Real Sociedad Recalls Manchester In Round

Soccer Betting Lines

Milan, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - AC Milan's midfield duo of Gennaro Gattuso and Alberto Aquilani has been ruled out of Sunday's derby with Inter Milan. Gattuso has been diagnosed with an eye disease called ocular myasthenia, which he picked up while on the club's recent trip to Dubai, while Aquilani is set to miss the next month because of an ankle injury.

 

Mallorca, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Real Madrid will try to keep the pressure on Barcelona with a win on Saturday at Mallorca, which would stretch the advantage at the top of La Liga for Jose Mourinho's side to eight points. Madrid moved five points clear of its bitter rivals last weekend as a 5-1 win over Granada was coupled with Barca's 1-1 stalemate against Espanyol.

 

The two-legged showdown in the quarterfinals of the competition will no doubt be a highly-anticipated event, but Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas is trying to keep his team focused on Saturday's task.

 

"We shouldn't obsess about the tie," Casillas told the club's official website when asked about Wednesday's fixture with Barca.

 

Real will be without midfielder Sami Khedira because of ligament damage to his ankle, with a return for the Germany international still yet to be determined.

 

Mallorca has claimed only one win from its last five matches in the league but administered a 6-1 thrashing to Real Sociedad in the Copa del Rey on Wednesday.

 

Saturday's other fixtures feature Granada hosting Rayo Vallecano in a clash of bottom-half teams, last-place Real Zaragoza entertains Getafe and Sevilla tries to snap a three-game losing streak when Espanyol visits the Sanchez Pizjuan.

 

Sunday's action includes Atletico Madrid hosting a Villarreal side that currently sits in the bottom three, Osasuna aims to maintain its place in the top five with a win against Racing, while Malaga carries a four-game winless skid into its road contest at Sporting Gijon.

 

"She is the best player in the draft without a doubt," said Beat manager James Galanis. "Not only based of her credentials but also just as a soccer player.

 

Leroux, a Canadian-American, made her international debut for Canada when she was just 14, appearing at the 2004 FIFA U-19 Women's World Cup and captaining the country's U-15 squad.

Mlofe Soccer Betting Blog

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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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