Bengals make it official with Bryant

Football Betting Lines

03/12/2010 - Cincinnati, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Cincinnati Bengals announced the signings of wide receivers Antonio Bryant and Chris Davis Friday.

Terms of the contracts were not released, but Bryant's deal is believed to be for $28 million over four years, according to a Cincinnati Enquirer report on Wednesday. The pact equals that of cast-off wideout Laveranues Coles, whose contract was terminated last week after a single underwhelming season with the team.

It's unclear the terms involved in Davis' signing.

Bryant spent the past two seasons with Tampa Bay and fought through a knee injury in 2009 to catch 39 passes for 600 yards and four touchdowns over 13 games. In 2008, the eight-year veteran set career marks in nearly every offensive category with 1,248 yards and seven TDs on 83 receptions.

Over 106 career games for the Bucs, 49ers (2006), Browns (2004-05) and Cowboys (2002-04), the Pittsburgh product has amassed 5,685 yards, 30 touchdowns and 372 receptions.

Davis, a three-year NFL vet, was away from football in 2009 after reaching an injury settlement with Tennessee prior to the season. The Florida State product has seven career receptions for 69 yards in 17 games, appearing mostly on special teams.

In addition, he averaged 26 yards on six kickoff returns and 9.1 yards on 33 punt returns from 2007-08.

Socceronlinegamble Football Betting News

<< George Karl to miss 3 more road games
DENVER (AP) -George Karl will skip the last three games on the Denver Nuggets' road trip as he adjusts to a feeding tube that was placed into his stomach as part of his cancer treatment.The Nuggets coach has already missed two games since being diag

<< Dynamo bring back Serioux
Houston, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Houston Dynamo acquired defender/midfielder Adrian Serioux from Toronto FC in exchange for a third-round pick in the 2011 draft, the Major League Soccer clubs announced on Friday. The 31-year-old Serioux,

<< Fire sign former Fulham striker John
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Chicago Fire Soccer signed 24-year-old Dutch forward Collins John, the Major League Soccer club announced on Friday. "We are very excited to have Collins join the Chicago Fire," Fire Technical Direc

<< Blazers try to enhance playoff chances in clash with Kings
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Portland Trail Blazers hope to improve their playoff chances tonight by earning a sixth straight win over the lottery-bound Sacramento Kings. The Blazers, who currently lead Memphis by four games for the eighth and fin

<< Bulls, Heat set to battle in Miami
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A pair of teams battling for playoff spots in the Eastern Conference square off tonight at Miami's AmericanAirlines Arena, where the surging Heat continue an important homestand by taking on the slumping Chicago Bulls.

Karl to miss remainder of Denver road trip >>
Denver, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Denver Nuggets coach George Karl will miss the remaining three games of the team's road trip as he continues his treatment for neck and throat cancer. Karl missed the opening game of the trip on Wednesd

Eagles bring back WR Baskett >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Philadelphia Eagles announced Friday they have signed wide receiver Hank Baskett to a one-year contract. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Baskett spent his first four years in th

Cards bolster O-line with Hadnot, Claxton >>
Tempe, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Arizona Cardinals announced Friday they have agreed to terms on contracts with offensive linemen Rex Hadnot and Ben Claxton. Hadnot's is a three-year pact and Claxton's a one-year deal. Financial t

West Ham tries to overcome Bolton disappointment >>
London, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Last weekend's 2-1 loss at home against fellow relegation-strugglers Bolton did not sit well with West Ham manager Gianfranco Zola. But he is calling on his team to recover and pull off a stu

Two-Year-Old Champ Returns to the Races >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - In what could be the sign of the times, Lookin At Lucky, last year's Eclipse Award-winning two-year-old, will have just two prep races prior to the Kentucky Derby. If the Bob Baffert-trained colt winds up c

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.