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09/01/2010 -
LONDON (AP) -Tickets have gone on sale for the first regular-season NBA games in Europe.
The New Jersey Nets and Toronto Raptors will play a pair of games at the O2 Arena in London on March 4-5. The NBA is planning a week of activities across Britain, including basketball clinics and 3-on-3 competitions.
Nets guard Devin Harris says ``everyone involved in bringing the games to London is excited about playing in one of the world's great cities.''
The NBA has been playing preseason games in London for several years. The Los Angeles Lakers will face the Minnesota Timberwolves on Oct. 4 in this year's installment of the league's European tour.Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
<< Boiman getting crash course in Lions defense
ALLEN PARK, Mich. (AP) - Rocky Boiman isn't going to get a chance to ease his way into the Detroit Lions' defense.It's going to be more like cramming for final exams in his days at Notre Dame.The veteran linebacker signed with the Detroit Lions earl
<< Moreno returns to Broncos practice
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) - The Denver Broncos' injured backfield is beginning to get healthy.Knowshon Moreno was back at practice Tuesday, one month after the starting running back hurt his right hamstring on the opening live drill of training camp.Mor
<< Preseason finale a chance for Packers' backup QBs
GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) - Aaron Rodgers knows from experience that it isn't easy to live life as an understudy in the NFL.Now that Rodgers finally has broken free from Brett Favre's shadow to become an elite starting quarterback, he sees a little bit o
<< Leafs sign Hanson
Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday signed
restricted free agent forward Christian Hanson to a one-year contract.
In 32 games for Toronto last season, Hanson recorded two goals and seven
assists.
Five-a-Side: Liberty coach Danny Rocco >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Danny Rocco has yet to picket outside NCAA
headquarters in Indianapolis, but if the third Sunday in November goes like
the last three years, don't doubt that he and the rest of the Liberty football
team will
Cardinals aim to stop skid, avoid sweep against Astros >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The St. Louis Cardinals are playing themselves out of
postseason contention, but at least they'll be able to conclude a horrendous
road trip today in the finale of a three-game series against the Houston
Astros at Minute Maid
White Sox shoot for sweep of Indians; Manny expected to start >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The closest White Sox newcomer Manny Ramirez came to the
field last night in Cleveland was the on-deck circle. Ramirez is expected to
be the designated hitter in today's finale of a three-game series against
the Indians at Pr
Alabama A&M linebacker to sit two games >>
Normal, AL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The NCAA ruled that Alabama A&M's top returning
tackler Afu Okosun must sit out the season's first two games because he played
in one game in 2006 before he was redshirted that season.
Alabama A&M coach
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.
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