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Lakers resume trek in UtahBasketball Betting Lines02/04/2012 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Los Angeles Lakers will resume a six-game road trip tonight against the Utah Jazz at EnergySolutions Arena. The Lakers have won three in a row and four of five games since a season-high three-game slide and kicked off the trek with Friday's 93-89 triumph over the Denver Nuggets at the Pepsi Center. Andrew Bynum had 22 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks for LA, which improved to 3-7 away from home and sits just a half-game behind the upstart Clippers for first place in the Pacific. Kobe Bryant added 20 points and nine assists, and shot just 7-of-23 from the floor, including a 1-of-4 performance from beyond the arc. "I didn't shoot the ball particularly well but my teammates did. We are doing a great job of recognizing traps and double teams," Bryant said. Pau Gasol provided 13 points and 17 boards in a winning effort. The Lakers will also visit the Sixers, Celtics, Knicks and Raptors on the trek. Utah will try to stay dominant at home this evening and is 10-4 as the host in 2011-12. It is averaging 99.2 ppg at home and is shooting .464 in Salt Lake City this season. The Jazz have lost two straight and four of six games, including Thursday's 119-101 setback at Golden State in which Gordon Hayward led Utah with 21 points. Josh Howard and Al Jefferson netted 19 points apiece in defeat and Paul Millsap contributed 15 points and 11 rebounds for Utah. Utah starting point guard Devin Harris was a late scratch due to a left hamstring injury and backup point guard Earl Watson was also out due to a sprained left ankle. In his first start since November 30, 2009, Jamaal Tinsley scored nine points to go with 13 assists. Watson is expected to miss tonight's game, while Harris and guard Raja Bell (adductor) are questionable. "I'm just staying ready and waiting for my number to be called," Tinsley said. After Saturday's game the Jazz will play two straight and five of six games away from home. Utah has lost the first two of four meetings with the Lakers this season and the two teams will meet again March 18 at Staples Center. Los Angeles has won 11 of the past 15 matchups with the Jazz and three of four as the visitor.
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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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