Online Betting Index

No doubt, the hype regarding this Sunday’s opener for the Patriots and Bengals will surround Randy Moss, Terrell Owens and Chad Ochocinco, the latter two of whom have reality shows about to launch this year. The Bengals receiving core is arguably the highest profile in the league, so they know if they don’t perform, they’ll be laughed off Twitter, not to mention their reality show sets.

Regardless of the hype, this game will probably come down to defense. Specifically, do the Patriots have a good enough defense to contain the new Bengals passing attack, especially without Leigh Bodden, their all-pro corner, who’s out for the season with a knee injury. This is only the beginning of the Patriots problems on defense. Defensive end and line anchor Ty Warren broke his hip in pre-season action and is also out for the year. Though they can’t be used as an adequate measuring stick, pre-season games weren’t very good to the Patriots defense either.

The good news is, if Brady and Moss can get over the distraction of playing without a contract, the Pats offense should once again benefit from the powerful one-two combination of Moss and Welker, one of the best receiver tandems in the game today. The Patriots are still a little uncertain on the ground, though, with no one stepping up to claim the running back spot exclusively. However, this deficiency hasn’t much hurt the Pats in previous seasons.

The Patriots will have the home field advantage Sunday, but with one of the quietest stadiums in the league, that’s not saying much. They’re going to need to rely on their offense to put them over the top, because if it comes down to a defensive struggle, the Bengals will win their first game against the Patriots since 2001.

Michael Dawson, 26-year-old defender for England and participant in their plays against other countries in the latest South African World Cup, has recently been released by the national team following a recent injury sustained to his knee in a bout against Bulgaria. The Tottenham native was carried off the Wembly field in the second half of England’s stunning 4-0 win with what appeared to spectators to be a serious looking knee problem, though reports are still unclear as to the actual severity of the injury or how long it may be until he can recover.

Originally assigned to England’s team for the World Cup following an injury to the original defender Rio Ferdinand before the start of the tournament, this was greeted by many fans as somewhat of a bold move on England’s part given Dawson’s previous “less than sterling” record in many games, yet at the same time proved to be a fairly sound choice when needed most.

The injury comes at a particularly hard time for Dawson as, according to a statement released by the Football Association, he will now miss England’s qualifies with Switzerland on Tuesday for the Euro 2012 tournament. Additionally, he is being released from the team to re-join the Spus, retiring him from most major team plays for the foreseeable future.

Currently, there is no definitive statement released as to the condition of Dawson or his knee following the game, however latest news indicated that England and Tottenham Hotspur medical staff were in contact with the Football Association the morning after the injury occurred and Dawson will return to the club for treatment with no further call-ups being issued.

England’s boss Fabio Capello has expressed his concern for Dawson following the injury after the England victory, though a replacement will not be called up for the England team for their clash with Switzerland this upcoming Tuesday.

Venus Williams kept her own and ventured into the final 16 positions at the US Open, winning her last round against Luxembourg native Mandy Minella in a bout of sweeping plays that left her with a 6-2 and 6-1 record for the win and move on to the next challenge.

Starting off a bit rocky, Venus had to work through two service games before bringing her skill on full-bore against her opponent. Minella, ranked 185th in the world, was able to finally hold serve following seven deuces, working her way through the fifth game of the second set though was quickly subdued once again by Williams’ plays.

The win comes as a much-needed leg-up for Venus who, being the last woman to win consecutive US Opens in both 2000 and 2001, has recently been suffering from a long-term knee injury that kept her out of action and unable to play in the run-up to this year’s US open. The injury, hampering her movement on her left side, was a major drawback to fans and players alike, though thus far Venus says that she has able to handle the plays without causing too much aggravation to the damage done earlier in the year.

Following the win against Minella and the 19th seed Italian Flavia Pennetta in a 6-4 and 6-4 bout Williams will move on to play Israel’s Shahar Peer – the 16th seed for this year’s Open match. Having reached the fourth round thus far Venus is working strong towards securing yet another win for herself in the US Open, though many feel that her work will be cut out for her going into the quarter finals given her recent lack of plays leading up to the competition and injury holding her back in many ways and thus preventing her from playing at her fullest.

Calvin Pace of the New York Jets is currently set to miss at least four weeks due to a broken bone in his right foot.  This means that he will at least miss the regular season opener for the New York Jets against the Baltimore Ravens, which will take place on September 13.

29-year-old Pace injured his right foot just three days ago on Friday in a Jets pre-season game against the Washington Redskins.  He was scheduled to undergo surgery on Monday in Charlotte, North Carolina, for the broken bone.

