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<< Emery, Senators blank Hurricanes
Ottawa, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ray Emery stopped 27 shots for his fifth shutout of the season, as the Ottawa Senators shut down the Carolina Hurricanes, 2-0, in the back end of a home-and-home set between the teams at Scotiabank Place. Dany

<< Foster, Commodores silence Gamecocks
Columbia, SC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Shan Foster poured in a career-high 33 points, including five three-pointers, leading No. 19 Vanderbilt over South Carolina, 99-90, in overtime at the Colonial Center. Derrick Byars scored 18 points

<< No. 19 Bowling Green pounds Miami-Ohio
Bowling Green, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Carin Horne scored 23 points and Ali Mann had 22 as 19th-ranked Bowling Green exploded in the second half to pound Miami-Ohio, 92-62, on senior night at Anderson Arena. Horne and Mann each pulled

<< Jefferson, Celtics down Knicks
Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Al Jefferson poured in 26 points with nine rebounds and Paul Pierce added 24 points as Boston jumped out to a large halftime lead then held on for dear life in a 102-94 victory over the New York Knicks

Melzer, Verdasco notch wins in Vegas >>
Las Vegas, NV (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Fourth-seeded Austrian Jurgen Melzer and fifth-seeded Spaniard Fernando Verdasco were among Wednesday's round-robin winners at the $416,000 Tennis Channel Open. Melzer opened his week with a 6-4,

Longhorns dodge Law to drop Aggies >>
Austin, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The long arm of the Law could only extend so far. Despite an inspired performance from their leader Acie Law IV, the seventh- ranked Texas A&M Aggies fell to No. 15 Texas, 98-96, in a classic double-

Martin and Bibby lead Kings past Bobcats >>
Sacramento, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kevin Martin scored 36 points to lead Sacramento over Charlotte, 135-120, at ARCO Arena. Mike Bibby added 30 points and was 7-of-10 from beyond-the-arc for the Kings, who have won two of their past

Raptors down Rockets >>
Houston, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Rookie Andrea Bargnani scored 20 points to lead a balanced Toronto attack as the Raptors downed Houston, 106-90, at the Toyota Center. T.J. Ford added 16 points, six rebounds and six assists for th

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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