Chicago opens home schedule against Philadelphia

Basketball Betting Lines

11/02/2007 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Philadelphia 76ers and Chicago Bulls both try and pick up their first victories of the season, as they meet tonight at the United Center.

Last season, the Bulls won two of three from Philadelphia. The Sixers have lost three of their last four at Chicago.

Chicago opened the campaign with a tough loss on the road. On Wednesday, Richard Jefferson scored 29 points and Vince Carter netted 24, as New Jersey continued its dominance over Chicago in the Garden State with a season-opening 112-103 overtime victory over the Bulls at the Izod Center.

The Nets' 12th straight home victory over Chicago wasn't an easy one, as the Bulls stormed back from a 15-point halftime deficit to force overtime. The last time Chicago won in New Jersey -- April 2001 -- Ron Artest's running layup gave those Bulls the victory.

Ben Gordon led the Bulls with 27 points and eight rebounds, while Luol Deng notched a double-double with 22 points and 11 rebounds in defeat. Kirk Hinrich contributed 14 points before fouling out in overtime.

The Bulls are scheduled to visit the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday, before returning home for a three-game stand. They will host the Clippers, Detroit and Toronto on the upcoming homestand.

Philadelphia plays the finale of a season-opening two-game road trip. Andrea Bargnani scored 20 points, including a big four-point play late in the fourth quarter, to lift the Raptors over the 76ers, 106-97, in the opener for both clubs at Air Canada Centre.

Andre Iguodala finished with a game-high 23 points and eight rebounds in the loss to Toronto for the Sixers, who finished last season with just 35 wins. Kyle Korver was 4-for-7 from three-point range and ended with 20 points off the bench, while Andre Miller had 15 points and six assists.

Reggie Evans, making his Sixers debut after being acquired in a trade with Denver during the offseason, finished with a game-high 15 rebounds.

After tonight's contest, the Sixers return home for a four-game homestand. Philadelphia will host New Jersey, Charlotte, Toronto and New Orleans at the Wachovia Center on the upcoming stand.

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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.

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