Sports Betting News: NFL Team History | NFL Football Betting | College Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | College Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting
02/12/2012 - Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Evgeni Malkin lit the lamp twice and the Pittsburgh Penguins scored four unanswered goals Sunday night to beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 4-2.
The Penguins bounced back from the two quickest goals by one player in Tampa Bay history to improve to 2-0 on a three-game homestand.
Chris Kunitz and Kris Letang had one goal and two assists apiece in the win and Brent Johnson made 21 saves. James Neal had three assists.
Malkin shot on an empty net as time expired and missed a hat trick by inches as the puck hit off the post.
Steve Downie scored two goals 11 seconds apart in the first period to set a franchise record and give the Lightning a 2-0 lead, but they never found the back of the net again in their fourth loss in six games.
Mathieu Garon gave up four goals on 41 shots and Teddy Purcell had two assists for Tampa Bay.
Johnson got a piece of Downie's first goal, on a slap shot from above the left circle, but it knuckled through him for a 1-0 Lightning lead 9:58 into the game.
Seconds later, Purcell slid the puck through the crease at the end of a 3-on-2 rush and Downie was there to hammer it in.
Malkin scored his first goal on a power play 6:06 later on a one-timer to get the Penguins on the board. They tied it just 56 seconds into the middle period when Kunitz split four defenders and beat Garon five-hole after carrying the puck into the zone himself.
Letang had the eventual game-winner at 4:28 of the second, beating Garon from the slot, and Malkin made it 4-2 midway through the period when he hustled to the left side of the net for a seeing-eye pass from Kunitz that set him up perfectly.
Game Notes
Jason Wiemer held the previous Tampa Bay record for fastest two goals at 16 seconds in a game against New Jersey on October 3, 1997. The team record for time between goals is nine seconds, also against New Jersey on January 9, 2004...The teams split two prior meetings this season in Tampa Bay. They will meet again on February 25 in Pittsburgh...The Lightning have lost three in a row at Pittsburgh.
<< Heat breeze past Hawks
Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Dwyane Wade scored all 21 of his points in a
lopsided first half, and the Miami Heat cruised past the Atlanta Hawks,
107-87, in a Southeast Division showdown at Philips Arena.
LeBron James chipped i
<< Malkin scored twice as Pens double up Lightning
Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Evgeni Malkin lit the lamp twice and the
Pittsburgh Penguins scored four unanswered goals Sunday night to beat the
Tampa Bay Lightning, 4-2.
The Penguins bounced back from the two quickest goals b
<< Blues shut out Sharks, extend home points streak
St. Louis, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jaroslav Halak made 25 saves to record his
sixth shutout of the season and 22nd of his career as the St. Louis Blues kept
rolling at home with a 3-0 win over the San Jose Sharks at Scottrade Center.
Alex
<< Prahalis helps Ohio State outlast Purdue
Columbus, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Samantha Prahalis scored 26 points, including
a clutch three-pointer in the final minute to help No. 10 Ohio State fend off
No. 16 Purdue, 80-71, in a Big 10 clash.
Amber Stokes and Ashley Adams chipped in
Jazz top Grizzlies to snap 3-game slide >>
Memphis, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Gordon Hayward scored 23 points and handed out
five assists, and the Utah Jazz snapped a three-game slide with a 98-88
victory over the Memphis Grizzlies on Sunday.
Al Jefferson chipped in 21 points a
Warriors edge Rockets behind Ellis' 33 >>
Oakland, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Monta Ellis poured in 33 points and the Golden
State Warriors snapped a three-game losing streak to the Houston Rockets with
a 106-97 win on Sunday.
The Warriors got 15 points and 13 rebounds from David Lee a
The Kentucky Derby winner will not come from the Mutuel Field >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Since the Kentucky Derby Future Wager began in 1999, the
mutuel field has been the correct bet in six of the 13 Pool 1 wagers,
including three of the last four years. However, half of those winners paid
$6.00
Klieman takes over North Dakota State's defense >>
Fargo, ND (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - FCS national champion North Dakota State has
promoted defensive backs coach Chris Klieman to defensive coordinator.
He replaces Scottie Hazelton, who has been hired as linebackers coach at
Southern California.
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.
NEW YORK (AP) -By staying away from the cupcakes, Southern California earned itself a slim new ranking.
No. 1 always seems to fit USC.
