Earl Thomas in fold for Seahawks
Football Betting Lines
08/01/2010 - Seattle, WA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Seattle Seahawks have reportedly come to terms with first-round draft pick safety Earl Thomas on a five-year contract.
The Seattle Post Intelligencer reported Thomas, the 14th overall pick out of Texas, will be paid $21.1 million. That includes $12.32 million in guaranteed money.
The agreement leaves offensive tackle Russell Okung as the only unsigned draft pick for the Seahawks.
Calgary, AB (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Henry Burris threw for 340 yards and a pair of touchdowns, and the Calgary Stampeders held on to defeat the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, 23-20, at McMahon Stadium Burris converted 28-of-38 pass attempts and adde
<< Sharapova to play Azarenka in Stanford final
Stanford, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Fifth-seeded Maria Sharapova and eighth-
seeded Victoria Azarenka both won their semifinal matches on Saturday to set
up the final at the $700,000 Bank of the West Classic tennis event.
Russia's Sharapova bo
<< Murray to face Querrey for Los Angeles title
Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Defending champion Sam Querrey battled
back from a set down to defeat sixth-seeded Janko Tipsarevic, while top seed
Andy Murray outlasted Feliciano Lopez in the semifinals Saturday at the
$700,00
<< Braun helps Chivas tame Crew
Carson, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chivas USA rolled to a surprising 3-1 win over
the Columbus Crew at The Home Depot Center on Saturday behind a pair of late
first-half goals.
Justin Braun tallied his seventh goal of the season in the 37th
<< Montero stays hot as Sounders down Earthquakes
Santa Clara, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Fredy Montero headed home the lone goal of
the game in the 26th minute as Seattle Sounders FC handed the San Jose
Earthquakes a 1-0 defeat at Buck Shaw Stadium on Saturday.
Montero continued his
Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Siddikur parred the first extra hole Sunday to defeat Jbe Kruger and win the Brunei Open. Siddikur had closed with a four-under 67, while Kruger posted a five-under 66. They finished at 16-under
Almagro titles in Gstaad >>
Gstaad, Switzerland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Nicolas Almagro of Spain beat France's
Richard Gasquet 7-5, 6-1 to capture the title at the Swiss Open Gstaad.
The second-seeded Almagro fired 17 aces en route to his seventh career title
and second
Takayama cruises to victory in Japan >>
Hokkaido, Japan (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tadahiro Takayama closed with a two-under
70 Sunday to cruise to a three-stroke win at the Sun Chlorella Classic.
Takayama finished at 17-under-par 271 to collect his third Japan Tour title.
Dinesh Cha
Blue Jays host Indians in rubber match >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Toronto Blue Jays and Cleveland Indians have split the
first two games of this weekend's set and a series victory is up for grabs
this afternoon at Rogers Centre.
Cleveland dwells in the basement of the AL Central with
Tigers' Verlander set to face Red Sox, Buchholz >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Detroit Tigers and the Boston Red Sox are set for the
rubber match of their three-game weekend series at Fenway Park this afternoon.
Detroit (AL Central) and Boston (AL East) are both in third place in their
respective
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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