Nadal, Verdasco roll in Barcelona openers

Tennis Betting Lines

04/22/2009 - Barcelona, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Top seeds Rafael Nadal and Fernando Verdasco of Spain highlighted Wednesday's second-round winners at the $2.6 million Barcelona Open.

The high-flying world No. 1 Nadal continued his winning ways with a 6-2, 6-2 spanking of Portuguese qualifier Frederico Gil on the red clay at Real Club de Tenis Barcelona. Nadal has won this event four years running and defeated David Ferrer in last year's popular all-Spansih finale here.

Nadal also beat Gil in Miami last month.

"In Miami I played pretty badly against him," said Nadal. "Today I played a more serious match, without making any big changes."

The reigning Australian Open, Wimbledon, French Open and Olympic titlist Nadal is fresh off his fifth straight Monte-Carlo championship, having beaten Serbian star Novak Djokovic in last week's title tilt in Monaco.

Since 2005, Nadal has won139-of-143 matches on clay, including 22 straight now. He's 22-1 all-time here in Barcelona.

Nadal, who enjoyed an opening-round bye along with his fellow top-eight seeds this week, will face Belgian Christophe Rochus in some third-round action here on Thursday.

The second-seeded Verdasco moved on with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Ecuador's Nicolas Lapentti, a qualifier this week. Nadal's fellow lefty Verdasco will face 15th-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych on Thursday.

Meanwhile, third-seeded Russian Nikolay Davydenko handled Frenchman Arnaud Clement 7-6 (7-2), 6-2; fifth-seeded Chilean Fernando Gonzalez grounded Argentine Jose Acasuso 6-4, 6-4; sixth-seeded Spaniard Tommy Robredo doused Argentine and fellow former Barcelona champ Gaston Gaudio 7-6 (8-6), 6-1; and seventh-seeded Argentine David Nalbandian dismissed Russian Igor Kunitysn 7-5, 6-4. Robredo titled here in 2004, while the wild card Gaudio captured this event back in 2002 and was the French Open champ in '04. Gaudio picked up his first ATP-level win in two years here on Tuesday.

Five other seeds reached the round of 16, as No. 8 Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka bested Russian Mikhail Youzhny 7-5, 6-1; No. 9 Czech Radek Stepanek stopped Serb Janko Tipsarevic 7-6 (7-2), 6-0; No. 10 Spaniard Nicolas Almagro overcame Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela 3-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-3; the aforementioned Berdych outlasted Spanish favorite Oscar Hernandez 6-2, 4-6, 6-3;and No. 16 Spaniard Feliciano Lopez edged out qualifier and fellow Spaniard Santiago Ventura 2-6, 6-4, 6-3. Almagro led the ATP with 30 clay-court wins last year.

In some other second-round play, Rochus upended 13th-seeded Frenchman Richard Gasquet 6-1, 6-7 (2-7), 6-3; Italian Potito Starace toppled 14th-seeded Swede Robin Soderling 7-6 (7-5), 2-6, 6-2; and gritty Argentine Juan Monaco erased Spanish qualifier Daniel Gimeno-Traver 7-5, 6-4.

In some other third-round action on Thursday, Davydenko will play Lopez and a fourth-seeded Ferrer will take on Starace. Additional third-rounders will pit Gonzalez against Monaco, Robredo versus 12th-seeded Russian Igor Andreev, Nalbandian against Almagro and Wawrinka versus Stepanek.

This week's champion will pocket $370,000.

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Sportsbooks to bet on football

Recently I had an email debate with an angry reader who said I did not understand "the science of oddsmaking", as he called it.

He said I was wrong for suggesting oddsmakers care about who wins or loses games.

"Oddsmakers only care about splitting the betting public 50/50 on both sides of the line and keeping the commission (a.k.a. juice)," he wrote.

He might have been right about not understanding "the science of oddsmaking". After all, I'm not an oddsmaker. That said, I stick to my assertion that oddsmakers (a.k.a. sportbooks) often do care about who wins games.

Granted, as a general rule, sportsbooks try to balance their action so that they're not exposed to big losses. However, there are times when this is difficult to pull off, regardless of how much a line has moved. There are also times when that general rule is ignored and a book pursues risk.

Generally speaking, it's safe to say the books in Vegas are risk-adverse. Unlike in the past when the wise guys ruled the town, Vegas is now corporate and the goal of most casinos is to make as much money as possible with as little risk as possible.

Thus, Vegas sportsbooks try everything in their power to balance the action. They're satisfied simply collecting the juice. But these profits are small, especially compared to the take from other casino games, namely slot machines.

Because the profits at Vegas sportsbooks are so small, you could argue that many casinos operate sportsbooks simply as a novelty to keep the tourists happy.

With a growing aversion to risk, it should come as no surprise that Vegas bookmakers have been panicking this NFL season.

Despite huge pointspreads, a disproportionate percentage of bettors are still laying their money on favorites like the Eagles, Colts, Pats and Vikings rather than the dogs (a common trend for the largely recreational bettors that visit Vegas).

And much to the dismay of the books, those favorites are finding ways to cover the thick chalk. In fact, prior to Week 7, the four teams listed above are a combined 16-2-2 (88 percent) against the spread. (The tables turned dramatically in Week 7, but more on that later.)

The result has been an early-season beating for the books, and a bonanza for bettors.

While Vegas increasingly hates risk, it's no longer a major player in the sports betting world. Most of the betting action now takes place offshore where sportsbooks are not as obsessed about balance. In fact, some books encourage exposure to risk because the rewards can be so much bigger.

Consider MySportsbook.com. On its website, the book has odds pages which actually display the amount of action it's getting on games. In other words, you can see how much action the book is taking on both sides of a pointspread, moneyline or over/under.

One look at these numbers and it's obvious MySportsbook.com does not balance every game. In fact, far from it.

Take last weekend's matchup between St. Louis and Miami. By game time on Sunday, 83 percent of the betting action at MySportsbook.com was on the Rams; only 17 percent was on Miami.

What's interesting is that MySportsbook.com opened the pointspread with Miami at +6 1/2. By game time, the spread had lowered to +5.

That goes contrary to the balancing theory. If MySportsbook.com had wanted to balance the action, it would have given Miami more points; instead, it took away 1 1/2. World Series odds are now up as well.

MySportsbook.com exposed itself to even more to risk, and rolled the dice on the underdog Dolphins. Why? I contacted a representative with the book to find out. His answer was simple.

"The line moved early based on 'smart money' from sharp players," said Jeff Gilroy, a spokesperson for the book. "We also knew from early in the week that we would need Miami, therefore (we dropped) the spread to encourage Rams money.

"At the end of the day, we liked the home team."

So the conclusion is this: MySportsbook.com respected the sharp action, and gambled that the sharp bettors had a better take on the game than the recreational bettors, who were hammering the visiting Rams.

In the end, the gamble paid off. Miami, desperate for a win in front of its home fans, pounded the overrated Rams, who are terrible on the road and even worse on grass. Final score: 31-14 Fish.

MySportsbook.com was also heavily exposed on numerous favorites in Week 7, including Philadelphia, Seattle and Denver. All three failed to cover.

The fact that sportsbooks are exposed to risk on certain games is really nothing new. The fact, that Sportsbook.com is willing to show the public where it's exposed is intriguing.

Armed with this type of information, bettors can make more educated wagers. They can get an idea where the sharp money is going and conversely where the public money is headed.

MySportsbook.com is opening up its cashbox, letting bettors look inside and challenging them to take their best shot at grabbing the cash.

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