nfl and sports betting and odds

FIFA's president wants the governing body to consider scrapping extra-time at the 2014 World Cup to encourage an attacking style after defensive tactics dominated in South Africa. Sepp Blatter said Thursday he wants to discourage teams from defensive play when they are tied after 90 minutes in a knockout match "in an attempt to avoid conceding a goal at all costs." "To prevent...

FIFA's president wants the governing body to consider scrapping extra-time at the 2014 World Cup to encourage an attacking style after defensive tactics dominated in South Africa. Sepp Blatter said Thursday he wants to discourage teams from defensive play when they are tied after 90 minutes in a knockout match "in an attempt to avoid conceding a goal at all costs." "To prevent...

Schalke 04 are hoping the arrival of Dutch striker Klass-Jan Huntelaar will kickstart their season when they travel to leaders Hoffenheim on Friday after opening their Bundesliga campaign with two straight defeats.

Werder Bremen travels to title holder Bayern Munich without both its regular central defenders as the Bundesliga season resumes with a showdown between two Champions League sides. The absence of Per Merstesacker and Naldo could force Bremen coach Thomas Schaaf to use new acquisition Mikael Silvestre in a central role.

Jose Mourinho could experience the famous impatience of the Bernabeu on his home La Liga debut with Real Madrid, if victory is not forthcoming against Osasuna on Saturday.

FIFA is to consider abolishing extra time at the World Cup and going straight to penalties if knockout matches are drawn, the federation's president Sepp Blatter said on Thursday.

FIFA is to consider abolishing extra time at the World Cup and going straight to penalties if knockout matches are drawn, the federation's president Sepp Blatter said on Thursday.

AC Milan could unleash the full force of their fearsome frontline foursome on Saturday (1845 GMT) but unheralded hosts Cesena have already shown their backbone in the fledgling Serie A season.

Who will end the weekend in first place?

Sacramento County authorities say Los Angeles Lakers forward Matt Barnes has been arrested on suspicion of domestic violence. Sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Tim Curran says deputies arrested Barnes after responding to what was termed an incomplete 911 call from a home around 4:16 p.m. Wednesday. Deputies say both Barnes and the woman had visible injuries, but took Barnes into custody after determining...

The Arizona Diamondbacks made the most of the few opportunities they had Wednesday night, and Daniel Hudson took care of the rest. Hudson pitched seven effective innings and the Diamondbacks ended the San Francisco Giants' four-game winning streak with a 3-1 victory. Miguel Montero, Stephen Drew and Kelly Johnson each drove in a run for Arizona, which snapped a four-game skid.

Rookie Cory Luebke struck out seven in six sparkling innings, Luis Durango hit a key two-run single and the San Diego Padres added to their lead in the NL West with a 4-0 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday night. San Diego has won three consecutive games since losing 10 in a row and is two ahead of San Francisco after the Giants lost 3-1 at Arizona.

The Colorado Rockies were rolling along to their sixth consecutive victory when disaster struck in the form of a hard liner off starting pitcher Aaron Cook's lower right leg. Suddenly, another big night for Troy Tulowitzki was just an afterthought. Tulowitzki homered twice in Colorado's 9-2 victory over the struggling Cincinnati Reds, but the Rockies lost Cook to a broken leg when Joey...

Dealing well with whipping winds and a familiar opponent, 16-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer served his way to a 6-4, 6-4, 7-5 victory over fifth-seeded Robin Soderling to reach the U.S. Open semifinals. "I've been practicing my serve a whole lot, for my whole career. If I can't serve in the wind, I've got a problem, you know?" Federer said.

When Armando Galarraga steps onto the mound to face Baltimore on Friday night, the Tigers pitcher will see a familiar face behind home plate in umpire Jim Joyce. This time, it's Joyce who plans on being perfect. Joyce, widely considered one of the majors' top umpires, cost the Tigers rookie a perfect game on June 2 when he incorrectly called the Indians' Jason Donald safe at first on...

To Tim Wakefield, winning never becomes old. So on a night when the 44-year-old knuckleballer became the oldest pitcher to win for the Red Sox, he was already looking ahead. "It means a lot considering I've been here for 16 years," he said after Boston beat the Tampa Bay Rays 11-5 Wednesday.

Former Mexico boss Ricardo La Volpe traveled to Costa Rica on Wednesday, where he is expected to take over as the Central American country's new national coach.

Police are investigating a possible hate crime after a swastika was painted on a mural depicting a Jewish player for the Sacramento Kings. Police say they received a report of the backward swastika painted on a mural of Omri Casspi, the only NBA player born in Israel, in the midtown area about noon Wednesday.

Fire and Toronto split points in must-win game for both.

Singaporean soccer club Young Lions on Thursday apologised for the "unacceptable" on-pitch brawl which caused their S.League match with Beijing Guoan to be abandoned earlier in the week.

The Minnesota Twins can't seem to explain why they have so much success against Kansas City ace Zack Greinke. For whatever reason, they just seem to have Greinke's number. If they keep playing the way they have been recently, it won't be long before they have Chicago's number as well. Brian Duensing allowed one run and struck out seven over eight innings and the Twins continued an...

Cole Hamels worked with almost a dozen starts' worth of runs in one game. Ryan Howard homered and had six RBIs and the Philadelphia Phillies backed Hamels with a rare burst of the run support he had been missing most of the season in a 10-6 win over the Florida Marlins on Wednesday night. Howard hit his 28th homer of the season and the NL East-leading Phillies had a season-high 18 hits.

Not many teams call a game against the last-place Pirates a must-win. The Atlanta Braves did, and they responded exactly the way manager Bobby Cox hoped they would. Omar Infante had three hits, Derek Lowe beat Pittsburgh for the 10th straight time and the Braves got the breakout victory they badly needed, beating the Pirates 9-3 on Wednesday night.

LDU Quito won the South American Supercup on Wednesday when they held Estudiantes of Argentina to a 0-0 draw in the second leg for a 2-1 aggregate victory.

First place is a lot more fun when you win. Just ask the Texas Rangers. Ian Kinsler led off the game with a home run, Derek Holland won for the first time since mid-May and the AL West-leading Rangers stopped their five-game losing streak with an 8-1 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday night.

Pro Football starts this Thursday with perhaps the most exciting game of the early season, as the reigning Super Bowl champs begin a defense campaign of their title against their NFC nemesis, the Minnesota Vikings, led once again by legendary quarterback Brett Favre, who has rejoined the team for his final season.

Table-topping Chelsea make the short trip across London to bottom-placed West Ham United on Saturday where they could terminally damage the chances of Avram Grant, their former coach, keeping his job.

Talk about a rough couple of nights for the Chicago White Sox. At the worst time, too. Jeremy Bonderman pitched eight strong innings and the Detroit Tigers beat sloppy Chicago 5-1 on Wednesday, handing the White Sox another costly loss. Chicago, trying to catch Minnesota in the AL Central, entered Tuesday's game with a seven-game winning streak, but has been outscored 14-2 by the Tigers over the...

Facts and figures relating to Group B for the 2010-2011 Champions League:

Toulouse, Stade Rennes and Montpellier are enjoying a surprising view from the top of Ligue 1 four games into the season despite selling key players.

European champions Inter Milan will rewrite the record books and claim a place among the greats if they retain the Champions League trophy this season.

Customers betting the NFL prop odds are looking at the NFC West as something of a wasteland, and it looks to many like the San Francisco Forty-Niners may be the winner by default in the division.

An investment analyst claims that the American owners' struggling mall business could cost the club dearly.

Top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki stretched her winning streak to 13 matches by beating 45th-ranked Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia 6-2, 7-5 in the U.S. Open quarterfinals Wednesday. Wozniacki, the 2009 runner-up at Flushing Meadows, will face No. 7 Vera Zvonareva in Friday's semifinals. Playing her usual steady game, retrieving balls and forcing her opponent to hit shot after shot, Wozniacki handled...

Joe Torre says he's waiting to announce whether he'll return to manage the Los Angeles Dodgers next year. Torre had previously said he would make the announcement around Labor Day. But he said before Wednesday's game against the San Diego Padres he is not yet ready to divulge it. Torre says he'll let everyone know once the Dodgers clinch a playoff spot or are eliminated.

Those engaged in proposition betting and analyzing the NFL division races are asking themselves whether the San Diego Chargers have the ability to once again make the AFC West a laugher, or more to the point, whether any of the other teams in the division can put together enough to really mount a real bid. The Denver Broncos appear to be the closest thing to a real challenge, but the...

Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins left the game against the Florida Marlins after the third inning with tightness in his right hamstring. The Phillies said Rollins is day-to-day. Rollins gingerly ran to second base and didn't slide on a two-out double in the third inning Wednesday night. He didn't have his usual burst around third base when he scored on Carlos Ruiz's single.

Our Wednesday night MLB predictions take us to Chase Field where the Giants will look to capture their fifth win in a row by sweeping the Diamondbacks in front of their own fans. The first game of this series saw the Giants escape in extras winning 2-0 with both starters Madison Bumgarner and Ian Kennedy shining. Last night saw Tim Lincecum outduel Barry Enright to secure his 13th win of...

Career saves leader Trevor Hoffman says he's got a lot of decisions to make and work left to do. He'll have to decide where to hang the huge oil painting commissioned in honor of his 600th career save, where to put the ball from Tuesday night's achievement and when to respond to the hundreds of calls and text messages he received.

Jim Thome's climb up the home run charts has been put on hold. The Minnesota Twins designated hitter was a late scratch for the series finale against Kansas City on Thursday night. The team says Thome was scratched for precautionary reasons with a mild abdominal strain. He is listed as day-to-day. Thome hit four homers in his last three games, including two that had the Target Field distance...

Mr. Tiger Woods, who finished 11th at the Deutsche Bank Championship last week, is going off at underlaid golf wagering odds yet again to finish in the Top 10 this week. The odds on El Tigre to get into the Top 10, something he hasn’t done in 6 straight tournaments played, at this point are at -225.  That’s a lot of dough for sports gamblers to risk on the world’s #1...

Martin Kaymer, who took advantage of Dustin Johnson’s screw up at the PGA Championship last month to win it, is the golf betting favorite to win the KLM Open on the European Tour this week. Kaymer is not on the PGA Tour.  That’s the reason that instead of playing in the final round of the Deustche Bank Championship, he’s getting ready for the KLM Open.  The KLM Open,...

Justin Morneau hasn't played in a game in more than two months, and it's been difficult for him to watch his Minnesota Twins slug through a pennant race without him -- in more ways than one. Morneau said on Wednesday that he is still optimistic that he will eventually return from his concussion to help out in 2010, even though he still can't sit in the dugout to watch a full nine...

Those bettors who take on the NFL odds can't help but get excited about the game that is going to kick off the NFL season, as the New Orleans Saints, the Super Bowl champions, begin their title defense on Thursday night against the Minnesota Vikings and local boy Brett Favre.

Marlins pitcher Josh Johnson has right shoulder inflammation and a strained mid-back, making it unclear when the All-Star will return to the mound. Johnson was examined Wednesday in Florida. There was no structural damage found and he will rejoin the Marlins on Friday for a series in Washington, but the team has not decided when he might pitch again.

The New Orleans Hornets have signed free-agent point guard Mustafa Shakur. General manager Dell Demps says the 6-foot-4 Shakur has good size for a point guard and got the Hornets' attention by thriving in the NBA Development League last season. Undrafted out of Arizona, the 26-year-old Shakur was been with several NBA teams since 2007 but has yet to play in a regular-season game.

The New Orleans Hornets have signed free-agent point guard Mustafa Shakur. General manager Dell Demps says the 6-foot-4 Shakur has good size for a point guard and got the Hornets' attention by thriving in the NBA Development League last season. Undrafted out of Arizona, the 26-year-old Shakur was been with several NBA teams since 2007 but has yet to play in a regular-season game.

The best measure of what India's Rohan Bopanna and Pakistan's Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi accomplished at the U.S. Open could be found in the stands, not the scoreline. The doubles team reached the U.S. Open final Wednesday, winning a match that brought the United Nations ambassadors from their long-at-odds countries to Flushing Meadows to sit in the stands together.

The appointed attorney for Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade's two young sons has recommended to a Chicago court that the NBA star be awarded custody of the children. Wade and ex-wife Siohvaughn Wade returned to court on Wednesday, this time to begin the trial that will decide custody of their boys, ages 8 and 3.

Points will be plentiful on Thursday night in the Magnolia State. Auburn and Mississippi State have two high-powered offenses that are ready to roll.  Auburn Tigers @ Mississippi State Bulldogs  Thursday, September 9th – 7:40 PM ET  Davis Wade Stadium, Starkville, MS  Broadcast: ESPN  NCAA Football Betting Odds: Auburn -2, Mississippi State +2 The numbers are...