Ferrero, Almagro post Davis Cup wins for Spain

Tennis Betting Lines

02/10/2012 - Oviedo, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Reigning champion Spain began defense of its Davis Cup title with a pair of singles wins Friday in an opening-round Davis Cup matchup with visiting Kazakhstan.

The Spaniards grabbed their quick 2-0 lead when former world No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero outlasted Mikhail Kukushkin 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (7-2), 4-6, 6-4 in 4 hours, 28 minutes and Nicolas Almagro doused Andrey Golubev 6-3, 4-6, 6-1, 6-1.

The best-of-five tie is being staged on red clay in Oviedo, where the Spaniards are playing without their top-two stars -- Australian Open runner-up Rafael Nadal and David Ferrer. As a matter of fact, Spain is missing four of its top-five players overall at Palacio Municipal de los Deportes.

Spain can clinch a victory here on Saturday when its doubles team of Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez takes on a Kazakhstani pairing of Evgeny Korolev and Yuri Schukin.

Sunday's reverse singles currently pit Almagro against Kukushkin and the former French Open champion Ferrero versus Golubev.

The mighty Spaniards, who have won five of the last 12 Davis Cup championships, are led by first-year captain Alex Corretja, while team Kazakhstan is piloted by Yegor Shaldunov.

Spain, which beat Argentina in last year's Davis Cup finale in Seville, and Kazakhstan had never met in Davis Cup play prior to this week.

The winner here will face the Austria-Russia victor in the quarterfinals in April.

Wwwgoactive Tennis Betting News

<< NCAA denies UConn waiver request
Storrs, CT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The NCAA has turned down the University of Connecticut's request for a waiver that would allow its men's basketball team to participate in the 2012-13 postseason, the school announced Friday. The waiver

<< Indians re-sign SS Cabrera
Cleveland, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Cleveland Indians avoided arbitration with shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera, signing him to a one-year contract on Friday. No financial terms were released, but the Plain Dealer reported it is worth $4.5

<< Western Illinois makes change in football schedule
Macomb, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Western Illinois's football program will host the University of Indianapolis instead of Hampton on Sept. 8, director of athletics Dr. Tim Van Alstine said Friday. The game against Hampton was rescheduled to Aug.

<< Spurs' Ginobili to return Saturday
San Antonio, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Guard Manu Ginobili will return to San Antonio's lineup when the visiting Spurs play New Jersey on Saturday. Head coach Gregg Popovich said Ginobili, who has missed more than a month with a broken lef

<< Isner shocks Federer, U.S. leads Swiss 2-0 in Davis Cup
Fribourg, Switzerland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - In one of the biggest Davis Cup upsets ever, John Isner shocked the great Roger Federer in four sets to give the United States a commanding 2-0 lead over host Switzerland in their best- of-five openi

Titans lock up WR Hawkins with multi-year deal >>
Nashville, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Tennessee Titans signed wide receiver Lavelle Hawkins to a multi-year contract on Friday. Hawkins caught 47 passes for 470 yards and recorded his first career touchdown last season. He ranked second o

CFL extends Cohon through 2015 >>
Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Canadian Football League announced that commissioner Mark Cohon has signed a contract extension that will keep him in charge through the 2015 season. "Our Board of Governors is unanimously pleased to

Blues place Arnott on IR >>
St. Louis, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The St. Louis Blues have placed forward Jason Arnott on injured reserve, the team announced Friday. Arnott has not played since suffering a shoulder injury against Los Angeles on February 3. The 37-

Dunfermline out to end dry spell against Rangers >>
Dunfermline, Scotland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Dunfermline will try to snap a pair of negative streaks on Saturday when the club hosts second-place Rangers. In the last 30 meetings between the two teams, Dunfermline has managed just one win,

Lyon warms up for Champions League against Caen >>
Lyon, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Lyon slipped 10 points behind Ligue 1 leader PSG last weekend, so a visit by Caen on Saturday - ahead of Tuesday's last 16 Champions League match against APOEL - has turned into a must-win match. Since win

MySportsbook.com favors Bears, Bengals, Chargers and Colts to remain perfect

LAS VEGAS , Sept. 28 - Two big match-ups of undefeated teams have fans salivating at the Week Four schedule in the NFL. The Chicago Bears stifling defense looks to provide a less than hospitable welcome to the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday night in a battle of two 3-0 teams in the NFC conference. In the AFC, the San Diego Chargers (2-0) head to Maryland to face the surprising Baltimore Ravens (3-0) as both try to keep pace atop the conference standings. Betting Lines makers at MySportsbook.com, online sportsbook and casino, have set the Bears as 3.5 point favorites while the Chargers are a 2.5 point bet.

Of the three remaining undefeated teams, only one, New Orleans, enters this week's game as an underdog. Despite an emotional and resounding win over Atlanta on Monday night, the Saints are a 7.5 point underdog against the struggling Carolina Panthers. Indianapolis looks to stay perfect when they face the New York Jets as a 9 point road favorite while the Cincinnati Bengals are a 6 point favorite at home to the New England Patriots.

Six teams enter the week still looking for their first win, with a seventh, Tampa Bay, on a bye week. The prospect of dropping another game would not bode well for a potential playoff run. Since 1990, just three teams -- the 1992 Chargers, 1995 Detroit Lions and 1998 Buffalo Bills -- have overcome losing their first three games of the season to earn a postseason berth. And only the Chargers managed to accomplish the feat after starting 0-4.

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your NFL football betting needs.

FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million

Football Betting

In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.

And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.

Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.

So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.

Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)

The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.

As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.

The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.

In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.

Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.

And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.

So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.

There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.

So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.

And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.

There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)

Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.

Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.

Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.

So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.

NFL Betting Lines

To visit this sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your college football betting needs.