Temple F Allen withdraws from draft

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

05/08/2010 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Temple Owls forward Lavoy Allen has withdrawn his name from the 2010 NBA Draft and will return to school for his senior season.

Allen averaged 11.5 points and 10.7 rebounds last season and was named to the Atlantic 10 first team. He helped Temple to a 29-6 record and a third consecutive conference championship.

Hankokki NCAA Basketball Betting News

<< Penn State's Battle withdraws from draft
University Park, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Penn State point guard Talor Battle removed his name from consideration for the NBA Draft on Saturday. Battle averaged 18.5 points and 5.3 rebounds while starting all 31 games last season as a juni

<< O'Neill vows to stay at Aston Villa
Birmingham, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Aston Villa manager Martin O'Neill has vowed to remain at Villa Park beyond the end of the season and hopes to have ended continuing rumors about his future with the club. O'Neill has led his side to

<< Markakis, O's take first game of doubleheader over Twins
Minneapolis, MN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Nick Markakis went 2-for-4 with three RBI and a run scored to help Baltimore take a 7-3 win over Minnesota in the opener of a doubleheader at Target Field. Julio Lugo went 3-for-5 with an RBI while Cesar

<< Montanes ousts Federer in Estoril semis
Estoril, Portugal (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Reigning champion Albert Montanes will have a chance to defend his title at the clay-court Estoril Open after ousting top-seeded and world No. 1 Roger Federer on Saturday in the semifinals. The fourth

<< Penguins F Guerin returns for Game 5
Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Pittsburgh Penguins forward Bill Guerin will return to action for Game 5 of his club's Eastern Conference semifinal series against Montreal on Saturday. Guerin did not play in the previous two contests wi

Sizemore, Tigers take opener of shortened series with Twins >>
Cleveland, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Scott Sizemore knocked in three runs and Miguel Cabrera contributed two RBI as Detroit dispatched Minnesota, 6-4, in the opener of a truncated series. Austin Jackson and Brennan Boesch each collected

Nats edge Marlins >>
Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Renyel Pinto hit Adam Dunn with the bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth to force in the go-ahead run, which held up as the Washington Nationals took a 5-4 victory over the Florida Marlins in the middle

Blanco's HR in 11th gives Mets second straight late-inning win >>
Flushing, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Henry Blanco's first home run as a Met gave New York a 5-4 win over San Francisco in 11 innings, the club's ninth consecutive win at Citi Field. Blanco ended 3-for-5 in place of starter Rod Bara

Sizemore, Tigers take opener of shortened series with Tribe >>
Cleveland, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Scott Sizemore knocked in three runs and Miguel Cabrera contributed two RBI as Detroit dispatched Cleveland, 6-4, in the opener of a truncated series. Austin Jackson and Brennan Boesch each collected

Diamondbacks activate OF Jackson >>
Phoenix, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Arizona Diamondbacks activated outfielder Conor Jackson from the 15-day disabled list on Saturday and optioned outfielder Gerardo Parra to Triple-A Reno. Jackson had been on the DL since Apri

It's less than a month until the NHL hockey betting season opens at MySportsbook.com and preparations are underway for another battle in the race to hoist Lord Stanley's mug in 2007.

As cup crazy fans prepare to place their bets, one online sportsbook ,MySportsbook.com, is offering hockey betting lines on the 2007/2007 Stanley Cup , who will bring it home this upcoming season.

Despite a poor showing in last season's playoffs and the loss of Steve Yzerman to retirement, the Detroit Red Wings are early favourites at this online sportsbook with wagering odds of 6-1. The Wings will look to offensive powerhouse Pavel Datsyuk and newly appointed captain Nicklas Lidstrom to lead one of the league's most prominent franchises.

Always a threat are the Ottawa Senators, with newly acquired goaltender Martin Gerber from the Stanley Cup champion ,Carolina Hurricanes. The Sens are second best in the rankings at a 7-1 bet, and odds makers at this sportsbook are optimistic that the Ottawa squad will fare better than last season's Eastern Conference semi-final upset to the Buffalo Sabres.

Also worth noting are the defending Stanley Cup champs Carolina Hurricanes, a 10-1 bet to repeat. Behind the Canes are the New Jersey Devils, Calgary Flames, Buffalo Sabres, Philadelphia Flyers, and Anaheim Mighty Ducks all sit at 12-1. In the basement are the Washington Capitals, Chicago Blackhawks, and St. Louis Blues who all have 100-1 odds to win.

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your hockey betting needs.

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.