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<< Falcons' Babineaux suspended one game
Flowery Branch, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Atlanta Falcons defensive tackle Jonathan Babineaux has been suspended one game without pay by the league. The suspension follows Babineaux's arrest last year on charges of possession of marij

<< House returns to the Heat
Miami, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Miami Heat signed free agent guard Eddie House on Tuesday. Though terms of the deal were not disclosed, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported last week House had agreed to a two-year contract at the

<< Reds place SS Cabrera on DL, recall INF Francisco
Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Cincinnati Reds placed shortstop Orlando Cabrera on the 15-day disabled list with a left oblique strain on Tuesday. Cabrera was injured while trying to beat out an inning-ending double play in the top

<< Flyers' Pronger undergoes successful surgery
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Chris Pronger underwent successful knee surgery last week and is expected to be ready in time for training camp, according to CSNPhilly.com. The arthroscopic proce

Vols' Walls, King reinstated from suspension >>
Knoxville, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - University of Tennessee head football coach Derek Dooley announced Tuesday at a press conference that defensive tackle Marlon Walls and linebacker Greg King were reporting back to the team. The sophomo

Nuggets restructuring front office >>
Denver, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Denver Nuggets announced Tuesday that the contracts of executives Rex Chapman and Mark Warkentien will not be extended for the 2010-11 NBA season. Warkentien became the Nuggets' vice president of ba

Team USA coach D'Antoni to miss Worlds >>
Colorado Springs, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - USA Basketball Men's National Team assistant coach Mike D'Antoni will miss the FIBA World Championship in Turkey because of back problems. The Knicks head coach will assist the team in New York f

This Week in Auto Racing August 6 - 8 >>
Watkins Glen, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - It will be an enjoyable weekend of road course racing in both NASCAR and the IZOD IndyCar Series. The Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series wind their way through Watkins Glen, NY. The Camping World Truck S

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.