Scola staying in Houston

Basketball Betting Lines

07/15/2010 - Houston, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Houston Rockets and forward Luis Scola have reportedly agreed to a five-year contract on Thursday.

The Houston Chronicle is reporting that the deal will be for $47 million.

Last season with Houston, his third in the NBA, he appeared in all 82 games and averaged 16.2 points and 8.6 rebounds.

Over 245 games in his career, all with the Rockets, he has averaged 13.1 points and 7.9 rebounds.

Wallstretsports Basketball Betting News

<< Liverpool's Torres could play in EPL opener
Liverpool, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Spain international Fernando Torres could feature in Liverpool's first Premier League game of the season against Arsenal at Anfield in just over four weeks' time. It had been feared that the st

<< Chelsea's Essien, Mikel will be ready for EPL
London, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ray Wilkins is confident that Chelsea duo Michael Essien and John Obi Mikel will have recovered from injuries in time for the start of the new season in mid-August. Blues' assistant Wilkins is pleased

<< Brazilian midfielder Cicero joins Wolfsburg
Wolfsburg, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Wolfsburg has confirmed that Brazilian midfielder Cicero has joined the club on a one-year loan deal. The 25-year-old joins the Bundesliga side after spending two seasons with Hertha Berlin after

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<< Fletcher wants to end career at United
London, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Manchester United midfielder Darren Fletcher has admitted he wants to end his career at the club. The Scotland international has been at the club for a decade and has already made 255 appearances

Giants sign Willis to minor league deal >>
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Hamilton leaves game with knee problem >>
Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Texas Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton left Thursday's game against the Boston Red Sox with a sore right knee. Hamilton went 3-for-4 in the game with three doubles and upped his batting average to a major league

Prado, Jones homer as Braves edge Brewers >>
Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Martin Prado and Chipper Jones each homered in the third inning off Dave Bush, as the National League East-leading Atlanta Braves held on for a 2-1 win over the Milwaukee Brewers in the opener of a four-ga

Bettencourt leads DiMarco in Reno >>
Reno, NV (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Matt Bettencourt shot a six-under 66 to take the first-round lead Thursday at the Reno-Tahoe Open. Bettencourt earned his first 18-hole lead on the PGA Tour largely due to an eagle at the 17th hole. He moved

Seattle edges D.C. United with late winner >>
Washington, D.C. (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Roger Levesque scored in the 89th minute and Kasey Keller made five saves, leading Seattle Sounders FC to a 1-0 victory over D.C. United in MLS on Thursday night at RFK Stadium. Keller made a few great 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.

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