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The kickoff of the 2008 season still is weeks away but there are at least a couple of good reasons why college football betting should be near the top of your wagering playbook right now.
Sports betting began with the basics of football, basketball, baseball and horse racing but it wasn't too long before the growing popularity sports such as hockey, boxing, tennis, golf and auto racing forced bet takers to add those events to their wagering menus.
In a display or rare patience, more than three years after the first future book was posted, 16 months since the start of the campaign, and 54 primaries and caucuses later, some politically savvy Presidential election betting fans finally moved closer to cashing a ticket when Barack Obama secured the Democratic Party nomination to face Republican John McCain in the race for the White House in November.
Golfer John Daly isn't the only well-known athlete who sometimes has gotten into trouble because of a heavyweight appetite for gambling. Charles Barkley, no Twiggy himself, also bit off a bit more wagering wafer than he could chew, recently.
Poker betting is one thing but wagering on poker betting is quite another. And yet that's the challenge gamblers will face when they match cash to conviction on the 39th World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, beginning May 30.
The practice of sports betting always has attracted a percentage of players who not only are loose with a dollar but a quote, too. Thanks goodness for that because we never could make up this stuff:"We had no money on him. I thought he was going out for a run to keep himself warm."
Betting on the Olympics always has paled in comparison to the pomp and circumstance of the global extravaganza itself but this year sportsbooks are hoping that, with some innovative offerings, they can transform the five ring athletic competition into a three ring circus of wagering.
The greatest non-sporting event in sports, the NFL Draft, should lure gridiron-starved NFL fans and, far more tellingly, savvy NFL betting fans, to their TV screens when the annual, dust-off-the-Barcalounger, grab-the-giant-Doritos-bag, telethon-like coverage begins April 26.
If NASCAR betting is as powerful as a jet airplane turbo and betting on Formula One racing has been as steady as a Mercedes transmission, then IndyCar betting - with the notable exception of the Indianapolis 500
Like most gamblers, college basketball fans, particularly those who enjoy sports betting on the NCAA Men's Tournament (who doesn't?) would, understandably, much rather look ahead to the next bet than back at the last one.
What is it about sports and sports betting that turn ordinary athletes, journalists, administrators and pundits into such quotable sources of information, wisdom, fun and absurdity?
The marathon Major League Baseball betting season starts at the end of this month but for those gamblers for whom the cry of "play ball" can't come soon enough or for those other bettors who consider the 2,430-game diamond campaign little more than a walk in the (ball)park, future book wagering is available right now.
NCAA basketball is in full swing but, arguably, the two best wagering days of the year, the NCAA bracket opening rounds of the Men's Basketball Championship, March 20 ands 21, are in the sights of every March Madness betting fan.
F1 betting may not be the equal of NASCAR wagering in the United States but the motor sport, which revs up for the opening of its 59th season in Melbourne, Australia, March 16, boasts an international following that is not only passionate but a favorite of gamblers across the globe.
The horse racing odds and the potential payoffs can be enormous but the risks also are substantial, making Kentucky Derby future book betting on the 134th running of the mile-and-a-quarter classic at Churchill Downs, May 3, a gambling pursuit not doctor-recommended for cardiac patients.
Before burying the recently concluded NFL season, savvy gamblers will want to sift through those decaying bones to determine if the gridiron carcass left any clues that could be used to uncover a successful NFL betting strategy when the 2008 campaign kicks off in September.
Las Vegas always has been a city built on hopes and aspirations but only a handful of true visionaries have had a unique and lasting impact of the growth and direction of this desert outpost.
Entertainment became linked with Las Vegas in the 1940s when savvy city planners and casino entrepreneurs rightly reasoned that even hard-edged gamblers would need an occasional respite from the drudgery of table games and the challenge of sports betting that had lured them to this desert outpost in the first place.
From its legal inception in 1931, Las Vegas' gaming and sports betting industry has been built on the dreams and imagination of people who have had the courage to question the status quo.
Like Oscar and Felix, the odd couple that comprises honest bettors and legitimate sportsbooks is on the same side when it comes to anything that threatens the integrity of their sports betting relationship.
If you're one of the handful of people who still believe that tennis is all about starched white clothing and curtseys at Wimbledon then you must have been as shocked as Captain Renault in "Casablanca" to learn that there's also betting on the sport.
The Suns should have little difficulty repeating in a division that they won by 19 games last season. The fight will be for second among the two LA teams and Golden State.
Having emerged as a serious contender last season two or three years before most predicted, don't expect the Jazz to wait around for the rest of the division to catch them.
It was somewhere around 25 years ago - an eon in the prospering life of modern sports betting - that Nevada's licensed bookmakers first began employing money lines.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and Earth. But it wasn't until an innovative oddsmaker came along that the genesis of sports betting, a biblical event in the history of human existence for those who spend their autumn Sundays praying not for salvation but for a cover, became the mega-industry that it is today.
Most unsophisticated sports bettors hit the gridiron running, with little or no concern for whether their best chance for success rests with college football betting, nfl betting or a combination of both.
Granted, New Orleans isn't going to surprise anyone this year but with a solid cast, a new winning attitude, and only Carolina as serious division opposition, the Saints should march to another NFC South title.
The Bears have a much more difficult schedule than a year ago when they won 13 games but the NFC North is so weak that it will be difficult for Chicago not to win 10 or 11 games and capture a third straight division title.
The NFC East remains the most competitive division in the NFL, with every team capable to beating (or losing) to every other. The most consistent team will win the division.
