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<< Red-hot Mavericks try to extend winning streak against Hawks
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The NBA-best Dallas Mavericks go for their 12th straight victory when they welcome the Atlanta Hawks tonight to American Airlines Center. All-Star Dirk Nowitzki scored 31 points, pulled down 11 rebounds and dished out eig

<< Kobe, Lakers visit Northwest Division-leading Utah
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Two of the top teams in the Western Conference meet when the Utah Jazz welcome the Los Angeles Lakers tonight to EnergySolutions Arena. This is the third and final meeting of the regular season between the clubs. The teams

<< SuperSonics host Northwest Division-rival Portland
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Northwest Division rivals battle when the Portland Trail Blazers visit the Seattle SuperSonics tonight at KeyArena. This is the second of four meetings between the squads this campaign. On November 1st, Zach Randolph scor

<< Sharks and Ducks tangle in San Jose
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - An important Pacific Division battle takes place tonight in San Jose, as the Sharks welcome the first-place Anaheim Ducks to HP Pavilion. The Ducks are first in the Pacific and second in the Western Conference with 82 po

Rockets continue strong play without Yao >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Houston Rockets (35-20) are a distant 11 games behind the first place Dallas Mavericks in the Southwest Division. However, they are the No. 5 seed in the Western Conference playoff race, four games ahead of the sixth-s

Reds confirm Voronin summer signing >>
Liverpool, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Liverpool confirmed on Monday that striker Andriy Voronin will join the team this summer on a free transfer from German club Bayer Leverkusen. The 27-year-old Ukrainian has tallied six goals in 1

Backstrom, Savard and Richards earn NHL weekly honors >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Minnesota Wild goaltender Niklas Backstrom, Boston Bruins center Marc Savard and Tampa Bay Lightning center Brad Richards have been the NHL's Three Stars for the week ending February 25. Backstrom was na

Ohio State tops men's hoops poll >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ohio State is the No. 1 team in men's college basketball, ascending to the top spot of the Associated Press poll for the first time in 45 years. The Buckeyes (26-3) pulled out a 49-48 victory over previou

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.