Defending champ Davydenko advances at Hamburg

Tennis Betting Lines

07/20/2010 - Hamburg, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Top seed and defending champion Nikolay Davydenko advanced with an easy second-round victory on Tuesday at the German Open Tennis Championships, on a day which saw nearly every other seeded player fall.

The Russian, who is still working his way back from a wrist injury, dispatched Frenchman Florent Serra by a 6-3, 6-1 count in just 58 minutes. Sixth-seeded Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero overcame a slow start to get by Czech Jan Hajek 7-6 (7-4), 6-1.

Also Tuesday, Finland's Jarkko Nieminen gutted out a 6-4, 3-6, 7-5, win over ninth-seeded Gilles Simon of France in a match that lasted just over two hours.

In other second-round matches, Spain's Tommy Robredo, the 11th seed, fell victim to Italy's Potito Starace 7-6 (12-10), 5-7, 6-1; Florian Mayer of Germany knocked off 15th-seeded Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov 4-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-3; Italian Fabio Fognini downed France's Marc Gicquel 6-4, 6-4; Argentine Maximo Gonzalez topped Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas 7-6 (7-5), 6-7 (3-7), 6-2 and Andrey Golubev from Kazakhstan logged a 6-4, 7-5 win over Spain's Marcel Granollers.

First-round action saw Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina turn away Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine 6-2, 6-3; Italian Andreas Seppi downed France's Stephane Robert 6-4, 6-3; Eduardo Schwank breezed by wild-card Tobias Kamke 6-3, 6-4; German Julian Reister bested countryman and fellow wild card Daniel Brands 6-2, 7-6 (12-10).

Gemcasino Tennis Betting News

<< Bulls pull off sign-and-trade for C.J. Watson
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Chicago Bulls have acquired guard C.J. Watson from Golden State in a sign-and-trade deal that netted the Warriors a second-round draft pick. An official Bulls blog on the team's website confirmed the

<< Petkovic advances in Austria
Bad Gastein, Austria (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Defending champion Andrea Petkovic of Germany was among the first-round winners Tuesday at the Gastein Ladies tennis tournament. Petkovic, this year's top seed, cruised to a 6-4, 6-0 victory ove

<< American midfielder Zizzo signs with MLS
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - American midfielder Sal Zizzo has left German Bundesliga club Hannover and signed with Major League Soccer on Tuesday. Zizzo will learn his new club after a weighted lottery is conducted on Wednesday. Zizzo p

<< CFL West Division: Riders only team to win in week three
Toronto, Canada (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - There is now just one team in the West with a perfect record, but their latest win looked far from perfect. The Saskatchewan Roughriders pulled another rabbit out of the hat in week three, this time storming b

<< Hamilton's Glenn highlights CFL Players of the Week
Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Hamilton quarterback Kevin Glenn, Edmonton linebacker Maurice Lloyd and kicker Noel Prefontaine, and Hamilton wide receiver Dave Stala were selected as the CFL's top performers for Week 3 of the 2010 seaso

Cubs recall P Stevens, option Atkins >>
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Chicago Cubs promoted pitcher Jeff Stevens from Triple-A Iowa on Tuesday. The 26-year-old joins the big club for the third time this season and has pitched to a 5.71 earned run average without recordi

Heat bring in veteran Howard >>
Miami, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Miami Heat continued their radical roster reshaping on Tuesday by signing journeyman forward Juwan Howard. Per club policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed. However, the South Florida Sun-Sentin

Panthers ink third-rounder LaFell >>
Charlotte, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Carolina Panthers have signed third- round draft pick wide receiver Brandon LaFell. LaFell, selected 78th overall out of Louisiana State, ranks second in school history with 25 touchdown recepti

Rangers' Nippert lands on DL >>
Detroit, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Texas Rangers decided to place reliever Dustin Nippert on the 15-day disabled list Tuesday after he was struck in the head by a line drive during Monday's game versus the Tigers. Nippert was taken to

Suns add Babby to front office >>
Phoenix, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Phoenix Suns introduced Lon Babby as the organization's next president of basketball operations at a news conference on Tuesday. Babby joins the Suns as the successor to Steve Kerr, whose contract was

College Football Betting Tips From a Pro

While the NFL is the sport wagered on the heaviest, college football betting lines has become more and more popular as people realize it’s a game that can be beat. The NCAA football season gets longer each year with the addition of numerous bowl games and with that comes more opportunities for more money in your pocket, if handled correctly.

Betting on college football is not the same as with the NFL, so make sure you separate the two. Because of the vast number of teams, the parity between college football programs is slight and thus, you are going to see some high numbers in the NCAA. Teams favored by more than 40 points are not uncommon especially early in the season when teams playing their non-conference schedules.

The best advice when trying to tackle these enormous spreads and is to just stay away. A team that is favored by 40 points is favored by that many for a reason while teams getting 40 points are bad enough that they shouldn’t be touched. Set yourself a spread limit. Getting rid of these games will cut down on the number of contests that you need to handicap while staying away from backdoor or front-door covers.

What is a backdoor and front-door cover you ask? A backdoor cover is a team that is getting beat by more than the spread, but scores late to get within that number thus covering the spread. A front-door cover is just the opposite where the favorite scores late and covers the number they are favored by.

These front-door and backdoor covers are common when second and third string players enter games in college football and it can be the worst nightmare for some bettors. These players can also be your best friend, but ask any bettor and he will give you more instances on losing in this situation than winning. It just seems to work out that way even though everything evens out in the end.

College football betting has some of the softest lines of any sport and it’s being able to find these lines that will make you a successful college football handicapper. The NFL and NBA have the tightest lines around and while those sports can be beat by looking at situations and systems, college football doesn’t quite work that way. It’s much more manual, but when done correctly, it’s much more gratifying as well.

Getting into the nuts and bolts of college football means looking at the many stats in order to beat the number. As opposed to pro football, college football is less dependent on situations and angles and more on certain statistics. Rushing offense and defense, pass efficiency offense and defense and turnover margins are huge. These are vital in the NFL, but even more so when it comes to college football.

Being able to run the ball in college football has always been a key factor in the overall success of a team. The same adage also goes for teams who have the ability to stop the run. Putting these two factors together can produce some positive results in a team’s record both straight up and against the spread. These numbers show huge differences in teams and the spread may not take those into effect, which is where the value comes into play.

Passing yardage numbers both for and against can be a misinterpreted statistic. However, pass efficiency has always been one of the best ways to look at a teams’ passing game ability both offensively and defensively. But is it really a true indication of how they perform? I wouldn’t say so since they are raw passing numbers with nothing else taken into consideration.

I use pass efficiency ratings when doing my handicapping but I adjust my numbers based on a number of factors including power ratings, strength of schedules, personnel and injuries. This gives a much better picture of a team’s ability to pass effectively and also being able to defend the pass. Tweaking pass efficiency stats instead of raw passing yards is the key.

Turnovers are the single most frustrating, and at times the most gratifying, aspect of a college football lines, mostly because they are so unpredictable. They are part of the game and most of the time nothing can be done to control them. However, turnovers are contagious and they can carry over from game to game and season to season.

It’s important to know how to forecast these unforeseen events and how to use them to your advantage. You can find ways to give yourself an edge by looking at past histories of teams and coaches and how they have fared in turnover wars in the past. Instead of turnovers hurting you at the wrong times, find ways to use them to your advantage.

As you can see, college football handicapping is very labor intensive and isn’t just based on where teams are ranked in the AP and coaches polls. Experience, coaching and match-ups are all important since unlike the NFL, college teams turn over much more often with new personnel at most positions every single year. Keeping current on this information is vital.

Betting NCAA football can be lucrative if done correctly, but more importantly, it’s just plain enjoyable because it can be beat. College football is one of the best sports to watch with some of the best rivalries taking place in all of sports. The only downfall is that a championship isn’t decided on the field but on a computer-based system that is the Bowl Championship Series. That will change someday and we will all be better off for it.

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your NCAA college football betting needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.