Last season, Pace led the New York Jets with 55 tackles and eight sacks in a total of 12 games even after he missed the first four games of the season due to probation from violating the league’s performance enhancing substances policy.  Last year, in the NFL defense, the New York Jets secured the first place ranking.

Pace, the Jets, and all fans are hoping for a quick recovery even though he will definitely miss at a minimum the first game of the 2010 NFL regular season.  The New York Jets and Pace will know more about the recovery time once the surgery has been completed.

Wednesday, the Minnesota Twins successfully acquired left-handed reliever Randy Flores off the waivers from the Colorado Rockies.  He was designated for assignment this past Wednesday and he’ll immediately be placed on the Twins’ roster.

35-year-old Flores was 2-0 in his 47 appearances with Colorado this season and had an earned run average of 2.96.  In 27 1/3 innings, he allowed 22 hits, 18 strikeouts, 13 walks and 9 earned runs.  At the end of this season, Flores will find himself on the free agent market.  He was due $650,000 total this season and the Twins will only have to pick up about $150,000 of that.

Flores is being placed on the 40-man roster for the Twins. In order to make room on the 40-man roster for Flores, the Twins have placed Ron Mahay on the 60-day DL.  Mahay, also a reliever, injured his right shoulder when attempting to catch a grounder.  Specifically, the left-hander tore his rotator cuff.

As for the active 25-man roster, the Twins will likely make room for Flores on there as well as soon as he joins the team.  Speculation leans towards infielder Matt Tolbert.  If that’s the case, he’ll likely be optioned back to AAA Rochester.

Next month, Mikkel Kessler was up to fight Allan Green; however, that has now been brought to a halt.  Kessler has withdrawn from the Super Six due to an eye injury that he has had for months now – nearly a year.

Kessler says that he has been advised to simply get some rest, take a break from boxing, and allow his eye to heal completely.  He says that he has been told that it is something that will heal completely in time and that he should have no problem returning next year to the ring.

Kessler defeated Carl Froch in early April and claimed the World Title and felt that he had a true chance at success and winning in the Super Six tournament and it’s a great disappointment to him that he is having to pull out so that he can recover properly and be back in the ring come next year.

Never fret Kessler fans, he has no intentions on quitting his training preparations for next year.  He will continue to train during this time off so that he’ll be ready to jump back in and add to his career records of 43-2 and a total of 32 knockouts.

Coming up this Sunday to continue the 2010 Formula 1 racing season is the Belgian Grand Prix.  The favorites for this event include both Sebastian Vettel as well as Fernando Alonso.

Apart from Vettel and Alonso, other short odds to win this event include Lewis Hamilton and Mark Webber.  Hamilton has two wins this season while Webber has four; however, neither of them have ever won the Belgian Grand Prix event.

The defending champion of this event is Kimi Raikkonen.  Raikkonen also won this particular event three other years – 2004, 2005, and 2007; however, Raikkonen will be unable to defend his win as he is not currently competing for the 2010 year.

In 2008, Felipe Massa won this event and will be competing to try to capture another win and has decent odds to do so.  The last victory for Michael Schumacher was back in 2002, 8 years ago; while he doesn’t have the greatest odds to win this race, he is a six-time winner of this particular event.

Looking at Point Standings….

Mark Webber currently sits in first position in the point standings for the 2010 Formula 1 season but isn’t comfortable as he is only four points ahead of second place Lewis Hamilton. Fourth in point standings is defending Formula 1 series champion, Jenson Button who has decent odds of winning this race.

The 2010 Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix will take place Sunday, August 29 in Spa, Belgium.  Get your bets placed today and be ready to start your engines come this Sunday.

The 2010 FedEx Cup playoffs have approached us and the first event starts this coming Thursday at the Ridgewood Country Club for the 2010 Barclays event.  The event will kick off Thursday, August 26 and end on Sunday, August 29, 2010.

This event will have the top 125 golfers in the PGA Tour.  Once this event is complete, the FedEx Cup standings will be reevaluated and updated.  Once this occurs, the top 100 golfers will advance to the next round of the playoffs, which will be the Deutsche Bank Championship.

As for the favorite for this year’s Barclays event, we are look at two – Phil Mickelson as well as Tiger Woods.  Given the divorce being finalized and Tiger’s recent struggles in the latest events, he may actually be a long shot; however, he is still considered a favorite due to his past performances.  Although he is winless this year and currently in 112th position in the point rankings, Woods performs well, he’ll be able to advance into the top 100, which will allow him to advance to the next round of the playoffs.  Phil Mickelson, on the other hand, has a single win for 2010 and is currently fourth in the power rankings.

