Berdych, Monfils advance in Open Sud

Tennis Betting Lines

02/02/2012 - Montpellier, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Top-seeded Tomas Berdych and Frenchman Gael Monfils were among Thursday's second-round winners at the Open Sud de France tennis tournament.

Berdych, the Czech Republic native ranked seventh in the world, routed French qualifier Florent Serra 6-0, 6-2, dropping only 12 points on serve and saving all three break points against him.

Monfils, the No. 3 seed, dispatched American Michael Russell 6-3, 6-3. The world No. 13 fired 17 aces and won 84 percent of his first serves.

The top four seeds, including Berdych and Monfils, had received byes into the second round on the indoor hardcourts at the Arena Montpellier.

Berdych, coming off an Australian Open performance that saw him reach his fifth career Grand Slam quarter-final, will take on big-serving Nicolas Mauht in Friday's quarterfinals. Mauht edged sixth-seeded German Florian Mayer 7-6 (7-3), 6-3 on Thursday.

Monfils, winner of this ATP World Tour 250 event when it was last contested in 2010, will face eighth-seeded Jarkko Nieminen of Finland on Friday. Nieminen defeated French wild card Paul-Henri Mathieu 7-6 (7-4), 6-1 on Thursday.

The remaining quarterfinal matches on Friday feature second-seeded Gilles Simon against fellow Frenchman and wild card Guillaume Rufin, and fourth- seeded slugger Richard Gasquet taking on seventh-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber.

The winner of this $518,000 tournament will collect $95,000.

Candustand Tennis Betting News

<< In the FCS Huddle: Top recruits not necessarily at top schools
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ever get one of those do-not-open-until- the-holidays packages in the mail? Well, let's just say we will need to revisit this column in about three years. That's because recruiting analysis is so fickle

<< NFL gives 49ers $200 million loan for new stadium
Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - NFL owners approved a $200 million loan on Thursday to help the San Francisco 49ers build a new stadium in Santa Clara. In December, the Santa Clara Stadium Authority unanimously approved an $850 millio

<< Swansea's Bodde suffers new injury
Swansea, Wales (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Swansea City midfielder Ferrie Bodde picked up a new knee injury Wednesday and could face a longer spell on the sidelines. Bodde has not played for Swansea since February of 2010, and has made just 59 appe

<< Flames' Stempniak sidelined with high ankle sprain
Calgary, AB (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Calgary Flames forward Lee Stempniak will miss approximately six weeks of action due to a high ankle sprain. Stempniak left Tuesday's game against the Red Wings due to the injury. In 51 games this season, St

<< Nationals pick up Edwin Jackson
Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Washington Nationals have agreed to terms with veteran starter Edwin Jackson on a one-year contract. The deal is contingent upon Jackson passing a physical. Jackson, 28, entered the majors in 2

Pletcher goes for another Davis win >>
Oldsmar, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Trainer Todd Pletcher has been dominating the Sam F. Davis Stakes in recent years and has another opportunity to win the event with its 32nd renewal on Saturday. The $250,000 stakes, with a field of 11 thre

Youzhny rolls; Bogomolov ousted in Zagreb >>
Zagreb, Croatia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mikhail Youzhny cruised into the quarterfinals of the Zagreb Indoors tournament Thursday, while fellow Russian Alex Bogomolov was eliminated by Slovakia's Lukas Lacko. A pair of past Zagreb w

Colts name Manusky defensive coordinator >>
Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Indianapolis Colts have hired Greg Manusky as defensive coordinator. The Colts named Bruce Arians offensive coordinator earlier this week. Manusky was the defensive coordinator of the San Diego

Chievo hands struggling Novara another loss >>
Novara, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Sergio Pellissier and Cyril Thereau scored on each side of halftime as Chievo downed struggling Novara, 2-1, on Thursday in Serie A. Pellissier opened the scoring on 33 minutes and Thereau added a second goa

Louisiana Tech RB dies at off-campus apartment >>
Ruston, LA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Louisiana Tech running back Tyrone Duplessis was found dead at his off-campus apartment on Thursday morning. The 21-year-old was in his third year at Louisiana Tech. The cause of death is not yet known and an

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.

FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million

Football Betting

In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.

And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.

Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.

So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.

Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)

The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.

As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.

The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.

In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.

Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.

And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.

So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.

There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.

So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.

And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.

There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)

Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.

Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.

Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.

So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.

NFL Betting Lines

To visit this sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your college football betting needs.