Gould, Bears rally past Lions

Football Betting Lines

12/24/2006 - Detroit, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Robbie Gould kicked four field goals, including three in the final quarter, as the Chicago Bears rallied for a 26-21 win over the Detroit Lions.

Rex Grossman completed 20-of-36 passes for 197 yards and was intercepted once for the NFC North Champion Bears (13-2), who have already clinched home-field advantage throughout the conference playoffs. Brian Griese relieved Grossman in the fourth quarter and engineered the go-ahead drive, finishing the game 6-of-9 for 51 yards.

The Bears, who won their fourth straight game, held on at the end when Detroit wide receiver Mike Williams couldn't come up with a catch in the end zone on the final play.

Jon Kitna connected on 27-of-45 passes for 283 yards with three TDs for the Lions (2-13), who have lost seven in a row, the longest skid since they dropped the final eight games of the 2002 campaign.

Gould's 36-yard field goal brought the Bears within 21-20 with 12:21 left in the game. The 13-play, 58-yard drive was kept alive by a third-down roughing- the-passer penalty on Cleveland Pinkney, who knocked into Grossman when the QB was out of bounds.

The Bears went ahead following a Detroit punt, as Griese engineered a 12-play, 72-yard jaunt, with Gould connecting from 39 yards away with 5:13 left for a 23-21 margin. Griese hit Mark Bradley with a key third-down pass.

Mark Anderson then sacked Kitna, causing a fumble and Adewale Ogunleye pounced on the ball at the Detroit 32 for the game's only turnover. Gould nailed a 44- yarder with 2:50 left.

Kitna led the Lions to the Chicago 22, but on the game's final play, his pass into the back of the end zone fell incomplete as a leaping Williams couldn't come up with the ball.

Online-betting-sportsbook Football Betting News


<< Saints move closer to bye with win over Giants
East Rutherford, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Reggie Bush rushed for a career-high 126 yards with a score, as New Orleans moved one step closer to a first-round bye after a 30-7 win over the fading New York Giants. Bush recorded the first 100-y

<< Ravens stop Steelers, vault into No. 2 seed in AFC
Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Steve McNair threw three touchdowns as Baltimore moved in to the second seed in the AFC with a 31-7 shellacking of the Pittsburgh Steelers at Heinz Field. McNair went 21-of-31 with 256 yards a

<< Young leads streaking Titans past Bills
Orchard Park, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Rookie Vince Young threw for 183 yards and two touchdowns, and also ran for 61 yards and a score, as Tennessee edged Buffalo, 30-29, to keep its slim playoff hopes alive. Young, who completed 13-of-20

<< New England clinches AFC East with win over Jacksonville
Jacksonville, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tom Brady threw for 249 yards and a touchdown as New England edged Jacksonville, 24-21, to win its fourth consecutive AFC East title at Alltel Stadium. Brady completed 28-of-39 passes for t

<< Vick sets running record, but Falcons fall to Panthers
Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Michael Vick became the first quarterback in NFL history to top 1,000 yards rushing, but did little else as the Atlanta Falcons continued to fade out of the uninspiring NFC wild-card picture, losing 10-3 to

Action Jackson: Rams top Redskins in OT >>
St. Louis, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Steven Jackson ran 21 yards to the end zone with 8:27 left in overtime, as the St. Louis Rams kept their slim playoff hopes alive with a 37-31 victory over the Washington Redskins. After both teams h

Vikings to cut Marcus Robinson >>
Eden Prairie, MN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Minnesota Vikings informed veteran wide receiver Marcus Robinson that he will be released. According to a report in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Robinson received a call from Vikings VP of p

Leinart sprains shoulder >>
San Francisco, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Arizona Cardinals quarterback Matt Leinart sprained his left shoulder in the first half against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday. Leinart got sacked by Roderick Green just under the two-minute mark of th

Bengals botch PAT as Broncos slip away victorious >>
Denver, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Broncos improved their playoff chances with a lot of luck Sunday, as the Bengals botched an extra point attempt with 41 seconds remaining, giving Denver a 24-23 win at a snowy Invesco Field. Carson Palm

Cards KO 49ers; Leinart injures shoulder >>
San Francisco, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Matt Leinart completed 9-of-13 passes for 162 yards and a score before spraining his left shoulder just before halftime, as the Arizona Cardinals went on to top San Francisco, 26-20, and knock the 49ers o

Credit Card Betting: Sportsbook accepts U.S. credit cards

Online Sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard

MySportsbook.com is the best at processing US credit cards for deposits. Welcome to the most player friendly online sportsbook on the planet!

The principals behind MySportsbook are obviously a management group that understands the players needs as evidenced by their commitment to provide easy depositing with their high credit card acceptance rate and free weekly $10 bets they offer to clients with active betting accounts.

The perks don't end there! MySportsbook offers casino, poker and horses as well. Twice named Best Sportsbook by eGaming Review, this place is rock solid financially so you don't ever have to sweat the payout as you may with some other online bookies operating with less betting volume and client base.

Sign up today and grab your share of a 10% bonus that is added instantly to your betting account. Enjoy 52 risk free bets throughout the year as well!

Reasons to Play There: You have to see their no hitter, cycle hitter and slaughter rule promos for baseball. Worth a laugh and probably a few bucks throughout the MLB season. They offer supersized bonuses of 15% if you up your minimum deposit to $500 or more. Lay -105 on Friday NBA! Contests during the NFL football season!


SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"

A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."

Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.

In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.

"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."

Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.

But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"

Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.

This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.

Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.

In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.

No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.

And that's all any bettor can ask for.

To visit this sports book go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs.