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<< Maple Leafs visit Boston aiming to halt skid
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Toronto Maple Leafs will try to halt a five-game losing streak this evening, when they visit the Boston Bruins in a Northeast Division battle at TD Banknorth Garden. The Maple Leafs began the season with a road victory

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(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Reigning NHL scoring champ Alexander Ovechkin will try to get on track tonight, as his Washington Capitals visit the Phoenix Coyotes at Jobing.com Arena. Ovechkin led the league with 65 goals a year ago, but has gotten

<< Phils try to take commanding World Series lead in Game 2 against Rays
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Brett Myers tries to give the Philadelphia Phillies a commanding two games-to-none lead in the 104th World Series this evening, when they play Game 2 against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field. Philadelphia snatched hom

<< Avs try to hand Edmonton second straight loss
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Edmonton Oilers will try to rebound from their first loss of the season, as they visit the Colorado Avalanche tonight at the Pepsi Center. Edmonton opened up the season with four straight wins, its best start si

Sabres, Wild meet for showdown in St. Paul >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A pair of clubs off to hot starts this season are set to square off tonight at Xcel Energy Center, where the Minnesota Wild will host the Buffalo Sabres. Buffalo is 5-0-1 to open the season and is coming off a 3-2 shootou

Report: Brady underwent two more procedures on knee >>
Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has reportedly undergone three procedures to clear out an infection in his left knee that could delay the rehabilitation process. The Boston Herald reported Thursd

The Real McCoy >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Texas Longhorns won the national championship following the 2005 season behind superhuman efforts from current Tennessee Titans QB Vince Young. His early departure to the NFL opened the door for present s

2008-09 Predictions: The King and his court >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - With the unparalleled excitement of the NBA preseason winding down, it's time to take a take a deep breath, gaze into the crystal ball and see what is going to happen when they start playing for real. The

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.