Bruins get Horton, Campbell from Florida
Hockey Betting Lines
06/22/2010 - Sunrise, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Boston Bruins have acquired forwards Nathan Horton and Gregory Campbell from the Florida Panthers in exchange for defenseman Dennis Wideman, the Bruins' first-round pick in 2010 and a third- round selection in 2011.
The Bruins add a consistent scorer in Horton, who has recorded at least 20 in each of the last five seasons. The right winger tallied a career best 31 in 2006-07 and wound up with 62 points in 82 games. He matched his points total again the next year with 27 goals and 35 assists over another full 82-game slate.
The 25-year-old Horton was taken third overall by the Panthers in the 2003 draft and has tallied 142 goals with 153 assists in 422 games since. He notched 20 goals and added 37 assists over 65 games this past season.
Campbell, a centerman, had two goals and 15 assists in 60 games last year. The 26-year-old had also spent his entire pro career in Florida after being selected in the third round in 2002. Campbell is just two years removed from setting career bests in goals (13) and assists (19) in 77 games.
Wideman, 27, just finished up his third full season in Boston and recorded six goals and 24 assists in 76 games with a minus-14 rating. He too set career marks in 2008-09 with 13 goals, 37 assists and a plus-32 rating over 79 games.
In 378 career games, including parts of two seasons with the Blues, Wideman has 46 goals, 119 assists and a minus-12 rating.
The Panthers will get a chance to bolster their roster in the near future with the 15th overall pick in this year's draft, which kicks off Friday from the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Baltimore, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Baltimore Orioles have optioned pitcher Chris Tillman back to Triple-A Norfolk and have designated pitcher Cla Meredith for assignment. Baltimore had to clear room on the 40-man roster for util
<< Rollins returns; Ruiz placed on DL
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Philadelphia Phillies have activated
shortstop Jimmy Rollins off the 15-day disabled list and have placed catcher
Carlos Ruiz on the DL.
Rollins had been sidelined since May 22 with a calf strain
<< Northern Iowa adds trio of coaches
Cedar Falls, IA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - University of Northern Iowa head football
coach Mark Farley has added three assistant coaches for the 2010 season.
Matt Entz worked with the team during spring practices and will be the
defensive line coach
<< Athletics send Fox to Baltimore
Oakland, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Oakland Athletics have traded utilityman
Jake Fox to the Baltimore Orioles in exchange for minor league pitcher Ross
Wolf and cash considerations.
Fox was designated for assignment by the Athletic
<< Quinn moves into front office, Renney named new Oilers coach
Edmonton, AB (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Edmonton Oilers announced Tuesday that
Pat Quinn will step down as head coach and take over as a senior hockey
advisor and Tom Renney will be the team's new head coach.
Quinn guided the Oilers
Providence, RI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Brown University football coach Phil Estes announced Tuesday that he has selected former Massachusetts standout quarterback Liam Coen to be the Bears' quarterbacks coach. Coen enjoyed a successful four-year
Mine That Bird 2010 debut getting closer >>
Louisville, KY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Although no race has been confirmed, trainer
D. Wayne Lukas is actively preparing 2009 Kentucky Derby winner Mine That
Bird for the gelding's first start of the year. The four-year-old had a six-
furlong
Draft takes back seat to free agency >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The annual NBA draft, the unofficial
kickoff to the NBA offseason, takes place Thursday at Madison Square Garden's
WaMu Theater.
What happens on draft day usually molds a team's plan for the future but the
This Week in Auto Racing June 25 - 27 >>
Loudon, NH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The race to make the championship Chase in the
Sprint Cup Series heats up this weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Meanwhile, Danica Patrick makes her return to the Nationwide Series at New
Hampshi
Ciccarelli, Cammi Granato among 2010 Hall of Fame inductees >>
Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Dino Ciccarelli, Cammi Granato and Angela
James were selected for induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame's class of 2010
Tuesday from among a healthy group of player candidates.
Also to be honored among
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.