Titasonline Soccer Betting News

<< Werder Bremen lands Junuzovic
Bremen, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Werder Bremen announced Friday that it has signed Austrian midfielder Zlatko Junuzovic from FK Austria Vienna on a three- and-a-half-year deal. Junuzovic, 24, will undergo a medical on Monday before being

<< A legend is laid to rest
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Few college coaches embody an entire university and everything that the program, school and community as a whole stands for. Like Paul "Bear" Bryant in Tuscaloosa and Knute Rockne in South Bend, Happy Valley

<< PSG signs Brazil defender Alex from Chelsea
Paris, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - PSG signed Brazil defender Alex from Chelsea on Friday on a 2 1/2-year deal. Alex, 29, left Brazilian club Santos in 2004 for Chelsea, and remained at the English Premier League club - with the exception o

<< Champion colt returns in Holy Bull Stakes
Hallandale Beach, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Two weeks after being announced as the 2011 Eclipse Award winning two-year-old colt, Hansen makes his 2012 debut in Sunday's $400,000 Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream Park. The Holy Bull is part of the

Pees tabbed as Ravens defensive coordinator >>
Owings Mills, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Baltimore Ravens elevated linebackers coach Dean Pees to defensive coordinator on Friday. Pees takes over for the departed Chuck Pagano, who was named head coach of the Indianapolis Colts earlier this

No longer doubted, Giants' Thomas finds niche on special teams >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Devin Thomas always believed he'd be an impact player in the National Football League, albeit with another team and in a far different role than the one he currently occupies with the New York Giants. Four years ago, the p

Brady's promise weighs about seven pounds >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - After what Tom Brady thought would be a private moment with owner Robert Kraft became public, the world is now aware that the New England Patriots quarterback vows to play better in Super Bowl XLVI. Brady admitted on the c

Larranaga receives three-year extension >>
Coral Gables, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Miami-Florida men's basketball coach Jim Larranaga has agreed to a three-year contract extension that will keep him with the Hurricanes through the 2018-19 season. Larranaga is in his first year with

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.

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