Apart from Woods and Mickelson, next odds go to Rory McIlory as well as Steve Stricker, who was able to claim the victory for this event in 2007.  Stricker is also second in the point standings just behind first place Ernie Els.  Rounding out the top five of the point standings is Jim Furyk, Mickelson, and Justin Rose respectively.

While he is the defending champion of this particular event, Heath Slocum doesn’t have the best of odds coming into this event to win.  In both 2006 and 2008, Vijay Singh claimed the win for this event but also doesn’t have great odds to win this year.

More and more innovations are starting to unfold to the online betting world, and are starting to make a strong statement, announcing that it will soon replace the traditional medium of gambling in the country. Though permitted in some parts of the country, gambling through the internet is spreading like wild fire, with online betting games such as online casinos, sports betting and bingo taking place.  It is really a trend that everyone is playing poker online and learning how to play texas hold em. However, the legality of online gambling is still being questioned despite the fact that it spread throughout the United States, despite the fact that the Judiciary Committee approved a bill last 2006 that it would explicitly ban anything that is related to gambling online and other businesses activities pertaining to it. This year, over $34 million were seized from over 27,000 accounts of online poker players, and marked its first time that the U.S. Department of Justice was able to get a hold of the individual players as against to the gaming companies themselves. Despite the imminent number of online off shore gamblers, online betting sites have to be deemed legal if it has received license in one or more jurisdictions of the government and can generally operate anywhere.

However, the U.S. Supreme Court has given its decision that would have made it illegal throughout the country; yet, several states though have rulings against it. Further, there is no federal law that makes the act of betting online illegal. Nevertheless, there are still sites that are friendly to U.S. players. The first ever gambling website ever to be launched was released last 1995. More than 2000 gambling sites were found guilty during this time. It was also the first time that web sites offered various gambling options in the form of sports betting, lotteries, bingo, and casino games.

Some years ago, in the year 2008, internet gambling revenue rose above the skies and acquired an estimated sum of $5.9 billion from players in the United States and $21.0 billion from players all over the world, according to a reliable source.

To sum it all up, it will all boil down to the person who wants gamble and spend his or her money. Afterall, gambling is made for amusement and to relieve stress from work. Other sees it as a hobby, especially to those who are financially good and who have good financial status in life. More, some of them find joy and happiness in gambling, may it be online or the traditional way of playing luck with money. For sure, legalization of gambling will take a long time and will be double-checked by the U.S. government who are responsible for the substantiation of this act. But on the other hand, people might want to think of its possible effects on their lifestyle because of its features. Addictive as it can be, people should know their limitations and therefore they should do what needs to be done when gambling addiction is at peak. Control your obsession in gambling, may it be online and in traditional and you will have one heck of a normal life again.

Football is almost here, although games that count are still a month away. Regardless, bettors everywhere are licking their chops getting ready for the 2010 season. And what better way to warm up than to have a little fun and scope out the odds makers’ tendencies during the preseason? Here are some tips for week one:

The Saints are giving a point and a half to the Patriots on the road in New England. Ordinarily, this would be an offensive shootout, but in the preseason, who can say? New England doesn’t typically care one iota about the preseason, but things might be more interesting since the two teams had three practices together this week. This might make for a slightly more competitive game. In addition, speculation about Tom Brady’s health has been rampant in the offseason, so he may come out firing to prove that he’s worthy of a long contract extension. In the end, though, the Saints offense should put up a few more points than the Patriots, especially with Patriots wide receiver Wess Welker more than likely on the sidelines.

Tampa Bay is getting 3.5 from the Dolphins on preseason opening weekend. The Dolphins went 4-0 in last year’s preseason, but back then they were a team with many new acquisitions trying to fit all the parts together. Now, they’re likely to be much more laid back about the preseason. Tampa Bay, meanwhile, will be playing their starting and reserve quarterbacks for most of the game, so they may be able to outscore the Dolphins, or at least keep it close.

The Stealers are favored by 2.5 over the Lions this Saturday. Both teams are a mess. The Lions have seemingly been that way for a while, and this year is no exception. Their offense should be markedly better, but against the Pittsburgh defense, all bets are off. Meanwhile, three quarterbacks are vying for the starting spot in Pittsburgh, so look for an aerial display that should put Pittsburgh way over the top.