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
09/04/2010 - Alameda, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Fullback Luke Lawton, center Chris Morris and defensive end Jay Richardson were among the prominent players released by the Oakland Raiders on Saturday, as the team reduced its roster to the NFL-mandated maximum of 53 players.
Lawton appeared in 29 games as a member of the Raiders over the past two seasons, catching 13 passes and serving as a blocker for running backs Michael Bush, Darren McFadden and ex-Raider Justin Fargas, but had fallen behind Marcel Reese on the depth chart and was set to begin the year serving a suspension related to the use of a banned substance.
Morris appeared in 47 games with Oakland from 2006-09, making 10 starts last season, but was victimized by enhanced depth among Raiders offensive linemen.
Richardson was placed on the chopping block after appearing in all 48 of the Raiders' games over the past three seasons. A 2007 fifth-round pick out of Ohio State, Richardson started 22 games at end over his first two campaigns but was used exclusively as a backup last season.
Also released were wide receiver Shaun Bodiford, safety Jerome Boyd, quarterback Colt Brennan, safety Stevie Brown, defensive tackle Chris Cooper, defensive end Alex Daniels, defensive end Greyson Gunheim, defensive end Kellen Heard, defensive tackle William Joseph, linebacker David Nixon, linebacker Slade Norris, tight end John Owens, guard Alex Parsons, cornerback Joe Porter, guard Brandon Rodd, cornerback Joey Thomas, fullback Manase Tonga, punter Swayze Waters and wide receiver Todd Watkins.
The Raiders will begin the regular season next Sunday, when they travel to meet the Tennessee Titans.
<< Newton accounts for 5 TDs in Auburn's opening rout
Auburn, AL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Junior quarterback Cameron Newton was impressive
in his Auburn debut, throwing for three touchdowns and rushing for two more,
as the 22nd-ranked Tigers dominated Arkansas State, 52-26, in the season
opener
<< CB Vasher, WR Reed among Chargers' final cuts
San Diego, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The San Diego Chargers pared their roster to
the 53-player maximum on Saturday, releasing 23 players as part of their "cut-
down day" moves.
Excised were wide receiver Seyi Ajirotutu, tackle Brady Bond, runni
<< FCD extends unbeaten run to 13 with win over Toronto
Frisco, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - FC Dallas earned a 1-0 victory over Toronto FC
in Major League Soccer action at Pizza Hut Park on Saturday night.
Jeff Cunningham's eighth goal of the season and 129th of his MLS career were
enough to propel
<< Alabama starts BCS title defense with rout of San Jose State
Tuscaloosa, AL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Eddie Lacy and Trent Richardson each rushed
for a pair of touchdowns, and top-ranked Alabama began defense of its BCS
national title with a 48-3 win over San Jose State.
Greg McElroy and A.J. McCarron
Irvin, Tyler among Panthers' final cuts >>
Charlotte, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Defensive linemen Corvey Irvin and Tank Tyler
were among the notables released by the Carolina Panthers on Saturday, as the
team reduced its roster to the 53-player maximum
Irvin, a third-round draft choice o
Lions Release CB Bly, 19 more >>
Allen Park, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Cornerback Dre' Bly was among the players
released by the Detroit Lions on Saturday, as the team pared its roster to the
53-player NFL maximum.
Bly, an 11-year NFL veteran who returned to Detroit in the offs
Lee's eighth-inning HR pushes Astros past D'Backs >>
Phoenix, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Carlos Lee hit the game-winning three-run home
run in the eighth inning and drove in four to lead Houston to a 6-5 come-from-
behind win over Arizona in the middle meeting of a three-game series.
Lee finished
Cummings brace leads Rapids past Goats >>
Commerce City, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Colorado Rapids' striker Omar Cummings
scored two goals and helped set up another to lead his team to a 3-0 win over
Chivas USA at Dick's Sporting Goods Park on Saturday night.
After the two teams b
Two playoff teams from 2007 take center stage on the NFL Network Sunday night in a Week 2 NFL betting match-up when the (0-1) New England Patriots betting head south to Florida for a contest with the (1-0) Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
New England HC Bill Belichick couldn’t care less about the way his team plays in the preseason. With a chance to tie last week’s game with the Baltimore Ravens betting, He elected to go for the two-point conversion and outright victory. The conversion failed, and the Pats ended up falling to the Ravens by a 16-15 final count.
New England rolled off twelve unanswered points to give it a chance at securing the victory, but it never threatened to cover the 3.5-point spread. NFL bettors saw this one coming, as they bet the Ravens down from +6 to +3.5 as the week progressed. QB Tom Brady didn’t take part in the Patriots first preseason clash, but could see action this weekend.
His three replacements all put up embarrassing numbers. They went a combined 17 for 33, and threw three interceptions and no touchdowns. The New England defense was encouraging, as they held the Ravens to 2/12 third down conversions and surrendered just ten first downs. That ‘D’ should be bolstered with the addition of former Bucs and Denver Broncos betting safety John Lynch, who could make his Patriots debut on Sunday against his former mates.
HC Jon Gruden had to be impressed with the way his Bucs played on both sides of the ball in their dominating 17-6 victory over the Miami Dolphins in Week 1’s NFL pre-season betting action. Bucs bettors were quite happy with the effort, as they made a mockery of the fact that they were underdogs in the game.
The logjam at the quarterback position didn’t get any easier to separate for Gruden, as all four of his QBs had positive experiences in the first exhibition of 2008. The four combined to complete 28 of their 40 passes for 204 yards and a touchdown, and that was without starting QB Jeff Garcia in the lineup.
RB Michael Bennett had 19 carries and four receptions, totaling 90 yards and a touchdown. Expect to see more of Bennett, Kenneth Darby, and Earnest Graham, as they all compete for playing time with Warrick Dunn in the backfield this season. Defensively, the Bucs recorded four sacks and held the Fins offense in check all day.
First round draft pick Aqib Talib was impressive in the secondary, recording a tackle and two pass defenses in his debut. Don’t be surprised to see Talib in the starting lineup opposite Ronde Barber for the Bucs in ’08.
The betting trends suggest that NFL bettors should be backing the Bucs in this intra-conference exhibition.
These two teams hooked up last year in Tampa Bay, with the Bucs winning that game 13-10. The Buccaneers have only lost one preseason game at home dating back to the beginning of the ’05 preseason. The Patriots have had a mixed bag of results in their recent exhibitions. They have gone 2-2 ATS and SU each of the last three years.
New England currently sits as modest 1-point favorites in this preseason showdown with the ‘total’ now sitting at 34.5.
You can find these lines and all of the NFL betting lines , so be sure to login and get your wagers down before kickoff!
Note: Monday night game will be picked Monday. Lines used are from football betting lines .
To visit this sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs. Mysportsbook.com online sports betting
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.
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