Bpbcats NCAA Basketball Betting News

<< Kansas and Missouri put wraps on regular season
Columbia, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - With the Big 12 title already secured, the second-ranked Kansas Jayhawks close out their regular-season in Columbia, as they take on one of their most bitter rivals in the Missouri Tigers. Bill Self's Jayhawks

<< Purdue can claim share of Big Ten title with win at Penn State
State College, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The seventh-ranked Purdue Boilermakers will try to grab a share of the Big Ten regular-season title today, as they take on the Penn State Nittany Lions at the Bryce Jordan Center. Ohio State has already w

<< Coastal Carolina hosts Winthrop in Big South title game
Conway, SC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The first bid to the 2010 NCAA Tournament will be handed out this afternoon, as the top-seeded Coastal Carolina Chanticleers and the third-seeded Winthrop Eagles collide in the Big South Conference title game.

<< Racers and Eagles meet in OVC title tilt
Nashville, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The top-seeded Murray State Racers and the second-seeded Morehead State Eagles have reached the title game of the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament, and they will compete tonight for a berth in the "Big Dance".

Commodores close regular season against visiting Gamecocks >>
Nashville, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The South Carolina Gamecocks carry a six-game losing streak into today's regular-season finale against the 13th-ranked Vanderbilt Commodores, who are on a major roll. At one point last month, the Gamecocks ap

Vols head to Starkville to challenge Bulldogs >>
Starkville, MS (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 16th-ranked Tennessee Volunteers and the Mississippi State Bulldogs will close out the 2009-10 regular season with an SEC battle this evening in Starkville. Wins in four of the last five games have lifte

West Virginia visits Villanova in clash of ranked Big East foes >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - With both teams having already secured byes into the quarterfinal round of the upcoming Big East Conference Tournament, the 10th-ranked West Virginia Mountaineers and ninth-ranked Villanova Wildcats will put

C-USA clash pits Blazers against Miners >>
El Paso, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - UAB will attempt to beat a ranked opponent on the road for the first time since 1994, as the Blazers head to the Don Haskins Center to take on the 24th-ranked Texas-El Paso Miners in the regular-season finale for

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.