from Calderon to DeRozan that capped off a 14-4 start in favor of Toronto. Boston ended up scoring a season- low 14 points in the first quarter. "Awful. Just awful," said Celtics coach Doc Rivers when asked about the first frame. "I was really frustrated." Celtics center Jermaine O'Neal did not play against the Raptors with a sore left shoulder and remains questionable for today's game. Chicago has won three straight over Boston, including a 88-79 triumph in Beantown back on Jan. 13.
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Washington, D.C. (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 12th-ranked Georgetown Hoyas will try to bounce back from a recent loss as they play host to the St. John's Red Storm today in a Big East Conference clash at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. Thi
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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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