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02/02/2012 - Vina del Mar, Chile (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Third-seeded Thomaz Bellucci was upset on Thursday as Federico Del Bonis of Argentina knocked off the 2010 VTR Open champion in straight sets, 6-2, 7-5.
Del Bonis broke Bellucci four times from five opportunities and dropped serve just once to claim the win in one hour and 31 minutes
He moves on to face seventh-seeded countryman Carlos Berlocq, who defeated Diego Junqueira 6-1, 6-0 in 62 minutes.
Meanwhile, No. 2 seed Juan Ignacio Chela defeated Horacio Zeballos, 6-4, 7-6 (7-2) to advance to the quarterfinals. Chela will face Joao Souza of Brazil, who defeated local wild card Fernando Gonzalez in straight sets 6-3, 7-6 (8-6).
Also on Friday, top-seeded Juan Monaco will look to advance to the semifinals as he takes on fifth-seeded Albert Montanes of Spain. Monaco made it all the way to the finals in 2010 but was ousted by Bellucci in Santiago.
Frederico Gil will square off with Jeremy Chardy on Friday in the final quarterfinal matchup.
The 2012 Vina del Mar champion will collect $71,900.
<< Duke continues dominance over Wake Forest
Durham, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Haley Peters had 18 points and 11 rebounds as
the fifth-ranked Duke Blue Devils beat Wake Forest for the 37th straight time
in a 75-43 victory Thursday night.
Elizabeth Williams added 16 points and nine boa
<< Palmer leads delayed Phoenix Open
Scottsdale, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ryan Palmer fired a seven-under 65 Thursday
to grab a one-stroke lead with the first round of the Phoenix Open suspended
due to darkness.
Palmer earned his third PGA Tour title at the 2010 Sony Open.
<< Padres agree to terms with P Owings
San Diego, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The San Diego Padres agreed to terms with
right-handed pitcher Micah Owings on a one-year contract.
"Micah will compete for a spot on our staff," said executive vice
president/general manage
<< Magic's Howard to start All-Star Game in Orlando
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Dwight Howard of the Orlando Magic was the
leading vote-getter with 1,600,390 votes and will start for the Eastern
Conference in front of his home crowd at Amway Center in this month's All-Star
Game.
The star
Parise scores twice as Devils down Canadiens >>
Newark, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Zach Parise scored his second goal of the game
with 2:44 to play to give the New Jersey Devils a 5-3 win over the Montreal
Canadiens.
David Clarkson had two goals and an assist while Dainius Zubrus added
Rivers leads Duke over Virginia Tech >>
Blacksburg, VA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Austin Rivers scored 18 points to lead the
way for No. 5 Duke as it defeated Virginia Tech 75-60 at Cassell
Coliseum on Thursday.
The Blue Devils (17-3, 5-1 ACC) got great efforts off th
Simmonds leads Flyers over Predators >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Wayne Simmonds scored twice and Ilya
Bryzgalov made 26 saves as Philadelphia came away with a 4-1 decision over
Nashville on Thursday.
Matt Read also tallied and Claude Giroux saw a lengthy
Gay leads Memphis past Atlanta >>
Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Rudy Gay led all scorers with 21 points and
added six rebounds as the Memphis Grizzlies dominated the Atlanta Hawks,
96-77, at Philips Arena.
The Grizzlies had five players in double figures includ
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.
The most popular sports to bet on are NFL and college football along with NBA and NCAA basketball. There are multiple betting opportunities within those sports, beginning with the basic wager on a game’s outcome (also called betting the side). College Football Point spreads are used in both football and basketball in an attempt to even the attractiveness of each team in a match-up. ( See our article detailing how and why point spreads are made)
But you could also simply bet on the money line, or straight-up winner of the game. Oddsmakers use the money line so that more money must be risked on the favorite or expected winner and less money on the underdog to balance the action on both sides. While money line gambling is an attractive option for football and basketball bettors who only care about picking a winner, it is the primary option for those bettors who enjoy wagering on MLB baseball and individual sports like boxing, tennis, golf and racing events such as NASCAR. ( More details on playing the Money Line)
Another bet across all major team sports including football, basketball, baseball, and hockey involves wagering on the amount of scoring in a game, called an Over/Under total. For example, the Over/Under total on Super Bowl XXXIX was 48, which means a bettor could wager whether there would be more or less than 48 points scored by both teams combined in the game.
The final score of Super Bowl XXXIX was 24-21; the scoring of both teams added up to 45, which means the game went Under . So Under bettors won, and Over bettors lost.
Sports gambling doesn’t end there. Betting sides and totals are the most common wagers available everywhere, but many sportsbooks also offer future bets on big upcoming events like who will win next year’s Super Bowl and what movie will win Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
The main advantage of futures is that you can get appealing odds by betting far in advance. For example, with NFL futures you often can get much higher odds on a team by betting before the season even starts. A NFL future bet on a team to win the Super Bowl odds might be 20/1 in the preseason; but by midseason, their odds might decrease to 10/1 if they turn out to be legitimate championship contenders.
Involves one individual wager, whether it be on your team to cover the point spread, to win the game straight-up on the money line, or to go over/under the total.
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs.
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