White Sox edge Mariners for 10th straight home win

Baseball Betting Lines

07/28/2010 - Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Alex Rios singled home the go-ahead run in the bottom of the seventh inning, and the Chicago White Sox came away with a 6-5 victory over Seattle in the third test of a four-game series at U.S. Cellular Field.

Gordon Beckham clubbed a two-run homer, while Alexei Ramirez and Paul Konerko both hit solo shots for the White Sox, who have won 10 straight at home.

Chicago, which erased an early 5-1 deficit, maintained its one-game lead over Minnesota in the AL Central standings after the Twins defeated Kansas City earlier Wednesday.

Chone Figgins blasted a two-run homer for the Mariners, who have dropped seven of their last 10 games.

Golddustcasino Baseball Betting News

<< United dominates MLS All-Stars in front of record crowd
Houston, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Major League Soccer All-Stars fell to English Premier League powerhouse Manchester United, 5-2, on Wednesday night in front of 70,728 fans at Reliant Stadium - the fourth-largest crowd to witness

<< Report: Wizards re-sign F Josh Howard
Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Washington Wizards have reached agreement on a one-year deal with free agent forward Josh Howard. According to TNT analyst David Aldridge, the deal could pay the veteran up to $4 million if he

<< Cahill helps Oakland down Texas
Arlington, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Trevor Cahill allowed two hits over eight innings in a dominant performance, and Kurt Suzuki homered and knocked in two runs to guide Oakland in 3-1 win over the Texas Rangers in the middle contest of a th

<< Giants' Torres caps big game with winning hit in 10th
San Francisco, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Andres Torres capped his four-hit day with a deep bases-loaded single in the 10th inning, lifting the Giants to a 10-9 win over the Florida Marlins at AT&T Park. Torres added a two-run homer

<< Thrashers sign F Eager
Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Atlanta Thrashers signed forward Ben Eager on Wednesday. Per team policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed. Eager spent last season with the Blackhawks and posted seven goals and nine assists with 1

Yankees rough up Carmona, Tribe >>
Cleveland, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mark Teixeira and Brett Gardner each had two hits and two runs batted in, as the New York Yankees roughed up Fausto Carmona in an 8-0 victory over the Cleveland Indians. Robinson Cano doubled and slugged

Cardinals edge Mets in 13 innings >>
Flushing, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Albert Pujols drove in the go-ahead run with a single in the top of the 13th inning, as the St. Louis Cardinals snuck past the New York Mets, 8-7, in the second test of a three-game series from Citi Field.

Jones homers twice as Pirates down Rockies >>
Denver, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Garrett Jones homered twice as part of a four- hit night and drove in three runs as the Pirates overcame an early injury to pitcher Ross Ohlendorf to beat the Colorado Rockies, 6-2, at Coors Field. Neil Walk

Body of missing Lorenzen Wright found >>
Memphis, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The body of Lorenzen Wright, who had been missing since last week, has been found by law enforcement officials. According to The Commercial Appeal, the body of Wright, a former Memphis basketball s

Report: Astros have deal in place to send Oswalt to Phillies >>
Houston, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Houston Astros reportedly have a deal in place to send starting pitcher Roy Oswalt to the Philadelphia Phillies. FOX 26 in Houston reports the only thing standing in the way is for the right- hander to

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.