Dortmund, Bayern, Gladbach on road in Bundesliga
Soccer Betting Lines
02/17/2012 - Berlin, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Borussia Dortmund visits struggling Hertha Berlin on Saturday in the Bundesliga without injured playmakers Shinji Kagawa and Mario Gotze, as the top three clubs all face road challenges this weekend.
Dortmund is undefeated in 15 straight games, but its cushion atop the table is just two points over Bayern Munich, and three over Monchengladbach.
Although the trio all play teams in the bottom four of the standings, dropping points this weekend could shuffle the order after 22 matches.
Dortmund lost Kagawa to an ankle injury this week, leaving it without its best playmakers, as Gotze remains out with a groin injury. But Hertha has lost four in a row, and sits just three points off the bottom.
Bayern visits last-place Freiburg on Saturday, as it tries to build momentum for its trip to Basel in the Champions League last 16 on Wednesday. But Bayern defender Jerome Boateng said this week "we can't let that get on our minds."
Coach Jupp Heynckes has limited options in defense with Daniel van Buyten out, but Thomas Muller has regained good form and Arjen Robben could earn a larger role after starting on the bench the last two games.
Heynckes is prepared for a tough match, although Freiburg has just 17 points.
"We can't simply show up in Freiburg and expect to win," Heynckes said.
Monchengladbach has quietly remained near the top of the standings and it goes to 16th-place Kaiserslautern, which has lost its last two games and is winless in its last 11.
Werder Bremen, well behind the top clubs in fifth, visits improving Hamburg on Saturday, when Bayer Leverkusen hosts Augsburg and Nurnberg hosts Cologne in the day's other matches.
On Sunday, fourth-place Schalke will try to remain with the top group when it hosts Wolfsburg, and Hannover hosts Stuttgart in another meeting of top-half sides.
On Friday, Mohamed Zidan just before the half-hour mark to erase an early own goal and Mainz tied Hoffenheim, 1-1, at Rhein-Neckar-Arena.
Mississauga, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Toronto Argonauts re-signed linebacker Willie Pile on Friday through the 2013 season. "We are excited Willie has decided to continue playing and will be back in the Double Blue," said Argonauts gener
<< Mize goes low for ACE Group Classic lead
Naples, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Larry Mize fired a 10-under 62 on Friday to take
the first-round lead of the ACE Group Classic at the Talon Course at
TwinEagles Golf Club.
Mize played his last two holes in three-under par and came
<< Mickelson, Casey both out of Accenture
Marana, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The field for next week's WGC-Accenture Match
Play Championship has been finalized and includes the top four players in the
world, but not Phil Mickelson or Paul Casey.
Mickelson will not be playing becaus
<< Royals sign P Collins
Kansas City, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Kansas City Royals signed relief
pitcher Tim Collins to a one-year contract on Friday.
The 22-year-old Collins went 4-4 with a 3.63 ERA in 68 games for the Royals
during his rookie campaign in
<< Isles D Hamonic heads to injured reserve
Uniondale, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - In a move that is hardly surprising, the New
York Islanders placed defenseman Travis Hamonic on injured reserve Friday
thanks to a broken nose and other facial injuries.
Hamonic hasn't played since Fe
Daytona Beach, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Daytona International Speedway will include short track races to its Speedweeks activities, starting in 2013, NASCAR and track officials announced on Friday. The 2.5-mile superspeedway will
Mainz grabs point at Hoffenheim >>
Sinsheim, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mohamed Zidan scored in the 29th minute,
and Mainz earned its seventh road draw of the season, 1-1 against Hoffenheim
on Friday at Rhein-Neckar-Arena in the Bundesliga.
Nikolce Noveski's own goal insid
Report: Yankees trade Burnett to Pirates >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New York Yankees have unloaded pitcher
A.J. Burnett, dealing the maligned right-hander to the Pittsburgh Pirates in
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Sheridan to helm Buccaneers defense >>
Tampa, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Tampa Bay Buccaneers announced on Friday
that Bill Sheridan has been selected as the club's new defensive coordinator.
