Clijsters, Venus win U.S. openers

Tennis Betting Lines

08/30/2010 - Flushing Meadows, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Reigning champion Kim Clijsters and Venus Williams were both straight-set opening-round winners Monday at the U.S. Open.

The second-seeded former world No. 1 Clijsters got past Hungarian Greta Arn 6-0, 7-5 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

Clijsters steamrolled Arn in 18 minutes in the bagel first set, but the Belgian then fell behind 0-4 in the second before rebounding to avoid a three- set afternoon. Clijsters won seven of the last eight games to advance and capture her 26th straight first-round match at a major.

"I'm happy with the way I served, Clijsters said. "That's obviously been a stroke that I've been paying a bit more attention to during my practicing the past few weeks. Today I felt like I was hitting the ball well."

The 27-year-old Clijsters is seeking her third U.S. Open championship, She beat Dane Caroline Wozniacki in last year's finale here and has now won her last 15 matches in Flushing. She also titled here in 2005 and skipped the 2006-08 editions due to either injury or retirement. Clijsters came out of retirement last summer and captured the U.S. Open in only her third tournament back.

Clijsters, who was also the U.S. Open runner-up in 2003, will meet Aussie Sally Peers in the second round in New York.

The third-seeded Williams, meanwhile, was a 6-4, 6-1 winner over Italian Roberta Vinci. The American fired 10 aces and won 83 percent of first-serve points.

Williams, 30, is also after her third career U.S. Open title. She won this event in 2000 and 2001, but bowed out in the fourth round last year and hasn't reached the semifinals since 2007. The former world No. 1 will face Canadian Rebecca Marino in the second round.

Fifth-seeded French Open runner-up Samantha Stosur fought back to beat Russian Elena Vesnina 3-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-1, while sixth-seeded French Open champion Francesca Schiavone cruised with a 6-1, 6-0 dismantling of Japan's Ayumi Morita and former U.S. Open runner-up Elena Dementieva drubbed Belarusian Olga Govortsova 6-1, 6-2. Schiavone upset Stosur in June's Roland Garros finale. Dementieva reached the U.S. Open final in 2004.

Belarus' Victoria Azarenka, seeded 10th, got into the second round with a 6-0, 5-7, 6-1 victory over Romanian Monica Niculescu. Former Wimbledon runner-up Marion Bartoli, seeded 13th at this particular fortnight, moved on with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Romanian Edina Gallovits.

Sixteenth-seeded Israeli Shahar Peer handled Croat Jelena Kostanic Tosic 6-4, 7-5, while 19th-seeded Italian Flavia Pennetta cruised past American Irina Falconi, 6-2, 6-1. Pennetta reached the U.S. Open quarterfinals in 2008 and 2009.

Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, seeded 20th, doused German Kristina Barrois 6-4, 6-1 and 21st-seeded Zheng Jie of China straight-setted Timea Bacsinszky in double-tiebreak fashion, 7-6 (7-0), 7-6 (7-1).

The 24th seed, Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova, humbled struggling former top- ranked star Dinara Safina 6-3, 6-4. The three-time major runner-up Safina, of Russia, was the top seed here a year ago, but has plummeted in the rankings ever since, mostly due to problems with a back injury.

Another former world No. 1, Serbian Ana Ivanovic, took an easy 6-3, 6-2 win over Ekaterina Makarova. Ivanovic, the 2008 French Open champion, had lost in the first round at last year's U.S. Open.

Other seeded victors on Day 1 were No. 27 Czech Petra Kvitova, No. 28 Russian Alisa Kleybanova, No. 29 Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko and No. 32 Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova, who was a surprise Wimbledon semifinalist last month.

Last year's U.S. Open darling, American Melanie Oudin, advanced with a 6-3, 6-0 throttling of Ukrainian Olga Savchuk. The teenage Oudin reached the quarterfinals here a year ago, including huge upset victories over the two- time Grand Slam runner-up Dementieva and former U.S. Open champ Maria Sharapova.

Oudin was first up at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Day 1.

"It's a real honor to get to start the U.S. Open off on Ashe, first match." the 18-year-old Oudin said. "I thought it was pretty cool. I didn't expect that."

Additional Monday wins came for the aforementioned Peers and Marino, Hungarian Agnes Szavay, Frenchwomen Virginie Razzano and Pauline Parmentier, India's Sania Mirza, Austrian Sybille Bammer, Aussie Anastasia Rodionova, Italians Sara Errani and Maria Elena Camerin, Brit Elena Baltacha, Luxembourg's Mandy Minella, Argentine Gisela Dulko, and American Vania King.

The 2010 U.S. Open champion will earn at least $1.7 million.

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Betting Football

NFL Football Betting Online

Is there such a thing as a trap game in the NFL?

I once asked that question to Pete Korner, who at the time was office manager and a senior linesmaker for Las Vegas Sports Consultants.

Korner almost ripped my head off. There is no such thing as a trap game, he loudly berated me. It’s a myth. The numbers are made using power ratings, he said.

There are trap games, though. They just might not be what you think. The perception is of a good team, say Philadelphia, laying a small number against New Orleans.

Using the highly-respected power ranking from The Gold Sheet, you’d find the Eagles with a power rating of 4 and the Saints at 8. When you factor the game being played in New Orleans, you could see why the line opened so short at less than a field goal.

For some, this makes it enticing to take the Eagles. That’s not a real trap game, though.

A real trap game, says professional gambler Dave Malinsky, is thinking you’re getting value betting a bad team, which brings us to the Oakland Raiders-Denver Broncos matchup.

