Benson edges Hornaday for truck title, Bodine wins race
Autoracing Betting Lines
11/14/2008 - Homestead, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Johnny Benson captured his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship Friday with a seventh-place finish in the Ford 200 at the Homestead-Miami Speedway. Benson finished the season seven points ahead of Ron Hornaday, Jr., who finished one position behind in eighth. It was the second-closest points battle in the 14-year history of the series.
Meanwhile, Todd Bodine won at Homestead, holding off Brian Scott in a green- white-checkered finish. The victory was Bodine's third of the season and the 15th of his Truck Series career.
Scott finished second, and Kevin Harvick was third. Kyle Busch and Dennis Setzer rounded out the top-five.
More details to follow.
Miami, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Dwyane Wade dropped a game-high 24 points and the Miami Heat clobbered the Washington Wizards, 97-77, at American Airlines Arena. Michael Beasley netted 19 points for the Heat, who wrapped up a thre
<< Young, Sixers overcome big deficit to topple Pacers
Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Thaddeus Young scored a career-high 25
points and grabbed 10 rebounds, and the Philadelphia 76ers erased a 26-point
first-half deficit and came back to edge the Indiana Pacers, 94-92.
Andre Miller s
<< No. 21 Wake Forest crushes N.C. Central
Winston-Salem, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Freshman Al-Farouq Aminu scored 21 points
and grabbed 10 rebounds, and No. 21 Wake Forest kicked off its 2008-09
campaign with a 94-48 rout of North Carolina Central.
Aminu made 9-of-12 from the
<< Charlotte pulls out victory over short-handed Jazz
Charlotte, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Gerald Wallace scored 22 points and grabbed
nine rebounds to lead the Charlotte Bobcats to a 104-96 victory over the
ailing Utah Jazz, who were without three of their top six players.
Deron Williams,
<< Ovechkin and Laich lead surging Caps over Devils
Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Alexander Ovechkin and Brooks Laich both had
a goal and an assist, as the surging Washington Capitals defeated the slumping
New Jersey Devils, 3-1, in the opener of a home-and-home series at the Verizon
Center.
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Zach Randolph poured in a season-high in points and rebounds with 29 and 19, respectively, and the New York Knicks held off the Oklahoma City Thunder, 116-106, at Madison Square Garden. Jamal Crawford
Harris leads Nets to victory over Hawks >>
East Rutherford, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Devin Harris finished with 30 points,
eight assists and six rebounds, as the New Jersey Nets used a strong fourth
quarter to take a 115-108 victory over the Atlanta Hawks.
Vince Carter ended with
No. 12 Oklahoma rolls over American University >>
Norman, OK (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Blake Griffin had 24 points and a career-high 18
rebounds, as 12th-ranked Oklahoma crushed American University, 83-54, in the
season opener for both clubs.
Cade Davis had 11 points while Willie Warren added
Thrashers stay in win column by edging 'Canes >>
Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Johan Hedberg finished with 27 saves as the
streaking Atlanta Thrashers downed the Carolina Hurricanes, 3-2, in a
Southeast Division battle at Philips Arena.
Marty Reasoner, Eric Perrin and Slav
Posey, Hornets hold off Blazers >>
New Orleans, LA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - James Posey scored 14 points and nailed two
key three-pointers in the fourth quarter, as the New Orleans Hornets pulled
out a hard-fought 87-82 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers.
Chris Paul logged
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.
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