Sheridan will be officially introduced during a Tuesday press conference.
"Bill i
Horschel alone in front in Bogota >>
Bogota, Colombia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Billy Horschel posted his second straight
five-under 66 on Friday to take the lead at the midpoint of the Colombia
Championship.
Horschel, a first-round co-leader, finished 36 holes at 10-under 1
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.
Football Betting: Defensive Rookie of the Year Awards
Oddsmakers have released the odds for the 2009 AP NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year Award and Seattle Seahawks linebacker Aaron Curry has been made the opening favorite.
Seattle took Curry with the fourth overall pick in April's NFL draft and plan on inserting him into its starting lineup right away. The Hawks traded linebacker Julian Peterson in the offseason, so Curry is expected to have a significant role in Seattle's defense next year and that's one of the primary reasons he is the favorite to win the NFL ROY Award.
Oddsmakers from online sportsbook MySportsbook.com have made Curry a 5/1 favorite to win this year's NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year Award. Given that he was the best defensive prospect in this year's draft and how he'll have plenty of opportunities to make plays in '09, Curry offers a ton of value at 5/1.
Another thing working for Curry is the position he plays. A linebacker has won the defensive ROY award six straight times and eight of the last nine years. Jerod Mayo, Patrick Willis, DeMeco Ryans, Shawne Merriman, Jonathan Vilma, Terrell Suggs, Kendrell Bell and Brian Urlacher were the most recent linebackers to take home the award.
Following Curry at 5/1 are Tyson Jackson (Chiefs) at 7/1, James Laurinaitas (Rams) at 8/1, Brian Orakpo (Redskins) at 10/1, Rey Maualuga (Bengals) at 10/1 and Jerry Peria (Falcons) at 10/1.
All the players mentioned above are expected to start for their respective teams, but Jackson and Peria are going to have a tough time being recognized on a national level given they're both defensive linemen. D-linemen rarely put up the numbers that it takes to win an individual award like the ROY.
A couple of players with some value are Clay Matthews (Packers) at 12/1 and Larry English (Chargers) at 15/1. Matthews is expected to start at outside linebacker in Green Bay's new 3-4 defense and could rack up a ton of tackles. English, who was an impressive player at Northern Illinois, is expected to be a situational pass rusher for the Chargers and could rack up a ton of sacks.
For complete odds on the 2009 AP NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year Award, see below. And for complete odds for the 2009 AP NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year Award, click the link provided.
2009 AP NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year Award
Robert Ayers (DEN) 12/1
Ron Brace (NE) 25/1
Everette Brown (CAR) 16/1
Darius Butler (NE) 40/1
Patrick Chung (NE) 30/1
Aaron Curry (SEA) 5/1
Brian Cushing (HOU) 12/1
Vontae Davis (MIA) 30/1
Louis Delmas (DET) 30/1
Larry English (SD) 15/1
Evander Hood (PIT) 25/1
Tyson Jackson (KC) 7/1
Malcolm Jenkins (NO) 25/1
Paul Kruger (BAL) 50/1
James Laurinaitas (STL) 8/1
Sen'Derrick Marks (TEN) 20/1
Clay Matthews (GB) 12/1
Aaron Maybin (BUF) 15/1
Rey Maualuga (CIN) 10/1
Roy Miller (TB) 20/1
Michael Mitchell (OAK) 45/1
Fili Moala (IND) 30/1
Brian Orakpo (WAS) 10/1
Jerry Peria (ATL) 10/1
B J Raji (GB) 7/1
Clint Sintim (NYG) 35/1
Alphonso Smith (DEN) 40/1
David Verkune (CLE) 20/1
Jason Williams (DAL) 30/1
Field (Any Other Player) 6/1
To visit this internet sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs.