Last weekend recap before football takes over
Football is ready to take over more of the airwaves, as well as the time of handicappers and bettors, but there was plenty of other action this past weekend:
* The Nextel Cup circuit raced under the lights Saturday night in the Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway and Carl Edwards won as a 30-1 longshot at Station Casinos' sports books. It was Edwards' second victory of the year.
* The UFC 74 card at Mandalay Bay on Saturday night started and ended in bloodshed. In the opener, Renato Sobral dominated David Heath as a -250 favorite, but then caused a controversy when he continued his choke hold after Heath, who was bleeding heavily with the stain staying in the octagon the rest of the night, tapped out and the referee tried to separate the two fighters. Sobral admitted after the fight that he did it on purpose, and th Nevada State Athletic Commission put a hold on $25,000 of Sobral's share of the purse pending a review. In the main event, 44-year-old Randy Couture continued to defy skeptics by beating a bigger and (supposedly) stronger 26-year-old Gabriel Gonzaga as a slight underdog (-110 to Gonzaga, who closed at -120 after being -130 earlier in the day). Couture took control when he body-slammed Gonzaga to the canvas and their heads collided, breaking Gonzaga's nose. Blood flowed down Gonzaga's face and he had to breath through his mouth. Couture didn't let up and pummeled him on the ground until the ref stopped it at 1:37 of the third round. The only other underdog to prevail on the seven-fight card was Patrick Cote, who was +210 vs. Kendall Grove.
* Steve Stricker won The Barclays at Westchester Country Club in Harrison, N.Y., as a 50-1 longshot, indicative of the fact he hadn't won a PGA Tour event in 6.5 years. On the back nine of Sunday's final round, there were 10 players within three shots of the lead, but Stricker prevailed by two strokes over K.J. Choi, who was 30-1.
* The U.S. Open tennis tournament starts Monday and extends for a fortnight. MGM Mirage properties have Roger Federer as the -260 favorite to win the men's title, with Rafael Nadal at 4-1, Andy Roddick at 10-1, Novak Djokovic at 12-1. Andy Murray at 25-1, and James Blake, Fernando Gonzalez and Nikolay Davydenko at 30-1. For those trying to keep their Russian players straight: Djokovic defeated Federer two weeks ago to win the Rogers Cup; Davydenko is the player that retired from an ATP match in Poland vs. Martin Vasallo Arguello and became embroiled in a scandal. Betfair, a British betting exchange, voided all bets on the match, saying there was an unusual amount of money bet and that most of the money came in on the underdog Arguello, even after he lost the first set to the No. 5-ranked player in the world. Nothing official has come out about the situation, but the U.S. Open hired the security firm SafirRosetti to have an investigative team on site during the tournament to look into any gambling allegations as well as offering players a hotline if they hear anything suspicious.
*Favorites went 7-6-1 in NFL preseason games over the weekend heading into Monday night's Bengals-Falcons, in which the Bengals have been bet to -3.5 as bettors continue to go against the Michael Vick-less Falcons. The overs are 8-5-1 on the weekend, shooting to heck the column that recommended looking at the unders in this third week of the preseason.
Note: in kind of a follow-up to last week's "Monday Morning Report" in which I discussed some Vegas sports books house rules on rainouts in different sports, Saturday night's Redskins-Ravens game ended up having all side and total wagers refunded when it was called off with 11:38 remaining in the third quarter with the Redskins leading 13-7. All Vegas books require that college and pro football game (even meaningless ones in preseason) complete 55 of the 60 scheduled minutes of play.
Free Seminar
For those in Las Vegas, there is a free football handicapping seminar on Monday and Tuesday at the Red Rock Resort & Casino. It is put on by VegasInsider.com, and though it features many of that site's handicappers, they also invited others from the industry to speak. Full details are available at www.vegasinsider.com/visports/images/vegas-seminar/seminar.pdf. I'll be on a media panel at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday for anyone who wants to stop by and talk in person (after the panel discussion, of course). For those who are out of town, you can listen live here: http://www.vegasinsider.com/radio/vi/
* The Nextel Cup circuit raced under the lights Saturday night in the Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway and Carl Edwards won as a 30-1 longshot at Station Casinos' sports books. It was Edwards' second victory of the year.
