Bundesliga gets tight at the top

Soccer Betting Lines

11/10/2007 - Stuttgart, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The top of the Bundesliga standings got much tighter on Saturday as league-leaders Bayern Munich were knocked off 3-1 by Stuttgart, while Hamburg's 1-1 draw with Schalke allowed Werder Bremen to move into second place with a 4-0 win over Karlsruher.

Bayern suffered its first loss of the season at Gottlieb Daimler Stadion on Saturday against the defending champs, who have now won their last three games in league play to move into the top half of the table after a terrible start to the season.

Mario Gomez scored two goals for the home side, including the opener just 10 minutes in as he knocked home the ball from close range after a cross from Ludovic Magnin.

Yildiray Basturk then doubled Stuttgart's lead on the half-hour mark with a right-footed blast from outside the box that beat Bayern keeper Oliver Kahn into the lower right corner.

The hosts extended their lead to three goals before halftime courtesy of another close-range goal from Gomez, who finished off his seventh goal of the campaign with some help from a Roberto Hilbert cross.

Things got worse for Bayern in the 70th minute when Lucio was hit with a red card for a hard challenge on Magnin, although the visitors did get on the scoreboard in the 86th courtesy of Luca Toni's league-leading ninth goal.

The loss gave second-place Hamburg a chance to claim the top spot with a win at Schalke, but they could only leave the Veltins Arena with a 1-1 draw.

Hamburg fell behind after only 11 minutes when Mladen Krstajic headed home a free kick from the top of the six-yard box, but the visitors pulled level before the break when Ivica Olic found the net.

Jose Paolo Guerrero lofted a high cross from inside the area to the back post, and Olic ran onto it and got to the ball with a diving header that beat keeper Manuel Neuer.

Hamburg is now only one point behind Bayern, as is Werder Bremen, who easily downed fourth-place Karlsruher 4-0 behind two goals from Diego.

The win allows Bremen to move level with Hamburg and take over second place on goal differential, leaving the top three teams in Germany separated by just one point.

In Saturday's other Bundesliga action, Florian Kringe scored in the 80th minute to help Borussia Dortmund earn a 1-1 draw with Eintracht, Enrico Kern scored three times to lead Rostock to a 3-2 victory over Energie and Hertha Berlin squeaked out a 1-0 win against Hannover on Andre Lima's goal in the 87th minute.

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SPORTS BETTING: NFL Football Sportsbook Betting

NFL owners, already life's biggest winners, want to try their luck with the lottery.


That was the news out of their meetings last week, where team bosses voted unanimously to allow stamping state and local lottery tickets with franchise logos, if, ahem, any governments wanted to do a deal.

A shocker: Within days the Pats announced they'd be sponsoring the Massachusetts state lottery, the Skins said they'd slap their sticker on Virginia scratch-offs and the Ravens admitted they were talking to Maryland lottery bosses. In all likelihood, it won't be long before every team is a presenting sponsor of scratch-offs or just plain old pick fives. "The change in policy was approved 32-0," said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. "So you can expect to see more deals soon."

It's a branding opportunity too big for the owners to ignore, and one a couple of dozen baseball franchises have enjoyed for years. The fact the NFL has been slower to act than those slack-brained Seligites is indicative of its complicated relationship with all forms of gambling. Consider this: Last Thursday, as the Pats and the Redskins finalized their new lottery deals, a lawyer representing the NFL argued before Delaware's Supreme Court that the state's newly signed sports betting law should be repealed.

The NFL betting is the face of opposition to sports gambling . And as much as it would like to share that responsibility with other leagues, that's not going to happen as long as more than 40% of all money legally wagered on games is bet on football. That's why the Brewers can do a multi-million dollar deal with a local casino, or the Celtics can make their own pact with the Mass lottery, and the response is, "Sweet, let's play." But when the NFL does it the stakes are higher, and everyone from NPR's Frank Deford to the Associated Press to the guys blogging at Deadspin will line up to play gotcha.

So I asked Aiello, who surely knew there'd be piling on, how the league can rail against being bait for sports bettors, then allow its franchises to be just that for lotteries, the most insidious and addictive form of gambling around. He emailed me this response: "We are not moral crusaders. NFL personnel are permitted to engage in legal forms of gambling, except for betting on NFL games. We are making a distinction here between the spread of gambling on the outcome of our games and supporting state lottery scratch-off games, that have nothing to do with the outcome of our games."

Here's where I should rip him. But, the thing is, he's right. Not to get Obama on you, but this is a complicated, nuanced issue. As much as lotteries are considered a tax on the poor, the NFL isn't a socially obligated government program -- it's just a business. Scratch-off's help the bottom line, sports betting doesn't. Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors … But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal.

Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors. And it's okay to mutter something obscene when the league pretends gambling doesn't help drive TV ratings and fan interest and put money in owners' pockets. But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal. The Bears should put an orange "C" on every deck of cards dealt at Harrah's in Joliet; the Eagles should slap their logo on roulette wheels at the Borgata in Atlantic City; the Dolphins should hold training camp at the El San Juan in Puerto Rico.

Seriously.

The NFL's problem, when it comes to the gambling world, isn't hypocrisy, it's worse: The bosses lack vision. That's why the league is picking unwinnable fights in Delaware and taking pot shots from critics after making smart sponsorship deals. Roger Goodell and his gang are acting and thinking locally rather than globally, which is rare for them, especially compared to their professional (and amateur) counterparts.

The NBA held its All Star game in Las Vegas and David Stern's kingdom didn't crumble (although the town did bring plenty of players to their knees.) I'd say it's 6 to 5 and pick 'em that Lebron will make a road swing through Sin City before his career is over.

Even the NCAA College Football Betting is more progressive on this issue than the NFL. Several years ago Rachel Newman Baker, college sports' gambling czar, opened a dialogue with Vegas bookmakers to learn about how they do business. She's visited Nevada sports books, studied their operations and listened to how they regulate action. Now she knows she can expect a call from bookmakers, who lose money when sports are fixed, if they think something sketchy is going on in NCAA games. She's not in favor of sports betting, but, as she once told me, "I know it's not going away, either."

The NFL can't seem to accept that. And until it can find peace with the idea, it'll get flack, even when it's right.

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