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07/25/2010 - Carnoustie, Scotland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Bernhard Langer bogeyed the final hole Sunday, but it was enough to give him a one-stroke victory at the Senior British Open.
Langer posted a one-over 72 to finish at five-under-par 279.
The German won a pair of Masters titles on the PGA Tour, but this was his first major championship crown on the Champions Tour.
Corey Pavin was one stroke back with five holes to go at Carnoustie, but was unable to tie Langer atop the leaderboard. Pavin closed with a one-under 70 to end one back at minus-four.
Peter Senior carded a three-under 68 to share third place at one-under-par 283 with Russ Cochran, Fred Funk and Jay Don Blake, who all shot 72 in the final round.
MORE TO FOLLOW.
<< Giants' Velez put on DL
Phoenix, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - San Francisco Giants outfielder Eugenio Velez
was placed on the 15-day disabled list Sunday with a head contusion and
concussion suffered as a result of being hit by a foul ball during Saturday's
game ag
<< Johnson gets dramatic home win in Sweden
Stockholm, Sweden (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Sweden's Richard S. Johnson made a long
birdie putt at the 18th hole Sunday to win the Scandinavian Masters by one
shot.
Johnson closed with a one-under 71 and finished at 11-under 277, beating th
<< Montanes survives first-round match in Gstaad
Gstaad, Switzerland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Fourth-seeded Albert Montanes rallied
for a 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) win over fellow Spaniard Pere Riba in the first
round of the Gstaad Open.
Russian Igor Andreev was also a first-round winner o
<< Gaunt rallies for Challenge Tour victory
Essex, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Daniel Gaunt closed with a four-under 68
Sunday to come from behind and win the English Challenge.
Gaunt finished at 17-under-par 271 for his first European Challenge Tour
victory.
It was amat
After busy summer, ACC ready for football season >>
GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) -So much for a lazy summer at Atlantic Coast Conference headquarters.Realignment rumors. An NCAA investigation into agent involvement with players at one of its marquee institutions.No wonder the ACC is ready for the offseason
Nats call on Detwiler for Sunday's start >>
Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Washington Nationals recalled left-hander
Ross Detwiler from Double-A Harrisburg to start the team's series finale
versus the Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday.
Detwiler, who was the Nationals' sixth over
Overbay's HR in ninth lifts Blue Jays over Tigers >>
Detroit, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Lyle Overbay belted the tie-breaking two-run
homer in the ninth inning, boosting the Toronto Blue Jays to a 5-3 win over
the Detroit Tigers in the opener of a doubleheader.
Jose Molina also clubbed a two-run sh
McMurray wins Brickyard 400, gives Ganassi "triple crown" >>
Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jamie McMurray gave team owner Chip
Ganassi a trifecta in American motorsports on Sunday by the Brickyard 400 at
Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
McMurray, who won the Daytona 500 in February, gra
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.
Michael Vick is back, Brett Favre isn't and the NFC East remains the best division in the NFC, maybe in all of football.
As players start to gather for the start of another season, some things change and some stay the same in the world of the NFL.
The NFC East has been the dominant division in the National Conference for a while, despite limited playoff success, save for the New York Giants surprise Super Bowl win two seasons ago.
Hell, there's a generation of kids in Texas who have never seen the Cowboys win a playoff game (last win was in 1996).
But collectively, the Giants, Eagles, Cowboys and Redskins (well, maybe not so much the Redskins) are as good as a division gets in an NFC conference that has struggled to stay competitive with the AFC side.
Sports bettors have both acknowledged the NFC East's dominance, as one glance at the NFL future odds menu will show.
Looking over the NFL betting odds at online sports book MySportsbook.com we see the top three teams listed to win the NFC Championship are all from the NFC East:
Dallas Cowboys - 7 - 1
Philadelphia Eagles - 13 - 2
New York Giants - 9 - 2
Slotting in behind these three are two teams from the NFC North: the Minnesota Vikings (15-2) and the Chicago Bears (10-1).
Again, despite the lack of recent playoff success, the Dallas Cowboys are popular with the sports betting community, as they hold 14% of all the money wagered on who will win the NFC Championship.
So far, the New York Giants are the bettors' favorite to represent their conference in the Super Bowl, as they have 24% of the overall NFC Championship betting volume.
And what about the Philadelphia Eagles? For the most part, the Eagles had a very productive offseason, the kind that could bring them back to the top.
They had a good draft adding the likes of WR Jeremy Maclin and RB LeSean McCoy.
Unfortunately, the team received a blow when long-time defensive coordinator Jim Johnson passed away on Tuesday.
But this team will make a real run at the division title this year. Going into the regular season, Philly is listed at +240 to win the division.
Last season the Eagles were 9-6-1 SU and 10-6 ATS.
Teams from the NFC East will play teams from the AFC West in the regular season and the Eagles haven't really been a good bet in the last 20 games against the likes of San Diego, Oakland, K.C. and Denver, only going 8-12 ATS.
Two seasons removed from that Super Bowl title, the New York Giants see themselves listed as the odds-on favorite in NFC East championship futures at +162.
Plaxico Burress is gone and with him all the bad publicity surrounding the gun in the sweatpants incident, but can they replace him in the offense?
Last season the Giants were a very reliable bet going 12-4 ATS.
In the Giants' last 20 games against fellow teams from the NFC East; they are 13-7 ATS.
Dallas is listed at +240 to win the division.
Dallas went 9-7 SU and 7-9 ATS last season and with the amount of talent the Cowboys have, a similar performance won't do.
The Cowboys have been atrocious against divisional rivals, going 6-14 ATS in their last 20.
The Washington Redskins are longshots to win the division at +550.
Visit MySportsbook.com for free sportsbook odds RSS feeds go to MySportsbook.com for all your betting football needs.
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