AZ edges Feyenoord to extend unbeaten streak to 13

Soccer Betting Lines

12/13/2008 - Rotterdam, Netherlands (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ari scored in the 56th minute and AZ edged Feyenoord 1-0 on Saturday to extend its unbeaten streak to 13 and reopen a three-point lead atop the Dutch Eredivisie.

Ari's goal was his seventh of the season and AZ posted its fourth straight shut out in the high-scoring Dutch league. AZ entered the match level on points with Ajax, which beat NAC 3-0 on Friday.

But Ari handed AZ all three points at Feijenoord Stadion, and his club equaled its win total from last season. AZ had just 11 wins last season when it ended up finishing 11th. The club is 11-2-2 through 15 matches this season.

Feyenoord has just one win in its last five matches and seven losses already on the season after dropping just 10 all of last season.

Also Saturday, Roy Beerens scored twice to lead Heerenveen to a 2-0 win over Graafschap, Jhonny van Beukering and Rachid Bouaouzan scored as NEC beat Willem II 2-1 and Den Haag tied Roda 1-1.

On Sunday, Vitesse hosts PSV Eindhoven, Utrecht hosts Volendam, Groningen hosts Twente and Heracles hosts Sparta.

Wwsbgglobal Soccer Betting News

<< Hummel leads Boilermakers past Indiana State
West Lafayette, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Robbie Hummel had 25 points and eight rebounds as 14th-ranked Purdue pummeled Indiana State, 76-62, at Mackey Arena. JaJuan Johnson had 12 points and five rebounds while Lewis Jackson added 11 poin

<< 49ers place WR Battle on IR; sign RB Clayton from practice squad
Santa Clara, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - San Francisco placed wide receiver Arnaz Battle on injured reserve with a foot injury and signed running back Thomas Clayton to the 53-man roster on Saturday. Clayton was signed because of an ankle

<< Bruins place Sturm on IR
Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Boston Bruins placed forward Marco Sturm on long-term injured reserve Saturday. The move is retroactive to November 17. Sturm has been out of action for the Bruins' last 11 games due to an undi

<< No. 13 Syracuse easily handles Long Beach State
Syracuse, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Arinze Onuaku led all scorers with 17 points and Eric Devendorf added 13, as 13th-ranked Syracuse cruised to a 79-55 victory over Long Beach State. "Well, we want to get him the ball if we can," sa

<< Abrams leads No. 6 Texas over Texas State
Austin, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A.J. Abrams scored a game-high 30 points, and sixth-ranked Texas needed every one of them, in a rough-and-tough 81-73 victory over in-state opponent Texas State. Damion Jones and Dexter Pittman added

Di Vaio's hat trick leads Bologna over Torino >>
Bologna, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Marco Di Vaio scored a hat trick in Bologna's five-goal second half, helping his club move out of the relegation zone with a 5-2 win over Torino on Saturday in Italy's Serie A. Bologna entered the match nex

No. 24 Marquette has little trouble with IPFW >>
Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Lazar Hayward scored 19 points and pulled down a game-high 18 rebounds as 24th-ranked Marquette rolled to a 69-50 victory over IPFW at the Bradley Center. Jerel McNeal contributed 16 points and

Sessegnon's double lifts PSG over Auxerre >>
Auxerre, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Stephane Sessegnon scored two goals and PSG defeated Auxerre 2-1 on Saturday at Stade Abbe-Deschamps in France's Ligue 1 to equal its win total from all of last season. PSG narrowly avoided being relegate

Hoyas beat Memphis in OT >>
Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - DaJuan Summers tallied 21 points and Austin Freeman added 18, as No. 19 Georgetown upended 17th-ranked Memphis, 79-70, in overtime of an early-season marquee tilt between two national powers. Chris Wright

Newcastle fears Owen will leave >>
Newcastle, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Newcastle United manager Joe Kinnear has admitted that he has serious doubts over whether England striker Michael Owen will sign a new contract with the Magpies. Owen's current deal runs out at the

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.