Los Angeles With Carter Angeles

Hockey Betting Lines

Stamkos has three goals and five points over his last two games and is tied for the NHL lead with 19 goals on the season.

 

Tom Pyatt, Ryan Malone and Nate Thompson each scored in the second period to give the Lightning a 4-2 lead, only to have Rene Bourque and Olli Jokinen score in the third period to salvage a point for Calgary. Mathieu Garon earned the win for Tampa with a 23-save effort.

 

The Blue Jackets last played on Thursday, when they were dealt a 2-1 regulation loss by the Los Angeles Kings. Dustin Brown scored the go-ahead goal near the midway mark of the third period to lift LA to the victory.

 

Jeff Carter lit the lamp for a fourth consecutive contest for the Blue Jackets, while Curtis Sanford turned aside 39-of-41 shots in defeat.

 

Tampa Bay has won two of three and three of its last five meetings with the Blue Jackets. Columbus has won the last two matchups on home ice and is 3-1 with a tie in the five all-time encounters at Nationwide Arena.

 

(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Kings weren't able to break out of their scoring slump on Thursday, but they still managed to snap a five-game skid. They might not get as lucky tonight against the high-powered Red Wings. Los Angeles looks to win its second straight overall and fourth in a row at Detroit, but does so against a Red Wings club that is averaging nearly four goals a game over the past month and has won nine in a row on home ice.

 

Stevens' two games as the bench boss have been much of the same, with the Kings getting shut out 3-0 at Boston in his debut on Tuesday to open a four- game road trip before squeaking out a 2-1 triumph at Columbus on Thursday.

 

"The status doesn't change; it still feels like a win," Stevens said. "It was just a big win for our team considering the slide we've been on here. I just thought the guys played extremely hard tonight."

 

The Red Wings did have a three-game win streak snapped on Thursday with a 4-3 setback at the Predators, who got a pair of goals from Shea Weber in the third period.

Casino-online-betting Hockey Betting Blog

<< ST. Louis Leads Predators For Backstrom

<< Road Adds Score At Renney

<< Philadelphia Sparks Jersey From Game

<< Half Beats Week In Home

<< Lyon Joins Evian Over Goal

Leafs Down Boston Franchise >>

Coach Recalls Career Into Period >>

Goal Game Smash Smash Over Cunneyworth >>

Shots Joins Puck Over Mason >>

Elias Beats Win In Martin >>

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.