Vickers being treated for blood clots

Autoracing Betting Lines

05/14/2010 - Dover, DE (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - NASCAR driver Brian Vickers is being treated for blood clots at an undisclosed Washington, D.C. hospital, Red Bull Racing vice president and general manager Jay Frye confirmed Friday at Dover International Speedway.

According to Frye, Vickers was sent to the hospital on Wednesday night after complaining of some discomfort in his chest. The 26-year-old driver was scheduled to make appearances in the nation's capital the following day. Numerous tests were conducted, including a CT scan, which discovered that he has several blood clots in his veins and not his arteries. Vickers currently is being given medication to dissolve the clots.

"He has been thoroughly tested and given a clean bill of health," Frye said. "The doctors are not sure what caused the clots or how it happened. We've been in constant contact with Brian, and he's in great spirits and doing very well."

Frye also said there is no timetable for his return to racing.

"It is a minor setback in a young man's life and his career," Frye added. "Obviously, it's a major setback for our race team for this weekend. With no timetable for his return, we're not really sure what the next steps are."

Vickers could be released from the hospital as early as today but is not competing in this weekend's Sprint Cup Series race at Dover. Casey Mears will replace Vickers in the No.83 Toyota for at least Dover. Red Bull's driver status for next weekend's NASCAR all-star race at Charlotte and events beyond is uncertain at this time.

Vickers will have to cleared by NASCAR doctors before his return to the track.

"When a driver is ill, he typically will see his own physician," NASCAR spokesperson Ramsey Poston said. "When it comes back to racing on the track, that driver will need to be cleared by NASCAR's medical liaisons as well, and there will be some conversations with his doctors.

Vickers, the 2003 Nationwide Series champion, currently is 20th in Sprint Cup points. He finished 10th last Saturday at Darlington. Last year, Vickers made the championship chase for the first time since joining Cup full-time in 2004. Missing Dover likely will end his chances of making this year's championship chase.

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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"

A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."

Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.

In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.

"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."

Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.

But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"

Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.

This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.

Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.

In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.

No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.

And that's all any bettor can ask for.

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