Almagro, Andreev advance in Barcelona

Tennis Betting Lines

04/20/2009 - Barcelona, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tenth-seeded Spanish favorite Nicolas Almagro and 12th-seeded Russian Igor Andreev were among Monday's first-round winners at the $2.6 million Barcelona Open.

Almagro was tied with Victor Hanescu 3-6, 7-6 (9-7), 2-2 when the Romanian retired due to some cramping problems on the red clay at Real Club de Tenis Barcelona. Before Hanescu called it quits, Almagro saved a pair of match points in the second set.

Meanwhile, Andreev snuck past capable Italian Andreas Seppi 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 and 15th-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych was leading Martin Vassallo Arguello 5-2 when the Argentine quit with a back injury.

In some other opening-round play, Italian Potito Starace overcame Latvian Ernests Gulbis 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, Argentine Jose Acasuso erased Israeli Dudi Sela 6-4, 7-5, Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela got past Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci 6-2, 3-6, 6-4, and Russian Igor Kunitsyn took out Spanish hero Juan Carlos Ferrero 7-5, 7-6 (7-3). The wild card Ferrero is a former world No. 1 and captured the ultimate clay-court event, the French Open, back in 2003. He won this Barcelona tournament in 2001.

Additional Day-1 wins came for Spaniards Santiago Ventura, a qualifier this week, and wild card Alberto Martin, Portuguese qualifier Frederico Gil, Belgian Christophe Rochus, Kazakhstani qualifier Mikhail Kukushkin, and Serbian Janko Tipsarevic.

This week's top seeds are Spanish favorites Rafael Nadal and Fernando Verdasco, Russian Nikolay Davydenko and another Spaniard, David Ferrer. Nadal is the reigning four-time Barcelona champ. He beat Ferrer in last year's popular all-Spanish finale here.

The reigning Australian Open, Wimbledon, French Open and Olympic titlist Nadal is fresh off his fifth straight Monte-Carlo championship, having beaten Serb Novak Djokovic in Sunday's finale in Monaco.

Nadal will open defense of his Barcelona title against the aforementioned Gil.

This week's champion will pocket $370,000. The top-eight seeds all received first-round byes.

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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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