Benson edges Hornaday for truck title, Bodine wins race

Autoracing Betting Lines

11/14/2008 - Homestead, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Johnny Benson captured his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship Friday with a seventh-place finish in the Ford 200 at the Homestead-Miami Speedway. Benson finished the season seven points ahead of Ron Hornaday, Jr., who finished one position behind in eighth. It was the second-closest points battle in the 14-year history of the series.

Meanwhile, Todd Bodine won at Homestead, holding off Brian Scott in a green- white-checkered finish. The victory was Bodine's third of the season and the 15th of his Truck Series career.

Scott finished second, and Kevin Harvick was third. Kyle Busch and Dennis Setzer rounded out the top-five.

More details to follow.

Lasvgas Autoracing Betting News

<< Wade leads Heat to rout of Wizards
Miami, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Dwyane Wade dropped a game-high 24 points and the Miami Heat clobbered the Washington Wizards, 97-77, at American Airlines Arena. Michael Beasley netted 19 points for the Heat, who wrapped up a thre

<< Young, Sixers overcome big deficit to topple Pacers
Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Thaddeus Young scored a career-high 25 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, and the Philadelphia 76ers erased a 26-point first-half deficit and came back to edge the Indiana Pacers, 94-92. Andre Miller s

<< No. 21 Wake Forest crushes N.C. Central
Winston-Salem, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Freshman Al-Farouq Aminu scored 21 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, and No. 21 Wake Forest kicked off its 2008-09 campaign with a 94-48 rout of North Carolina Central. Aminu made 9-of-12 from the

<< Charlotte pulls out victory over short-handed Jazz
Charlotte, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Gerald Wallace scored 22 points and grabbed nine rebounds to lead the Charlotte Bobcats to a 104-96 victory over the ailing Utah Jazz, who were without three of their top six players. Deron Williams,

<< Ovechkin and Laich lead surging Caps over Devils
Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Alexander Ovechkin and Brooks Laich both had a goal and an assist, as the surging Washington Capitals defeated the slumping New Jersey Devils, 3-1, in the opener of a home-and-home series at the Verizon Center.

Randolph, Crawford push Knicks over Thunder >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Zach Randolph poured in a season-high in points and rebounds with 29 and 19, respectively, and the New York Knicks held off the Oklahoma City Thunder, 116-106, at Madison Square Garden. Jamal Crawford

Harris leads Nets to victory over Hawks >>
East Rutherford, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Devin Harris finished with 30 points, eight assists and six rebounds, as the New Jersey Nets used a strong fourth quarter to take a 115-108 victory over the Atlanta Hawks. Vince Carter ended with

No. 12 Oklahoma rolls over American University >>
Norman, OK (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Blake Griffin had 24 points and a career-high 18 rebounds, as 12th-ranked Oklahoma crushed American University, 83-54, in the season opener for both clubs. Cade Davis had 11 points while Willie Warren added

Thrashers stay in win column by edging 'Canes >>
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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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