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02/05/2012 - Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Eli Manning and the New York Giants did it again, beating the New England Patriots with another game-winning drive in the Super Bowl.
Ahmad Bradshaw scored on a six-yard touchdown run with 57 seconds remaining to lift the Giants to a 21-17 win.
Manning led the 88-yard drive to win the game, just like he orchestrated an 83-yard drive to win the 2008 Super Bowl over the Patriots, which ended New England's hopes of a perfect season.
With time running down, Bradshaw nearly sat at the half-yard line before falling back into the end zone for the touchdown. A two-point conversion failed.
Tom Brady completed a 19-yard pass to Deion Branch on 4th-and-16, but a last- second Hail Mary pass fell incomplete in the end zone.
<< Patriots lead Giants 17-15 after 3rd quarter
Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tom Brady set a Super Bowl record for
consecutive completions and threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to Aaron Hernandez
that helped the Patriots take a 17-15 lead over the Giants after three
quarters.
Brady's
<< Monaco titles in Chile
Vina del Mar, Chile (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Top seed Juan Monaco defeated seventh-
seeded fellow Argentine Carlos Berlocq 6-3, 6-7 (1-7), 6-1 in the championship
match at the VTR Open clay-court tennis event.
The 27-year-old Monaco now owns fou
<< Patriots lead Giants 10-9 after 1st half
Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tom Brady's four-yard touchdown pass to
Danny Woodhead ended a 96-yard drive and gave the Patriots a 10-9 lead over
the Giants at halftime of the Super Bowl.
Brady was 10-for-10 on the drive and comp
<< Stanley rallies from 8 back to win in Phoenix
Scottsdale, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A week ago, Kyle Stanley blew an eight-
stroke lead in the final round to cost himself his first PGA Tour victory.
This week, Stanley made the big rally.
He fired a six-under 65 Sunday to come fro
Gronkowski's 1st catch comes on record-tying drive >>
Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - It took Rob Gronkowski nearly an entire
half to make his first catch in the Super Bowl.
The injured Patriot, who set the tight end record for receiving yards and
touchdowns during the regular sea
Giants defensive line key to another run >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - At one point in his life, Jason Pierre-Paul didn't want to
be a football player. But after a broken leg ended his basketball career in
high school, Pierre-Paul made a decision that sent him on a path to winning a
Super B
Gronkowski: 'Almost isn't enough' on Hail Mary pass >>
Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - It took Rob Gronkowski nearly an entire
half to make his first catch in the Super Bowl.
Later, the injured Patriots tight end was several tortured inches away from
snaring a Hail Mary pass that would
Manning wins another Super Bowl MVP >>
Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Is Eli Manning elite? That's likely no
longer a concern for the New York Giants quarterback.
Manning won his second Super Bowl Most Valuable Player award Sunday after
leading the Giants on another
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.
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