The Raiders are +15 in this long-standing division rivalry. Denver is on a short week having dispatched Baltimore Monday. However, the Raiders haven’t covered the spread their last 10 games.

Many bettors don’t trust the Raiders to give a full effort. Few think much of Art Shell and his Oakland’s coaching staff.

So oddsmakers have to do something to make Oakland attractive if they hope to get equal action.

Now Malinsky is a value shopper. But he won’t touch the Raiders even getting more than two touchdowns.

“I try to eliminate the undisciplined, unfocused teams because they’re the ones most likely to suffer the bad beats,” he said.

Near the top of Malinsky’s list of stay-away teams is the Miami Dolphins, who have yet to cover a spread this season.

“Whatever you think of Nick Saban, you have to look at the penalties and turnovers,” Malinsky said.

It’s easy to point out the Dolphins failed to get the money this past week against New England because Olindo Mare missed a field goal and had another field goal blocked. But even though the Dolphins outgained the Patriots, 283-213, they committed eight penalties.

Bad teams not only cost themselves victories, but pointspread covers as well. The Arizona Cardinals and Green Bay Packers are two more examples.

The Cardinals couldn’t have been in a better position this past Sunday, up 14-0 at home against a mediocre Kansas City Chiefs squad. But they couldn’t hold it. The Packers got a push against St. Louis, but also could have won losing by three when Brett Favre fumbled at the St. Louis 11-yard line with 44 seconds left.

“The Packers were in a position to beat Philadelphia, too,” Malinsky said. “But they couldn’t even cover double digits.

“These teams just make mistakes and it costs you … they always will look good from a value standpoint. They really will. But that’s the trap.”

Houston and Tennessee rank among the six-worst teams. Malinsky wouldn’t be afraid to take either of these teams, however, if the price were high enough.

The Texans are bad, Malinsky said, but they have some discipline. The Titans showed they could not only come up with an outstanding game plan, but execute it as well, losing by one to the Colts on the road as an 18 ?-point underdog this past Sunday.

“Jeff Fisher is a worker,” Malinsky said of the Titans coach. “I’m not sure how hard Art Shell wants to work when he gets out of bed.”

Fisher, though, could be out as Tennessee coach after this season. Is he still worth backing in the right spot, with the right price, as a lame duck coach?

“It’s in his nature to keep working hard and not worry about any possible lame duck status,” Malinsky said. “He’s coaching for his resume.”

Note: Monday night game will be picked Monday. Lines used are from football betting lines.

MySportsbook.com: New College Football Clock Rules Examined

Coaches and bettors alike are desperate to make sense of the new time-keeping rules on the NCAA gridiron. One of the big stories to come out of the Ohio State-Texas clash last weekend was Texas coach Mack Brown's criticism of the NCAA's new clock rules that are intended to shorten the duration of college football games, therefore affecting college football betting.

"They scored with six minutes left and the game was over before we had a chance to do anything," Brown told ESPN.com. "I really hope whoever made these changes will go back and look them over."

Sure, it might be sour grapes; the Buckeyes thoroughly trounced the defending national champion Longhorns 24-7. However, Brown isn't alone in giving the changes their due thought. Bettors are also wondering about them, albeit for a completely different reason. Most experts agree that the changes will result in games being shortened by anywhere from 10 to 20 plays. The obvious consequence is lower scores, with more time rolling off the clock during changes of possession. (The Ohio State-Texas game flew well under the total of 52.)

According to research at the online sportsbook MySportsbook.com, more than 18 plays a game disappeared last weekend into thin air. That's a 10-percent reduction. In 2005, a typical game had 168.58 plays. For 2007 already, it's down to 150.26.

As a result, teams combined to gain an average of about 100 fewer yards a game last weekend versus the 2005 openers. Scoring was also down by about 4.5 points (attention Las Vegas sports lines).

Of course, oddsmakers were able to adjust to the changes before the season started. Proof of that came as the over went a balanced 8-9 at My Sportsbook on Saturday.

Other angles to consider:A shorter game should theoretically result in shorter lines. Whereas Team A might have been a 14-point favorite in a 168-play game (last year), if there are 10 percent less snaps in 2007, the line should also be reduced by 10 percent (to 13 or 12.5). Of course, this is an over-simplification of the matter, but something to keep in mind.
Less possessions means a better chance the game will be decided by three or seven points. For example, what might have been a 20-10 final score in 2005 may end at

17-10 in 2007. Granted, a 24-17 game last year might end at 21-17 these days, but the former - a three- or seven-point advantage being preserved as opposed to created - is the most likely scenario.

*UPDATE* - Sept. 25, 2007

New Clock Rules Boon for online bookmakers

By adjusting the time-keeping rules to shorten the duration of college football games, the NCAA hoped to make its product more enjoyable for the fans. While the NCAA's success in this regard is still up for debate, bookmakers couldn't be happier with the results.

"We are seeing a massive jump in college football betting," noted the MySportsbook.com management team. "With all the early Saturday games (12 a.m. ET) ending before the second wave begins (3:30 p.m. ET) - something that didn't always happen before the changes - bettors are now able to re-invest their winnings from the morning session in the afternoon games."

While not all bettors will choose to roll over their winnings, it doesn't take much for an impact to be seen on the bottom line. "Not all of the millions of dollars in morning payouts get re-bet. In fact, it's probably only 10 to 20 percent," noted the sportsbook management team. "Still, the increased football betting lines window will create a ton of growth for us over the course of the season."

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