* The UFC 74 card at Mandalay Bay on Saturday night started and ended in bloodshed. In the opener, Renato Sobral dominated David Heath as a -250 favorite, but then caused a controversy when he continued his choke hold after Heath, who was bleeding heavily with the stain staying in the octagon the rest of the night, tapped out and the referee tried to separate the two fighters. Sobral admitted after the fight that he did it on purpose, and th Nevada State Athletic Commission put a hold on $25,000 of Sobral's share of the purse pending a review. In the main event, 44-year-old Randy Couture continued to defy skeptics by beating a bigger and (supposedly) stronger 26-year-old Gabriel Gonzaga as a slight underdog (-110 to Gonzaga, who closed at -120 after being -130 earlier in the day). Couture took control when he body-slammed Gonzaga to the canvas and their heads collided, breaking Gonzaga's nose. Blood flowed down Gonzaga's face and he had to breath through his mouth. Couture didn't let up and pummeled him on the ground until the ref stopped it at 1:37 of the third round. The only other underdog to prevail on the seven-fight card was Patrick Cote, who was +210 vs. Kendall Grove.
* Steve Stricker won The Barclays at Westchester Country Club in Harrison, N.Y., as a 50-1 longshot, indicative of the fact he hadn't won a PGA Tour event in 6.5 years. On the back nine of Sunday's final round, there were 10 players within three shots of the lead, but Stricker prevailed by two strokes over K.J. Choi, who was 30-1.
* The U.S. Open tennis tournament starts Monday and extends for a fortnight. MGM Mirage properties have Roger Federer as the -260 favorite to win the men's title, with Rafael Nadal at 4-1, Andy Roddick at 10-1, Novak Djokovic at 12-1. Andy Murray at 25-1, and James Blake, Fernando Gonzalez and Nikolay Davydenko at 30-1. For those trying to keep their Russian players straight: Djokovic defeated Federer two weeks ago to win the Rogers Cup; Davydenko is the player that retired from an ATP match in Poland vs. Martin Vasallo Arguello and became embroiled in a scandal. Betfair, a British betting exchange, voided all bets on the match, saying there was an unusual amount of money bet and that most of the money came in on the underdog Arguello, even after he lost the first set to the No. 5-ranked player in the world. Nothing official has come out about the situation, but the U.S. Open hired the security firm SafirRosetti to have an investigative team on site during the tournament to look into any gambling allegations as well as offering players a hotline if they hear anything suspicious.
*Favorites went 7-6-1 in NFL preseason games over the weekend heading into Monday night's Bengals-Falcons, in which the Bengals have been bet to -3.5 as bettors continue to go against the Michael Vick-less Falcons. The overs are 8-5-1 on the weekend, shooting to heck the column that recommended looking at the unders in this third week of the preseason.
Note: in kind of a follow-up to last week's "Monday Morning Report" in which I discussed some Vegas sports books house rules on rainouts in different sports, Saturday night's Redskins-Ravens game ended up having all side and total wagers refunded when it was called off with 11:38 remaining in the third quarter with the Redskins leading 13-7. All Vegas books require that college and pro football game (even meaningless ones in preseason) complete 55 of the 60 scheduled minutes of play.
Free Seminar
For those in Las Vegas, there is a free football handicapping seminar on Monday and Tuesday at the Red Rock Resort & Casino. It is put on by VegasInsider.com, and though it features many of that site's handicappers, they also invited others from the industry to speak. Full details are available at www.vegasinsider.com/visports/images/vegas-seminar/seminar.pdf. I'll be on a media panel at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday for anyone who wants to stop by and talk in person (after the panel discussion, of course). For those who are out of town, you can listen live here: http://www.vegasinsider.com/radio/vi/
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