NCAA College Football Picks: Alabama at Clemson

The Alabama Crimson Tide battle the Clemson Tigers in the NCAA College Football season opener for both teams on Saturday, a neutral site game at the Georgia Dome.

The Tigers are a 4½-point favorite at Sportingbet.com.

The game starts at 8 pm ET and can be seen on ABC.

Alabama was 7-6 SU and 3-8-1 ATS last season, while Clemson was 9-4 SU and 6-6 ATS.

Going back to last season, Alabama is 1-4 SU in its past five games, and 2-8-1 ATS in its past 11. Clemson is 5-2 SU in its past seven. The total has gone under in four of Clemson’s past six.

Alabama linebacker Charlie Higgenbotham (groin/hamstring) is probable for Saturday’s game, and receiver Will Oakley (stress fracture in foot) is questionable. For the Tigers, defensive tackle Rashaad Jackson (quadriceps tendon surgery) is out indefinitely.

Pick: Clemson

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NCAA College Football Picks: Michigan State at California

In what might be the best matchup of Week 1 of the 2008 NCAA College Football season, the California Golden Bears host the Michigan State Spartans in a clash of Big Ten and Pac-10 conference teams on Saturday.

California is a 4½-point favorite at Sportingbet.com, a London, England-based and publicly-traded online sportsbook.

This is just the fourth time these teams have met – and the first two were in 1957 and ’58. Michigan State won the first two matchups back in the ‘50s, while the Golden Bears won 46-22 win in the most recent meeting in 2002.

The Spartans are coming off their first winning season since 2003, when they went 8-5 SU. But they lost in the postseason last year, falling 24-21 to the Boston College Eagles in the Champs Sports Bowl.

California posted its sixth-straight winning season last year, finishing 7-6 SU. Coach Jeff Tedford’s team won its third-consecutive bowl, beating Air Force 42-36 in the Armed Forces Bowl. California is an impressive 69-39-4 in season-opening matchups, including 4-2 in the past six seasons.

The Spartans will welcome back RB Javon Ringer this season but will miss RB Jehuu Caulcrick, who finished last year with 872 yards and 21 touchdowns. Brian Hoyer returns at QB.

California will rely heavily this season on a defense that returns eight players. The strength of Cal’s defense will be at linebacker, as three starters are back. Anthony Felder and Worrell Williams both collected over 100 tackles last season, while Zack Follett finished with 5.5 sacks.

Public Betting information shows California is getting 55 per cent of the wagers on this game.

Pick: California

Sign up at Sportingbet.com to bet on NCAA and NFL Football.

Sportingbet Plc, the world’s largest online betting and gaming group, is based in London and is listed on the London Stock Exchange AIM market (LSE: SBT). The company has over 2.5 million registered customers in 200 countries, who place over 1,000,000 bets (casino, poker, sports and virtual games) per day.

NCAA College football betting: North Carolina at South Carolina

The 2008 NCAA College Football season kicks off Thursday with the North Carolina State Wolfpack visiting the South Carolina Gamecocks (8 pm ET, ESPN).

Sportingbet.com has the Gamecocks as a 13-point favorite in College Football Betting odds.

Neither team had a particularly good season last year, as the Wolfpack went 5-7 SU and 5-6 ATS, while the Gamecocks were 6-6 SU, 5-5-1 ATS.

Sportingbet.com will have Live Betting available for the game, which allows College Football Betting fans to wager while the game is in progress.

Last season, North Carolina State was 5-2 ATS in its last seven games, and 4-2 SU in its last six. But going back two seasons, North Carolina State is 5-14 SU in its past 19.  South Carolina was 0-5 SU and 1-4-1 ATS in its final five tilts last year.

Sportingbet.com will also have Live Betting for the Texas El Paso Miners at the Buffalo Bulls on Thursday, with Buffalo a 3-point favorite.

Check out NCAA College Football Betting at Sportingbet.com.

New No. 1 Rafael Nadal favored to win U.S. Open

The fourth and final Grand Slam tennis championship of the year starts Monday when the 2008 U.S. Open gets underway in Flushing Meadows, New York, and Sportingbet.com has a number of wagering options for Tennis Betting fans.

Rafael Nadal, who recently overtook Roger Federer for the No. 1 spot in men’s world tennis rankings, is a +140 favorite to win the men’s crown in U.S. Open Tennis Betting odds at Sportingbet.com.

Federer, the reigning four-time U.S. Open champion and now World No. 2, is at +250 odds to win the men’s title. World No. 3 Novak Djokovic is +300.

Scotland’s Andrew Murray, who has moved up to No. 6 in world rankings, is +1200.

Other U.S. Open bets available at Sportingbet.com include Odds to Reach the Last 16. Nadal is at -2500 odds to make it to the final 16 players, while Djokovic is -1400 and Federer and Murray are both -800.

A win at the U.S. Open would be a first for Nadal, and would cap a huge year for the Spaniard. He’s won 38 of his past 39 matches overall, including titles in the last three big events on tour – two Grand Slam titles at the French Open and Wimbledon, and a gold medal last week at the Beijing Olympics.