Southern California jumped two spots to No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 on Tuesday, rewarded by voters for opening the season with a dominant performance on the road against a BCS conference opponent.
Georgia and Ohio State, the preseason Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, started their seasons with glorified scrimmages at home against FCS (formerly I-AA) teams. USC, however, traveled across country to face Virginia and could not have been more impressive in a 52-7 victory.
Georgia fell to No. 2 and Ohio State to No 3.
"We realize that rankings so early in a season are certainly fluid. But rankings do help establish a pecking order for things later in the season," USC coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. "As for moving into the No. 1 spot, it's nice to know that people think highly of our team."
Since reaching No. 1 on Dec. 7, 2003, the final-regular season AP poll of that season, USC has been No. 1 in 39 polls, by far the most of any team during that time.
"Some have said the voters are taking our schedule into consideration," Carroll said. "Our philosophy has always been to schedule outstanding opponents. We need to play challenging games like we just did, traveling across the country to open the season at Virginia. Games like that bring out our best and make us stronger as a team."
The latest voting was close. USC received 21 first-place votes and 1,539 points from the 65-member media panel. Georgia had 20 first-place votes and 1,506 points. Ohio State got 15 first-place votes and 1,497 points.
"I'd say we've evolved as pollsters," said Stewart Mandel of SI.com, who moved USC up to No. 1. "In the past, voters just kind of automatically moved teams up and kept teams where they were if they won."
Georgia beat Georgia Southern 45-21 on Saturday and Ohio State opened with a 43-0 win over Youngstown State.
"There's a bit of a growing backlash for the amount of teams that open with I-AA cupcakes," said Mandel, whose book "Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls" chronicles college football's controversies. "To see a team [USC] go on the road and play a New Year's Day bowl team from last season, and not only play them but destroy them, how could you not reward that team?"
USC also jumped past Georgia to No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, which has the same top five as the AP poll.
"It's definitely a privilege to be No. 1. But it's not heartbreaking to me if we drop," Georgia offensive lineman Josh Davis said. "It doesn't matter right now what we're ranked. What matters is our next game and right now, that's Central Michigan. The only time the polls matter is in December. That's when the polls matter."
While the Bulldogs opened easy, their schedule ultimately should be as difficult as any team's. Georgia's big nonconference test is at No. 15 Arizona State on Sept. 20. The Bulldogs also face six Southeastern Conference rivals that've been ranked in the first two polls.
As for Ohio State, the Buckeyes play at USC on Sept. 13 before getting into the Big Ten schedule.
But of the teams in this week's top 10, USC and Texas are the only ones that don't play an FCS opponent, and the Trojans are the only team that doesn't play a team from a non-BCS conference.
Get the latest 2009 BCS Championship odds at MySportsbook.com.
The last team to drop from No. 1 after a victory was USC last season. LSU jumped from No. 2 to No. 1 when it beat Tulane 34-9, the same week the Trojans edged Washington 27-24 on the road.
The last preseason No. 1 team to lose the top spot after winning its opening game was Florida in 2001. The Gators beat Marshall 49-14, but preseason No. 2 Miami opened with a 33-7 victory over Penn State and the Hurricanes jumped to No. 1 with Florida slipping to second.
The next four teams in the new Top 25 stayed the same: No. 4 Oklahoma (two first-place votes), No. 5 Florida (five first-place votes), No. 6 Missouri (one first-place vote), No. 7 LSU (one first-place vote) and No. 8 West Virginia.
No. 9 Auburn and No. 10 Texas each moved up a spot, taking advantage of Clemson's big drop. Clemson, ninth in the preseason, fell out after losing 34-10 to Alabama on Saturday.
Also falling out after losses were Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.
Moving into the rankings were No. 21 Fresno State, No. 22 Utah, No. 23 UCLA and No. 24 South Carolina.
Alabama moved up 11 spots after its big victory over Clemson.
The second 10 started with No. 11 Wisconsin, followed by Texas Tech, Alabama and Kansas. BYU and Arizona State were tied for 15th. Rivals BYU and Utah are both ranked for the first time since 1996.
South Florida was No. 17, ahead of Oregon, Penn State and Wake Forest at No. 20.
The final five were all the teams to move into the ranking, except for Illinois, which dropped four spots and tied South Carolina for No. 24.
Get free Sports Betting lines RSS feeds from top rated online sportsbook MySportsbook.com
Sports Betting News: NFL Team History | NFL Football Betting | College Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | College Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting