 |
 Basketball Betting |
 |
||||
|
 |
||||
|
||||
Magic and Celtics renew rivalry in BeantownBasketball Betting Lines02/07/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The latest round of what is quickly becoming one of the best rivalries in the Eastern Conference takes place at TD Garden this afternoon as the Atlantic Division-leading Boston Celtics host the Southeast's top squad, the Orlando Magic. The Celtics avoided what could have been a rather embarrassing loss on Friday when Ray Allen poured in 26 points and drilled a critical three-pointer with two minutes left, as Boston extended lowly New Jersey's woes with a 96-87 win. Rajon Rondo scored 17 points and dished out 11 assists for the Celtics, who have beaten the Nets 12 straight times since the tail end of the 2006-07 season and improved to 2-0 on their current three-game homestand. Glen Davis had 13 points, while Eddie House scored all 10 of his points in the fourth quarter. "I don't know what it was, I mean, we just didn't play well in the first half," Celtics head coach Doc Rivers said. "I thought it was a game that we thought that we could just outscore them." Boston toiled without leading scorer Paul Pierce for the second straight game against New Jersey. The veteran forward, who has been out with a foot injury, will be a game-time decision this afternoon. The Magic, perhaps looking ahead to their matchup with the C's, did suffer an embarrassing setback to the Southeast Division's worst team, Washington, in their last encounter on Friday. Caron Butler fueled a Wizards' comeback over Orlando, scoring 29 of his 31 points in the second half, including the game-winning jumper with a half- second left in regulation, to push Washington to a surprising 92-91 decision at Amway Arena. Butler also grabbed nine rebounds for the Wizards, who trailed by as many as 21 in the contest before outscoring the Magic by 22 in the third quarter to erase the deficit. In a back-and-forth final frame, Orlando's Rashard Lewis nearly spoiled the turnaround by hitting a go-ahead three-pointer with 4.6 seconds to play, but Butler answered with a baseline 19-footer to send the Magic to just their fifth home loss this season. Dwight Howard logged 20 points and 18 rebounds, while Vince Carter chipped in 21 points in Orlando's first loss in five games. "It is flat-out unacceptable," Carter said. "We did a great job of getting ourselves back into the game. But unfortunately, when you have a slippage like that, you're going to lose a buzzer-beater." Lewis had 12 points and his desperation fadeaway following Butler's eventual game-winner was well off the mark. The Magic, who are the reigning Eastern Conference champs, bested the Celts, who were the 2007-08 NBA champs, in Game 7 of the East semifinals last season with a 101-82 blowout win in Beantown, but Boston was without star forward Kevin Garnett. This season, Orlando has gotten the best of the Celtics in two of the three encounters between the two teams, including an 83-78 triumph at TD Garden in November.
<< Raptors host reeling Kings
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Home cooking figures to be key this afternoon as the Toronto Raptors shoot for their seventh consecutive win at Air Canada Centre against a Sacramento Kings team aiming to avoid an 11th straight road loss. The Raptors open
<< Buckeyes host Hawkeyes in Big Ten action
<< Third-ranked Orange clash with Bearcats in Big East battle
<< Lopez ends lengthy title drought
<< Oudin puts United States in Fed Cup semis
Ovechkin's red-hot Caps host Crosby and Pens >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The hottest team in the NHL will take on the defending Stanley Cup champions today when Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals welcome Sidney Crosby's Pittsburgh Penguins for an Eastern Conference showdown at Verizon Cente
Canadiens invite struggling Bruins to Montreal >>
England draws Wales in EURO 2012 qualifying >>
Stricker six clear after three rounds at Riviera >>
Italy tops Ukraine in Fed Cup quarters >>
It's less than a month until the NHL hockey betting season opens at MySportsbook.com and preparations are underway for another battle in the race to hoist Lord Stanley's mug in 2007. As cup crazy fans prepare to place their bets, one online sportsbook ,MySportsbook.com, is offering hockey betting lines on the 2007/2007 Stanley Cup , who will bring it home this upcoming season. Despite a poor showing in last season's playoffs and the loss of Steve Yzerman to retirement, the Detroit Red Wings are early favourites at this online sportsbook with wagering odds of 6-1. The Wings will look to offensive powerhouse Pavel Datsyuk and newly appointed captain Nicklas Lidstrom to lead one of the league's most prominent franchises. Always a threat are the Ottawa Senators, with newly acquired goaltender Martin Gerber from the Stanley Cup champion ,Carolina Hurricanes. The Sens are second best in the rankings at a 7-1 bet, and odds makers at this sportsbook are optimistic that the Ottawa squad will fare better than last season's Eastern Conference semi-final upset to the Buffalo Sabres. Also worth noting are the defending Stanley Cup champs Carolina Hurricanes, a 10-1 bet to repeat. Behind the Canes are the New Jersey Devils, Calgary Flames, Buffalo Sabres, Philadelphia Flyers, and Anaheim Mighty Ducks all sit at 12-1. In the basement are the Washington Capitals, Chicago Blackhawks, and St. Louis Blues who all have 100-1 odds to win. To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your hockey betting needs.
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. |
|
