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Bulls battle BoilermakersNCAA Basketball Betting Lines12/05/2009 - West Lafayette, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The fourth-ranked Purdue Boilermakers are clearly favored in today's non-conference clash with the Buffalo Bulls. Buffalo's 74-67 victory over Army on Wednesday was significant, as it marked the 1,000th win in program history. The Bulls are a respectable 3-2 on the young season, but they have yet to play a team that is even close in talent to Purdue. All five of the team's games thus have been decided by 10 points or less, and the two losses have come by a combined total of three points. Matt Painter's Purdue team has opened the season with six consecutive victories, the most impressive of which was a one-point decision over an outstanding Tennessee squad on a neutral court. Last time out, the Boilermakers defeated Wake Forest of the ACC in a 69-58 final. Purdue is a member of the Big Ten Conference, and with the likes of Michigan State and Ohio State in the fold, competition in that league will be fierce. This game marks the first-ever meeting between Purdue and Buffalo on the hardwood. The Bulls committed 22 turnovers against Army on Wednesday, but there were a couple of obvious factors that enabled the team to overcome those mistakes. Most obviously, Buffalo was able to outscore Army by a 28-5 margin from the foul line. Also helpful were a season-high 10 three-pointers. A 37-29 rebound advantage helped the cause, as did 16 forced turnovers. Sean Smiley and Rodney Piece scored 14 points to lead the offensive charge, while the Bulls got 13 points from John Boyer. Max Boudreau tallied 12 points and 10 rebounds off the bench for Buffalo, which is averaging 68.6 ppg while allowing 64.0 ppg on 38.5 percent field goal efficiency. Pierce is scoring 10.8 ppg as the only double- digit scorer on the team. E'Twaun Moore is the leading scorer for a balanced Purdue team, as he is generating 16.8 ppg. JaJuan Johnson checks in with 14.3 ppg, and Robbie Hummel provides 13.7 ppg and 8.0 rpg. That trio has helped the Boilermakers post 75.7 ppg while limiting opponents to 59.2 ppg on 38.4 percent shooting from the field. Last time out against Wake Forest, Moore scored 22 points in 36 minutes of action. Johnson posted 21 points and nine rebounds, while Hummel added 11 points and 11 boards. Purdue only connected on 34.4 percent of its field goal attempts in that game, including a 1-of-15 showing from three-point range. Fortunately, the team was able to earn a 24-10 edge in points from the foul line and turned the ball over only nine times. Meanwhile, the squad was able to force a high total of 25 turnovers.
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Albert Pujols to be This Year's Home Run Champ Says Online Sportsbook Barry Bonds is a 50-1 long shot to be this year's home run champ odds. The favorite to be this year's home run champ is none other than Albert Pujols, however. Be sure to log onto online sports betting site MySportsbook.com to check out the odds for who will lead the MLB in home runs this season. Below is just a sample of the players listed. With the highest credit card rates in the industry, MySportsbook.com is the place to bet on baseball this summer. To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com - this sportsbook accepts credit cards.
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." 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. |
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