Sports Betting News: NFL Team History | NFL Football Betting | College Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | College Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting
03/09/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The chances of the Houston Rockets making the playoffs are fading like a flattop. Tonight they'll have to get past the Washington Wizards at the Verizon Center and hope for some help around the league.
Houston is 4 1/2 games out of the eighth and final playoff berth in the West and will close out a three-game road trip Tuesday night. It has alternated wins and losses over the past seven games and suffered a 110-107 overtime loss in Detroit the last time out on Sunday. Rockets newcomer Kevin Martin led the squad with 27 points, but missed a potential game-tying three-pointer at the end of overtime. Aaron Brooks added 25 points and seven assists in defeat.
"We came here and gave it a good fight," said Brooks, who has averaged 23.0 points and 6.8 assists over his last 10 games. "We knew it was going to be a tough one. We were in control of the game the whole game, then we kind of let it slip away from us."
Luis Scola had 20 points and 15 boards for Houston, which fell to 14-17 as the visitor this season. Scola has recorded three straight double-doubles. Jordan Hill had a breakout game for the Rockets, setting career bests with 12 points and eight rebounds off the bench.
The Wizards hope to get over a tough loss in Boston on Sunday, as they open a short homestand Tuesday versus Houston and Atlanta. Washington has lost three in a row overall, three straight at home and owns a 12-19 mark as the host.
Al Thornton led the Wizards with 24 points and 11 rebounds, but missed a potential game-tying three-pointer at the buzzer. Andray Blatche posted 23 points and nine boards in defeat, and is averaging 24.0 points and 10.6 rebounds in 10 games since the All-Star break.
"Well we choked," Wizards coach Flip Saunders said. "Six minutes to go we're up thirteen. We got young guys, they don't know what it's like to be in [that] situation."
Losers of five of six games overall, the Wizards will try to reverse their fortunes against the Rockets. Houston has won seven of eight and 15 of the past 20 meetings with Washington, which is winless in the last four matchups as the host in this interconference series.
The Wizards and Rockets will meet again on March 30th in Houston. Thornton is averaging 16.0 points and 4.0 rebounds in two games played (w/Clippers) versus the Rockets in 2009-10.
<< Blazers' Przybilla undergoes surgery
Portland, OR (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Portland Trail Blazers center Joel Przybilla
underwent surgery late Monday to repair a ruptured right patella tendon.
It was the second such procedure for Przybilla, who first suffered the injury
on Decemb
<< 2010 Big 12 Conference Tournament Preview
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Another year and another championship for
Kansas, which captured its sixth straight Big 12 regular-season crown with a
15-1 finish. The No.1 ranked Jayhawks are the top-seed for the sixth time in
the 14-year
<< Orioles renew contracts of Jones, Wieters
Sarasota, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Baltimore Orioles have renewed the
contracts of young stars Adam Jones, Matt Wieters, Brad Bergesen and Nolan
Reimold, while also agreeing to 2010 contracts with 22 other players.
Jones is en
<< 2010 Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament Preview
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 57th-annual Atlantic Coast Conference
Tournament is on tap this week from the Greensboro Coliseum and will run from
opening round action on Thursday, March 11th through the championship game on
Sunday, Ma
Sixers, Pacers clash in Indy >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Philadelphia 76ers finally got off the schneid with a
big win at Toronto this weekend, and hope that carries over into Tuesday's
road bout against the Indiana Pacers at Conseco Fieldhouse.
Philadelphia was able to snap
Surging Bucks host Allen, Celtics >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Sweet-stroking veteran Ray Allen has already recorded his
20,000th career point and will add to that mark tonight, when the Boston
Celtics hit the road to Milwaukee for a showdown with the Bucks.
On Sunday, Allen hit a go-
North Texas takes on Troy in Sun Belt title tilt >>
Hot Springs, AR (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The top-seeded Troy Trojans and the second-
seeded North Texas Mean Green have advanced to the championship game of the
2010 Sun Belt Conference Tournament, and they will compete for an automatic
bid to the "B
Bulldogs battle Raiders for Horizon League crown >>
Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - For the fifth straight season the 12th-
ranked Butler Bulldogs will take part in the Horizon League Tournament
Championship Game when they host the Wright State Raiders this evening at the
Hinkle Fieldhouse.
