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03/12/2010 - Indian Wells, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former top-five American James Blake was an easy first-round winner Friday at the $4.5 million BNP Paribas Open, an ATP World Tour Masters event.
Blake cruised past Spaniard Daniel Gimeno-Traver 6-3, 6-2 in a mere 55 minutes on the hardcourts at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. The struggling 30-year- old Blake improved to a pedestrian 6-5 this season.
Additional opening-round wins came for Spaniard Nicolas Almagro, Israeli Dudi Sela, German Simon Greul, Taipei's Yen-Hsun Lu and Aussie Marinko Matosevic. Sela dismissed American Jesse Levine 6-2, 6-2, while Greul drove out Frenchman Richard Gasquet 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (9-7).
This week's 32 seeds all received byes into the second round. The top seeds are three-time champion Roger Federer, 2008 titlist and 2007 runner-up Novak Djokovic, two-time champion and reigning titlist Rafael Nadal and 2009 Indian Wells runner-up Andy Murray. Nadal beat the U.S. Open runner-up Murray in last year's finale and also titled here in '07.
This week's winner will collect $605,500.
<< Bucs ink LB Alston
Tampa, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Tampa Bay Buccaneers announced the
signing of linebacker Jon Alston on Friday.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Alston spent the last three seasons with Oakland. He recorded 23 tackles in
<< Corliss Williamson takes over at Central Arkansas
Conway, AR (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The University of Central Arkansas has named
former college and NBA standout Corliss Williamson as its next men's head
basketball coach.
Williamson, who enjoyed a fruitful 12-year NBA career, played his
<< UTEP dispatches Tulsa to gain C-USA final
Tulsa, OK (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Randy Culpepper scored 21 points and Arnett
Moultrie added 18 to pace No. 25 UTEP to a 75-61 win over Tulsa in the
semifinal round of the Conference USA Tournament at the BOK Center.
Christian Polk
<< Tennessee moves on in SEC Tournament
Nashville, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - J.P. Prince scored 17 points and Wayne Chism
added 16 and 15 rebounds, as No. 15 Tennessee dismissed the Ole Miss Rebels in
the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament with a 76-65 victory.
Cameron Tatum had fou
Schalke edges Stuttgart to grab first >>
Gelsenkirchen, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kevin Kuranyi scored his 14th goal
of the season to lead Schalke to a 2-1 win over Stuttgart on Friday and into
first place in Germany's Bundesliga.
Schalke moved one point ahead of Bayern Munich
Weather woes remain at Puerto Rico Open >>
Rio Grande, Puerto Rico (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A new day brought only more weather
problems for the PGA Tour's Puerto Rico Open, which still wasn't halfway
through the first round when play was suspended Friday because of darkness.
Rain c
Oregon QB Masoli suspended for entire 2010 season >>
Eugene, OR (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Oregon Ducks quarterback Jeremiah Masoli was
suspended for the entire 2010 season after pleading guilty to charges of
second-degree burglary on Friday.
Ducks head coach Chip Kelly made the announce
LeBron returns against Sixers >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - LeBron James was in the Cavaliers'
starting lineup on Friday against the Philadelphia 76ers, returning from a
two-game absence.
James missed a loss to the Bucks last Saturday and a win over the Spurs o
Michael Vick is back, Brett Favre isn't and the NFC East remains the best division in the NFC, maybe in all of football.
As players start to gather for the start of another season, some things change and some stay the same in the world of the NFL.
The NFC East has been the dominant division in the National Conference for a while, despite limited playoff success, save for the New York Giants surprise Super Bowl win two seasons ago.
Hell, there's a generation of kids in Texas who have never seen the Cowboys win a playoff game (last win was in 1996).
But collectively, the Giants, Eagles, Cowboys and Redskins (well, maybe not so much the Redskins) are as good as a division gets in an NFC conference that has struggled to stay competitive with the AFC side.
Sports bettors have both acknowledged the NFC East's dominance, as one glance at the NFL future odds menu will show.
Looking over the NFL betting odds at online sports book MySportsbook.com we see the top three teams listed to win the NFC Championship are all from the NFC East:
Dallas Cowboys - 7 - 1
Philadelphia Eagles - 13 - 2
New York Giants - 9 - 2
Slotting in behind these three are two teams from the NFC North: the Minnesota Vikings (15-2) and the Chicago Bears (10-1).
Again, despite the lack of recent playoff success, the Dallas Cowboys are popular with the sports betting community, as they hold 14% of all the money wagered on who will win the NFC Championship.
So far, the New York Giants are the bettors' favorite to represent their conference in the Super Bowl, as they have 24% of the overall NFC Championship betting volume.
And what about the Philadelphia Eagles? For the most part, the Eagles had a very productive offseason, the kind that could bring them back to the top.
They had a good draft adding the likes of WR Jeremy Maclin and RB LeSean McCoy.
Unfortunately, the team received a blow when long-time defensive coordinator Jim Johnson passed away on Tuesday.
But this team will make a real run at the division title this year. Going into the regular season, Philly is listed at +240 to win the division.
Last season the Eagles were 9-6-1 SU and 10-6 ATS.
Teams from the NFC East will play teams from the AFC West in the regular season and the Eagles haven't really been a good bet in the last 20 games against the likes of San Diego, Oakland, K.C. and Denver, only going 8-12 ATS.
Two seasons removed from that Super Bowl title, the New York Giants see themselves listed as the odds-on favorite in NFC East championship futures at +162.
Plaxico Burress is gone and with him all the bad publicity surrounding the gun in the sweatpants incident, but can they replace him in the offense?
Last season the Giants were a very reliable bet going 12-4 ATS.
In the Giants' last 20 games against fellow teams from the NFC East; they are 13-7 ATS.
Dallas is listed at +240 to win the division.
Dallas went 9-7 SU and 7-9 ATS last season and with the amount of talent the Cowboys have, a similar performance won't do.
The Cowboys have been atrocious against divisional rivals, going 6-14 ATS in their last 20.
The Washington Redskins are longshots to win the division at +550.
Visit MySportsbook.com for free sportsbook odds RSS feeds go to MySportsbook.com for all your betting football needs.
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