Like the Patriots, Ravens and Colts, the Chargers are the class of their division, arguably the best team in the NFL. Unlike New England, Baltimore and Indianapolis, however, San Diego will get a stern test for the division title from rivals Denver and Kansas City.
Like most recent defending Super Bowl champions, the Colts may find it difficult to repeat, but winning another AFC South title should be no problem. Indianapolis has a wide edge over its division rivals.
The Ravens won the division by five games last season and while the margin may not be as significant this year, Baltimore should have little difficulty defending against wild card hopefuls Cincinnati and Pittsburgh.
Any unbiased assessment would mark the Patriots as the clear division favorite with a good chance to challenge the Colts, Chargers and Ravens to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl.
New Orleans at Indianapolis: The Saints have covered four of their last five meetings with the Colts but Indianapolis has been strong out of the gate, notching a 6-1-1 mark against the spread (ATS) in its last eight season openers.
Sports betting, particularly football betting, has become significantly more sophisticated over the past decade with players mining years of research in an effort to gain an edge on Nevada and online sportsbooks.
From an NFL player alleged to be so cruel to dogs it should make you cringe, to an NBA referee who went on a sports betting binge, to a Tour de France rider with a syringe, it's been an interesting few months in the world of sports and sports betting.
Not that members of the sports betting industry needed it but when Chris Matthews, the loquacious and assertive host of MSNBC's Hardball, quoted odds on the 2008 race for President of the United States, the practice of betting on elections gained a measure of acceptability.
From the actor George Clooney to golfer Lee Trevino and athletes, journalists, business leaders, executives and whomever in between, June was a very good month for those of us who enjoy quips and quotations, some side-splitting, some strident, some silly, some sophomoric, on the world of sports and sports betting...
The fast-paced nature of craps and the physical involvement of the player make it a target of opportunity for casino cheats, or crossroaders, as they're commonly called.
Blackjack is every casino's most popular and profitable game but the house's bottom line could be even stronger were it not for the efforts of thieves, called crossroaders.
It was more than two decades ago that Barron Hilton, the chairman of the hotel chain that bears his name (and grandfather of you-know-who), shelled out $50,000 for a private, six-hour seminar from Steve Forte, arguably the leading expert on casino games cheaters and scam artists.
There's a school of thought that prescribes to the notion that it's the proficient bettors, more than the astute handicappers, who wind up with the cash at the end of a sports betting transaction.
The idea was to read several newspapers a day and peruse the Internet to chronicle and amass the year's most interesting sports and sports betting quotes which we would present in a December column.
Second only to the Super Bowl in wagering popularity, the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, which is set to tip-off March 15, offers a unique set of challenges for bettors who get involved in "March Madness."
No matter what time of the day or night you're reading this, odds are you're little more than a few mouse clicks away from horse betting somewhere in the world.
Every game of chance offers the house a certain inherent statistical advantage but none works off so small a profit margin - theoretically between one and four percent - as sports betting.
It was just hours after George W. Bush had been re-elected President of the United States in 2004 that sportsbooks began posting betting lines on who would win a four-year lease on the Oval Office in 2008.
The National Basketball League tips off another season Oct. 31 with both bet makers and bet takers sifting through the debris of last year's results in hopes of finding NBA betting clues to the upcoming campaign.
There are at least a half-dozen factors that separate college football betting from NFL betting. For starters, action on college football is much more likely to come from sophisticated bettors, known as "sharps" or "wiseguys," who often possess some insight or kernel of information that may provide them with an edge against the house.
Football returned to gridirons, TV screens and sports books recently, and while the game surely was a welcome sight for bored eyes, bulging wallets, beer distributors and casino spread sheets, there also is a widely held perception that when it comes to NFL betting, gamblers hold an edge over bookmakers early in the season.
A number of dicey factors, including the disparity between the nation's finest teams and those that still have struggling programs, the massive turnover of personnel each year, and the absurdly large number of teams involved, conspire to make college football betting far more difficult than its NFL counterpart.
The World Cup will begin June 9th and end on July 9th, featuring 32 teams from across the globe, all wanting to earn the honor of being the best in the world.
Online sports betting offers fans ease and convenience when it comes to putting a few bucks on a game. Online sportsbooks have given anyone who has access to the Internet the opportunity to place a quick wager any time - day or night.
The Arena Football League (AFL) is in full swing, attracting fans with fast, hard-hitting action, a lot of scoring, and dazzling plays made in tight quarters.
Probably the most familiar type of wager in sports betting is the straight or side bet. The term "straight" is a good way to describe it - winning is determined by one basic factor and the payoff is clearly stated.
Are you ready for some baseball? Some baseball, you said! It's a 7-month, 162-game season, which means there's plenty of opportunity to place your wagers.
When you talk car racing most people think of NASCAR - National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing. It is, perhaps, the most popular sport in America.
They exist in every sport - players who can deliver when it counts the most and when the pressure is on. After a while the feats of such players take on a life of their own - a mythology starts to surround them.
April 29-30, 2006 live from New York City's Radio City Music Hall, it's one of the biggest events of the year! Is it the Rockettes? No. Maybe it's that dreamed of Beatles reunion? No. Then it must be the latest country music awards show! Not at all.
Important upcoming dates on your calendar should include March 15th, 17th and April 1st. March 15th, the Ides of March, marks the day that Julius Caesar met his demise, and it's also the day after March Madness tips-off. March 17th is, of course, the day when everyone is Irish, and it's also the mid-point between the NCAA Tournament's first and second rounds (March 16-19, 2006).
Futures wagering - which is in essence betting on who will win their division, conference, league or the whole kit and caboodle - is extremely attractive because more times than not the odds are very good.
