NHL veteran Keane won't return to Manitoba

Hockey Betting Lines

07/20/2010 - Winnipeg, MB (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Long-time NHL forward Mike Keane won't return to the Manitoba Moose for the 2010-11 season.

Manitoba, the American Hockey League affiliate of the Vancouver Canucks, announced it won't renew the 43-year-old veteran's contract.

Keane played 1,161 NHL games with Montreal, Colorado, the New York Rangers, Dallas, St. Louis and Vancouver from 1988 until 2004. He spent the past five seasons with Manitoba.

The Winnipeg native was a member of Stanley Cup championship teams with Montreal in 1993, Colorado in 1996 and Dallas in 1999.

Wwwrio Hockey Betting News

<< Line of Scrimmage: NFL GameChangers '10: Specialists
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Bill Belichick has achieved considerable success during his 10-season stint as head coach of the New England Patriots, but for those with the time or wherewithal to look at his resume' with a magnifying glass

<< Monty selects vice captains for Ryder Cup
Wentworth, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - European Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie has selected Thomas Bjorn, Darren Clarke and Paul McGinley as his vice captains for this year's team. The 2010 Ryder Cup will be staged October 1-3 at the Cel

<< Miller expecting plenty of open looks with Heat
MIAMI (AP) -With just about every Miami Heat acquisition this summer, another recruiting story seems to emerge.Dwyane Wade helped lure LeBron James and Chris Bosh. James played a big role in talking Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Mike Miller into coming to

<< Giants subdue Dodgers
Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Nate Schierholtz's two-run homer in the fourth inning proved to be the difference, as the San Francisco Giants held off the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-2, in the opener of a three-game series between these t

<< Diamondbacks pummel light-hitting Mets
Phoenix, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mark Reynolds tripled in a run as part of a big first inning and belted a three-run homer in the sixth, carrying Arizona to a 13-2 blowout win over the New York Mets. Chris Young had three hits and scored th

Cardinals seek seventh straight victory in clash with Phils >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Home runs are not easy to hit, but the St. Louis Cardinals made it their job in last night's win over the Philadelphia Phillies. The NL Central-leading Cardinals will try to go deep again Tuesday in the second installment of

Mets hope to find their road game in Arizona >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The road hasn't been too kind for the New York Mets and last night's embarrassing loss in Arizona was proof. The Mets will try to regroup on their 11-game, three-city tour out west tonight in the second portion of a three-gam

Dodgers' Kershaw goes for 10th win versus Lincecum-led Giants >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Los Angeles Dodgers young starter Clayton Kershaw has never reached double digits in wins and will get a chance tonight against the NL West-rival San Francisco Giants in the continuation of a three-game series from Chavez Rav

Rangers try to deal spiraling Tigers a seventh straight loss >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tommy Hunter hopes to deliver Texas' first series win in Detroit since 2007 this evening, when the Rangers play the middle test of their three-game set with the Tigers at Comerica Park. Texas had lost 11 straight in Detroi

Reds hand ball to rookie Leake vs. Nationals >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Reds are going to be careful with how many innings rookie Mike Leake racks up this season. They might be tempted to take the leash off tonight given how well he pitched against the Nationals last time. Leake

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.

MySportsbook.com offers Blackjack contest and $10,000.00 in Free Prize money!

Every month MySportsbook.com's casino host, Jack Black, gives away $10,000.00 in free casino prize money. To Enter - All you have to do is play at least 10 hands (total) of Blackjack on one of the specified dates of the blackjack contest. The online casino host randomly hands out free bonuses ranging from $50 - $500, and one lucky player who will receive a free $2,500.00 bonus.

"We have been running this monthly free blackjack contest to our active mebers for 5 years now, and the players just love it," says Jack Black, online casino host at MySportsbook.com. "And why wouldn't they love a free chance to win some extra online blackjack cash."

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your Sportsbook accepts Mastercard needs.