The last time Federer lost at the U.S. Open was the fourth round in 2003. He held the world No. 1 position for a record 237 consecutive weeks, since February, 2004. Nadal had been chasing Federer from the No. 2 spot for a record 160 straight weeks.

Federer has 12 Grand Slam titles, the last being the 2007 U.S. Open, where he edged out Djokovic in the final. Djokovic won the first Grand Slam event of 2008, the Australian Open, in January.

Check out Sportingbet.com for a full list of U.S. Open betting odds.

U.S. Redeem Team seeks Olympics revenge against Argentina

Sportingbet.com will have Live Betting available for the men’s basketball semifinals at the Beijing Olympics.

 

The U.S. – the Redeem Team – is an overwhelming 20-point, -5000 moneyline favorite to beat Argentina in Olympic Basketball betting odds at Sportingbet.com. The over/under is 183½.

 

Argentina, which beat the U.S. at the 2004 Athens Olympics en route to winning the gold medal, is a +1000 underdog.

 

The game starts at 10:15 am ET Friday and can be seen on CBC and NBC.

 

The early semifinal matchup Friday (8 am ET) has Spain taking on Lithuania, with Spain a -300 favorite and Lithuania a +225 underdog. 

 

Sportingbet.com also has lots of prop bets for both games, including first team to reach 10, 20 and 50 points, as well as individual player wagers.

 

In quarterfinal action Wednesday, the L.A. Lakers’ Kobe Bryant scored 25 points to pace the U.S. team to a 116-85 win over Australia. LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers added 16 points.

 

Argentina edged Greece 80-78, with the San Antonio Spurs’ Manu Ginóbili scoring 24 points and Carlos Delfino adding 23. Antonis Fotsis led Greece with 17 points, while Kostas Tsartsaris finished with 13.

Lakers’ center Pau Gasol scored 20 points to lead Spain to a 72-59 win against Croatia. Felipe Reyes added 13 points for Spain, while Toronto Raptors’ point guard Jose Calderon had 10.

And Lithuania beat host China 94-68. Sarunas Jasikevicius scored 23 points to lead Lithuania. Houston Rockets center Yao Ming had 19 points for China.

The semifinal winners meet in the gold medal game on Sunday, while the losers play for the bronze, also Sunday.

Bet the Olympics at Sportingbet.com.

Attractive Blonde from Dublin

An attractive blonde from Dublin arrived at the casino and bet twenty-thousand dollars on a single roll of the dice.

She said, ‘I hope you don’t mind, but I feel much luckier when I’m completely nude ‘.

With that, she stripped from the neck down, rolled the dice and yelled, ‘Come on, baby, Mama needs new clothes!‘

As the dice came to a stop, she jumped up and down and squealed…’YES, YES, I WON, I WON!‘

She hugged each of the dealers and then picked up her winnings and her clothes and quickly departed. The dealers stared at each other dumbfounded.

Finally, one of them asked, ‘What did she roll?’

Another answered, ‘I don’t know – I thought you were watching.’

MORAL OF THE STORY: Not all Irish are stupid. Not all blondes are dumb. But all men are men.

brought to you by: TotalOdds.com

Sportsbook BookMaker.com Accepts Record $1,000,000 US Wager

The million dollar bet is whether The Factsman Apricena can finish the 2008 college football season with a better win-loss record than Richardson after making 30 picks on BookMaker.com with a minimum of one pick per week. The Factsman’s BookMaker.com challenge starts on August 28th, 2008, the opening weekend of the college football 2008 season, and goes on through the college bowl season in December 2008 and must include the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) national championship game in January 2009.

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Patriots need a backup plan desperately

Upon taking control of the team in the winter of 2000, before it had played so much as a down for him and even with an established gunslinger by the name of Drew Bledsoe on his roster, incoming Patriots head coach Bill Belichick alerted his quarterbacks coach, the late Dick Rehbein, that he was intent on finding a signal caller in waiting.

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Fresh off Super Bowl victory, Giants open 2008 as underdog

ALBANY, N.Y. — If the New York Giants came from nowhere to win the Super Bowl, they managed to make it a round trip. They are, once again, nowhere.

Best team in the NFL? Hah. Go find someone — anyone — willing to make that declaration.

A favorite to repeat? Please. They’re not even expected to win the NFC East, a division the Dallas Cowboys ruled in 2007, though they couldn’t derail the Giants in the postseason.

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Fantasy Football Picks: Dos & Don’ts, Draft Day Trickery!

I’m not quite as wordy as my nephew, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have knowledge. Sure, he can get all wordily-smurdily, but I have 30 single sentences that will help you during your drafts, during the season, and during sex – believe it! Here they are, the never-dos; the dropped soap, the pissing peak, the naked wander down 5th avenue at noon – but all in fantasy terms, well mostly all. Confused yet? Here you go…

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