Check out all of the NFL football betting promotions at the best online sportsbook MySportsbook.com. At this Sportsbook they provide the best NFL & College Football betting lines, promotions, and free contests.
More Props Equals More Fun
There is quite simply no one else in the World that offers you more proposition and futures wagers than we do. Player Props, Scoring Titles, Scoring by Quarter and by half. Dozens of daily Golf Matchups. Racing Fans will be in heaven with our selection. There is quite simply only one way to show you.
If Win and If Action Sports Betting
On an NFL Sunday there are less than 15 minutes between the morning games and the afternoon games. How do you get your second bet down? We have just the solution for you, If Bets. Its a simple bet in which you wager a fixed amount on one team and if that team wins, then the same amount as your original wager is placed on a different team.
Football Teasers up to 15 Teams
You can tease together up to 15 teams removing as many as 10 points off the spread. We offer 6, 6.5 and 7 point teasers as well as 3 team 10 point teasers. Click here to see our full Payout Table. You can tease NCAA & Pro games together as well.
Football Parlays up to 12 Teams
We offer parlays from 2 to 12 teams, paying up to 1,800 to 1. You can parlay teams from different sports, you can parlay totals and sides and you can even parlay together our huge selection of proposition wagers.
Progressive Parlays - Football betting
We were the first to create Progressive Parlays and now the world has followed. Play an 8 team parlay and if 6, 7, or 8 teams win, you win. Play a 4 team parlay, if 3 or 4 teams win, you win. Even if you dont win all the games in your parlay, you can Still Win!
Double Your Money Mondays NFL Football Betting
Free contest for Members! Double your winnings with our Sportsbook during football season! On specific football games throughout the year, our Sportsbook will have regular contests where you can double your winnings on selected games.
$1,000.00 Weekly Pigskin Payout NFL Football Contest
Make a free football bet on us! We're giving our members a chance to walk away with a part of $1,000.00 in v-chips for free every week this football season. Simply fill out our weekly $1,000 Pigskin Payout entry form and you're eligible to win.
Free NFL Football $10 No Risk Bet
We offer a risk free football prop bet to active members. It is posted on the main page once you login. Make a $10 bet and enjoy the profits if you win and we'll refund the wager if it loses. The refund is credited automatically to your account.
Buy Points - Adjust the spread for Football Betting
We offer you the chance to adjust the odds in your favor. You can now buy up to 3 points off the "spread" and "total" numbers for football and basketball games. Get the advantage in your betting with our Sportsbook.
$100,000 Weekly Football Challenge
As a member you can "log in" and pick 13 teams from our selection of listed games under the heading $100,000 Challenge and when they all win against the spread, you win the ultimate handicapping prize, $100,000.00 CASH.
Football In Game Betting
We are now proud to bring you LIVE In Game Betting odds. Follow the plays and put a wager down as the game goes. Odds will be posted on our site under "In Game Betting" once the game starts and throughout the whole game.
NFL Player to Score First Contest
If our randomly selected player scores the first Touchdown in a selected game, we'll refund the wagers on ALL other players in our "Player to Score First" future.
No Juice College Football Game of the Week
Every Saturday we will pick one afternoon nationally televised game and offer the game at even odds, lay $100 to win $100. No Juice! What better way to kill a Saturday afternoon and make some quick cash.
NFL Football Betting Shutout Refund
We have to be the only place to bet the Money Lines. If your NFL team is shutout, we will refund All Money Line Bets. It's that simple, a shutout means a Full refund!
Free Printable NFL Office Pool Sheets
Run your own NFL Football Office Pool. Create your own pool, invite your friends to join. Compete with your with co-workers, friends or family for bragging rights every week.
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.
Sports Betting News: NFL Team History | NFL Football Betting | College Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | College Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting