Jankovic sneaks into QFs in rainy Birmingham

Tennis Betting Lines

06/15/2007 - Birmingham, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - French Open semifinalist Jelena Jankovic was among Friday's third-round winners on another rainy day at the $200,000 DFS Classic. Rain completely wiped out all eight third-round matches here on Thursday, and the wet stuff postponed a pair of third-rounders and the quarterfinals on Friday.

Jankovic landed in the quarters by overcoming 16th-seeded Russian Maria Kirilenko 3-6, 6-3, 7-5. The surging Serb will next face sixth-seeded Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko in the round of eight.

Another quarterfinal will pit fourth-seeded Chinese Na Li against eighth- seeded Italian Mara Santangelo, as Li handled Ukrainian qualifier Yuliana Fedak 6-4, 6-4, while Santangelo advanced, despite trailing 1-3 in the first set, when ninth-seeded Ukrainian Julia Vakulenko retired from their bout because of a left ankle sprain at Edgbaston Priory Club.

For the second day in a row, matches between top-seeded Russian Maria Sharapova and Austrian Tamira Paszek and third-seeded Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova and 15th-seeded Greek Eleni Daniilidou were washed out. The eventual winners will have to play their third-round and quarterfinal matches here on Saturday. The U.S. Open champion and Aussie Open runner-up Sharapova, like Jankovic, was a semifinal loser at Roland Garros last week.

Sharapova was the back-to-back Birmingham titlist in 2004 and 2005.

In other action on Friday, fifth-seeded Marion Bartoli of France drilled German Angelique Kerber 6-2, 6-0, the aforementioned Bondarenko blitzed American Vania King 6-1, 6-3 and Russian Elena Likhovtseva leveled Japanese qualifier Ayumi Morita 6-2, 6-0.

Birmingham serves as a tune-up for Wimbledon, which will commence June 25 at the All England Club.

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Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - My 2007 college football conference previews wont begin for another month but with the NBA Finals over and the Triple Crown races completed, its time to jump all over a week one contest that looks too good

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London, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Three-time champion Andy Roddick was among Friday's quarterfinal winners, while French Open champ Rafael Nadal was shown the exit at the grass-court Artois Championships, a Wimbledon tune-up. The t

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(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Well, you can now put the Arizona Diamondbacks on the list of people who think interleague baseball is a bad, worn-out idea. Now, nobody on the club openly came out and said that, but after Arizona dropped five out of six

Braves keeping pace despite recent woes >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - It's amazing how baseball works with the mix of streaks, slumps and so on. For the Atlanta Braves, a three-game sweep by the Minnesota Twins still has them in the thick of a tight race for NL East supremacy. It was o

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Houston, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Seattle Mariners have recalled lefthander Ryan Feierabend from Triple-A Tacoma. The 21-year-old Feierabend started a pair of games against the Angels (May 29) and Rangers (June 3), going 1-1 with a 5.14

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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Big 12 Conference betting odds

Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State

Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.

Work left to do:

Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.

Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.

Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.