BC Lions re-sign LB McKenzie
Football Betting Lines
01/30/2012 - Vancouver, BC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The British Columbia Lions announced Monday the re-signing of linebacker Anton McKenzie.
"Having Anton re-sign is another important step in keeping the core of our team intact moving forward," said Lions general manager Wally Buono. "This is great news for our fans and we'll continue the process of assembling the best possible club for 2012."
McKenzie, who played college ball at UMass, signed with the Lions prior to the 2009 season after three years with the Saskatchewan Roughriders. He posted 79 tackles for BC last season, good for second on the team, and tacked on two sacks.
Newark, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - New Jersey head coach Avery Johnson revealed Monday that rookie swingman MarShon Brooks is out indefinitely after fracturing the pinky toe on his right foot. The news comes after Brooks returned
<< Baylor still tops women's hoops poll
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Baylor is once again a unanimous choice as the
No. 1 team in the Associated Press women's college basketball poll.
The undefeated Lady Bears received all 40 first-place votes and a total of
1,000 points f
<< Milan's Merkel out two months
Milan, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - AC Milan midfielder Alexander Merkel will be
out of action for the next two months, it was confirmed by the club on Monday.
Merkel only returned to Milan earlier this month in joint ownership from Genoa
with
<< Tigers' Martinez has initial knee surgery
Detroit, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Detroit Tigers announced Monday that Victor
Martinez underwent left knee surgery last Friday.
Martinez suffered a torn ACL during his offseason conditioning and last week
had a number of initial procedu
<< Hurricanes reward D Gleason with four-year extension
Raleigh, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Carolina Hurricanes signed defenseman Tim
Gleason to a four-year contract extension on Monday.
"We thank Tim for choosing to stay with the Hurricanes long term," said
general manager Jim Rutherfo
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kentucky remained the top team in the latest Associated Press men's college basketball poll. The Wildcats moved back to the top last week after Syracuse's six-week run came to a close. Kentucky, which
Mayer, Davydenko advance in France >>
Montpellier, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Sixth-seeded Florian Mayer and former
top-five star Nikolay Davydenko were among Monday's first-round winners at the
Open Sud de France tennis event.
The German Mayer got past Luxembourg's Gilles Mull
Isles put Reasoner on IR >>
Uniondale, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New York Islanders placed veteran center
Marty Reasoner on injured reserve Monday with a broken hand.
The move is retroactive to January 6.
Reasoner, 34, has five assists and a minus-16 rating in 35 gam
Caldwell lands in Baltimore >>
Owings Mills, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Baltimore Ravens have named Jim
Caldwell as their quarterbacks coach.
Caldwell was fired as head coach of the Indianapolis Colts two weeks ago in
the wake of a 2-14 season and front office
WPS suspends 2012 season >>
San Francisco, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Women's Professional Soccer announced on
Monday that the league will suspend the 2012 season as a result of its ongoing
dispute with a former owner.
The WPS Board of Governors voted on Monday to suspen
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.
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your Sportsbook accepts MasterCard needs.