Dortmund tests 14-game run against Leverkusen

Soccer Betting Lines

02/10/2012 - Dortmund, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Borussia Dortmund returned to the summit in the Bundesliga last weekend, but the defending champions will face a stern test Saturday against Bayer Leverkusen.

Dortmund is unbeaten in 14 straight, and with three successive wins since the league returned from its winter break, coach Jurgen Klopp's side has regained its favorite status to repeat as champions.

Although Dortmund struggled in European play once again this season, Klopp has put together the best side in Germany again. His side secured a semifinal spot in the Pokal Cup earlier this week.

Dortmund has not missed young star Mario Gotze, but any dip in form will prove fatal with Bayern Munich still on its heels in league play. The clubs are also on a collision course in the Pokal Cup, either in the semis or the final.

Klopp will not overlook Leverkusen this week as his opponents did advance into the last 16 of the Champions League, even though Bayer has struggled in league play recently with just one win in its last five.

"We know some things, but we don't know everything," Klopp said about Bayer.

Bayer has been a work in progress under first-year coach Robin Dutt, and could line up in a number of formations this week on the road.

With Barcelona awaiting in the Champions League on Tuesday, Leverkusen needs a boost and a win over Dortmund would provide the perfect medicine. But Dortmund has lost just once at home and dropped points twice in league play.

Leverkusen has been decent away from home with just two losses in 10 matches.

Bayern Munich will defend the Allianz Arena against 16th-place Kaiserslautern, although without star midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger.

He suffered ankle ligament damage against Stuttgart in the Pokal Cup, but with Bayern through after a 2-0 road win, the team enters the league game with some confidence.

Coach Jupp Heynckes will have to shuffle his lineup, and decide whether Thomas Muller - who started against Stuttgart - or Arjen Robben gets the start on the right wing.

Bayern has played better this season without Robben, who has struggled to find top form after missing the early part of the season. Bayern played its best at that time, leaving Heynckes in a tough spot as to what to do with Robben.

Schalke travels to Monchengladbach in Saturday's other match involving top-six clubs, with third place on the line. Schalke currently sits third on 41 points - level with Bayern - while Gladbach is just one point back.

With the top four separated from the pack, the winner should emerge with one foot in the Champions League next season. Schalke, led by Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and his 16 goals, has the second-most goals scored this season (46). Gladbach has allowed the fewest (12).

"Gladbach are a well organized side. They defend well, switch the play quickly and like to have the ball in their attacking half," said Schalke manager Huub Stevens.

"Our opponents set out to keep the ball a long way from their own goal. That's clever. We have to be patient against such a team and when we create chances we have to make sure we take them."

Markus Babbel will debut as Hoffenheim's coach at Werder Bremen on Saturday, and Mainz hosts Hannover and Stuttgart hosts Hertha Berlin in the day's other matches.

Augsburg hosts Nurnberg and Cologne hosts Hamburg on Sunday to end the week's action. Wolfsburg hosts Freiburg on Friday to open the week's action.

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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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