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<< Lyon continues busy schedule at PSG
Paris, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Lyon manager Claude Puel described the team's schedule as "totally crazy," but emphasized the club has to remained focused on each game. Lyon visits PSG in France's Ligue 1 on Saturday, its 10th match in fi

<< Hull leads; Sorenstam's career ends with missed cut
West Palm Beach, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Katherine Hull posted a one-under 71 Friday to maintain a one-shot lead after two rounds of the ADT Championship. Hull completed 36 holes at five-under-par 139. However, the big story was Annika S

<< Making a run at LeBron
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Every time LeBron James wears a New York Yankees cap, the basketball fans in Gotham smile. I guess the reasoning is simple and goes something like this...Since the Cleveland Cavaliers' superstar loves baseball's most stori

<< Hoffenheim eyes top spot against Koln
Cologne, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Hoffenheim's Jan Schindelmeiser admitted he never "would have thought it possible" the promoted club would be near the top of the Bundesliga, "just as no one here would have." But Hoffe, promoted to the

Griffins' Wilson recalled by Dallas >>
Grand Rapids, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Grand Rapids Griffins left winger Landon Wilson was recalled by the Dallas Stars on Friday, the American League Hockey club announced. Wilson, 33, leads the AHL with seven power-play goals and rank

Jets QB Ainge suspended four games by NFL >>
Florham Park, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - New York Jets rookie quarterback Eric Ainge has been suspended by the NFL for four game on Thursday for violating the league's policy on steroids and related substances. Placed on injured reserve

Stars' Morrow to miss six months >>
Frisco, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Dallas Stars captain Brenden Morrow is expected to miss up to six months after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, the club announced on Friday. The 29-year-old Morrow skated in

Red Bulls, Crew both gunning for first MLS Cup >>
Carson, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - When the dust settles on the Major League Soccer title game at The Home Depot Center on Sunday, one of the two combatants - the New York Red Bulls or the heavily favored Columbus Crew - will be hoisting their r

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.

To visit this sports book go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs.