Warruors Basketball Betting News

<< Golden State Warriors 2010 Draft Preview
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Warriors are far too talented to win just 26 games but injuries and Don Nelson's flawed, defensively-challenged coaching style was too much to overcome last season. The franchise is for sale and a new ownership group w

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(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - John Kuester's first year in the Motor City was a bit of a disaster, resulting in just 27 wins and a birth in the NBA Draft Lottery, an unfamiliar position for a franchise that had gone to the postseason eight consecutive tim

<< Chile downs record-setting Swiss
Port Elizabeth, South Africa (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mark Gonzalez scored 15 minutes from time as Chile downed 10-man Switzerland, 1-0, on Monday at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium to take over the top spot in Group H. Switzerland set the rec

<< Federer avoids first-round shocker at Wimbledon
Wimbledon, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Six-time champion Roger Federer was on the ropes Monday but managed to avoid an opening-round shocker against game Colombian Alejandro Falla at Wimbledon. The 60th-ranked Falla stunned Federer by winning

Beat earn first WPS win, 1-0, over Chicago >>
Kennesaw, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Atlanta beat topped the Chicago Red Stars 1-0 at KSU Soccer Stadium to earn their first WPS win on Saturday. Beat defender Tina Ellertson scored the game's only goal - her first of the season - just be

Los Angeles Lakers 2010 Draft Preview >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - With their 16th NBA championship safely tucked away, the Los Angeles Lakers will get to work on a three-peat by trying to unearth a shooter in the second round of the upcoming NBA Draft. Obviously a championship team doesn

Jankovic, Clijsters win Wimbledon openers >>
Wimbledon, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former world No. 1s Jelena Jankovic and Kim Clijsters were among Monday's first-round winners at The Championships, Wimbledon. The fourth-seeded former U.S. Open runner-up Jankovic was tested in a 6-3

Mexico, Uruguay battle for Group A supremacy >>
Rustenburg, South Africa (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Both Mexico and Uruguay are in a great position to advance from Group A, and their meeting at Royal Bafokeng Stadium on Tuesday could determine who tops the group and who finishes second. Both

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.

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