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<< Pocono track founder Mattioli dies
Long Pond, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Dr. Joseph Mattioli, the founder and chairman of the board of Pocono Raceway, passed away on Thursday at the Lehigh Valley Hospital Center in Pennsylvania, following a lengthy illness. He was 86. Known as

<< Earthquakes sign GK Busch to new contract
San Jose, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The San Jose Earthquakes signed goalkeeper Jon Busch to a new contract Thursday. Busch, 35, joined the Earthquakes in March of 2010 and has 14 shutouts - seven in each of his two seasons - for the squad. He st

<< NASCAR not making any big changes for 2012 season
Charlotte, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Unlike 2011, NASCAR will not make any major alterations in its rules for the upcoming season. Officials from the sanctioning body, including NASCAR chairman and chief executive officer Brian France

<< Vallecano adds Brazilian Costa from Atletico
Madrid, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Rayo Vallecano signed Brazilian striker Diego Costa on loan from Atletico Madrid on Thursday. Costa, 23, joins Vallecano until the end of the season but there is no option to buy the player at the end of the

Indians sign Wheeler to minor league deal >>
Cleveland, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Cleveland Indians signed right-handed pitcher Dan Wheeler to a minor league contract that includes an invitation to the team's spring training. Wheeler spent the 2011 campaign with the Boston Red

Penn State pays tribute to Paterno >>
University Park, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - If there was a common thread for Thursday's public memorial service for Joe Paterno, it's that he was much more than a football coach. He might have recorded 409 victories during a 46-year ten

Pagano: It's going to be a great journey >>
Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Indianapolis Colts introduced new head coach Chuck Pagano to the media on Thursday. It has been a whirlwind week for the former Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator who anticipated being in I

Timbers name Knowles an assistant coach >>
Portland, OR (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Portland Timbers named Cameron Knowles as an assistant coach Thursday. Knowles, 29, played for seven seasons, including four with the Timbers. During his time with Portland, Knowles was a three-time USL F

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.