Pete Rose needs to move to Europe

I'm not quite sure how concerned Europeans are with their athletes using insider information for gambling purposes. But I guess they're a little more cool with it than people here in the States are.

That's because Bolton Wanderers goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen of the EPL supposedly bet money on who his new head coach would be. Not so surprisingly he got it right and won some money. Also not surprising is that it's somewhat sketchy how he picked the right guy.

A little over a week ago, Bolton coach Sammy Lee left after a horrible start to the season. There were obviously questions about who would replace him - along with betting odds on who it would be. One person that wasn't really a popular choice with fans to replace Lee was Gary Megson. Megson was ultimately given 3-1 odds to become Bolton's new coach but wasn't even close to being the favorite.

Despite those odds, and fan hatred, Jaaskelainen supposedly put down £100 a day for 10 days on Megson to become his new head coach. Jaaskelainen also revealed he and his teammates had discussed the managerial speculation that had surrounded the club since Lee's departure.

Megson was named the head coach yesterday. So when it was all said and done, Jaaskelainen won around £3,000, which I realize isn't much for a pro soccer player. Even better is that there are already odds on whether Megson will make it through this season. Hopefully Jaaskelainen doesn't bet on that.

But I can't be the only one that finds it bizarre that athletes can bet on stuff like this when they're pretty likely to have insider information about it. Looks like Pete Rose should start getting involved in soccer.

-WCK

It looks like someone's headed to Vegas

There was a lot of talk over the NBA All-Star weekend about whether or not an NBA team would move there. After the Donaghy scandal played out, I think we all naturally thought there was no way this could happen anymore.

Guess we were wrong.

From Yahoo Sports:

Casino giant Harrah's Entertainment announced Wednesday it is partnering with AEG, the company that brought David Beckham to the Los Angeles Galaxy to build a 20,000-seat arena capable of housing an NBA or NHL team. The arena, behind the Bally's and Paris hotel-casinos on the Las Vegas Strip, is projected to open in 2010.

"This arena is being developed with the capability of hosting an NHL or NBA franchise from day one," said Timothy Leiweke, the president and chief executive of AEG, which owns the Galaxy and the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

"We continue to have productive conversations with potential owners and are optimistic that either basketball or hockey, or both, will be played in Las Vegas when the venue opens," he said in a statement.

The arena to be built on 10 acres of land that Harrah's owns is to be privately financed. Construction is set to begin on the project in the summer of 2008.

I must admit I'm a little surprised by this. Hockey is essentially dead in the US and Las Vegas seems like an even weirder place for hockey than Tampa Bay. Meanwhile, the NBA All-Star game was a nightmare and with Donaghy set to name 20 refs who he said he'd seen gambling - which is against NBA regulations - this proposed arena seems like a money pit. Would Stern really let a team go to Vegas after the Donaghy fiasco?

Sure, why not. Despite what Stern or anyone else might say, money is always the bottom line. I would totally root for the Las Vegas Point Shavers.

-WCK

Tim Donaghy loves tennis

There's been a lot of bad press lately for major American pro sports and cycling, but at least tennis seemed to be doing ok.

That is until Friday.

Officials yesterday began investigating suspicious betting patterns on a Thursday match in which No. 4-ranked Nikolay Davydenko of Russia retired with an injury against No. 87-ranked Martin Arguello of Argentina at an ATP tournament in Poland.

The British online gambling company Betfair voided all bets Friday placed on Thursday's second-round match at the Prokom Open in Sopot.

Betfair said it received about $7 million in bets on the match, which is 10 times the usual amount, and most of the money was on Arguello to win, even after Davydenko won the first set 6-2.

Arguello went on to win the second set 6-3 and was up 2-1 in the third set when Davydenko withdrew after he said he aggravated a left foot injury.

"Normally I try to fight to the end but it was very painful and I may have done even more damage by trying to finish the match," Davydenko said Thursday after the match. "Since the beginning of Monday I've had a problem with my left toes. Today that became a problem with my foot."

He was also backed up Arguello.

"I saw Davydenko playing very well the first set, and I saw also that he had problems with his feet, and that was true, he was not inventing that, so it's difficult to suspect him," Arguello said.

It may be impossible to tell if Davydenko was taking a dive or not, since it was known before the match that he would be playing with an injury. He's also lost his last three first round matches in tournaments and there were apparently no patterns of irregular betting in any of those matches. Those losses seem to be due to the lingering injury issues. So either Davydenko's been throwing matches at an extraordinary pace, or more likely, people have just keyed in to his worsening condition.

Regardless of the pending situation, considering all the bad press that's going on in sports right now this was about the last thing tennis needed.

-WCK

When did Tim Donaghy move to Romania?

The outcry about Tim Donaghy's actions has certainly been loud. A lot of columnists and bloggers have been saying no one will ever take the NBA seriously again.

But maybe we should take a step back and consider what actually happened. So far it seems Donaghy was the only person doing this.

Besides, there are plenty of examples much worse than Donaghy's.

Today's example to make that point clear comes all the way from the country of Dracula: Romania. It seems that in the top soccer league, two refs are in deep shit for allegedly fixing some of the league's opening games.

"(Referees) Sebastian Coltescu and Augustus Constantin are responsible for making wrong decisions which changed the results of their matches," said a league statement.

Local media and soccer officials accused the referees of making favorable decisions to help Steaua Bucharest and Rapid Bucharest secure opening victories in Liga 1. Steaua beat Ceahlaul Piatra Neamt and Rapid defeated Dacia Mioveni, both by a 2-1 scoreline. Both have been suspended for an undetermined period of time.

In addition to that the head of the Central Referees Commission, Gheorghe Constantin, said the contentious decisions made by the two referees could not be considered basic human errors. "They made major errors," he told reporters.

In June, the Romanian League dropped six referees and four assistants for unacceptable performances in the previous league season.

They're all expected to be impaled for their crimes against soccer. I kid. Sort of.

Can you imagine if anything of this magnitude ever happened in any of our sports leagues? People would hang themselves and Jay Mariotti's head would explode (which might not be all that bad).

I realize the Donaghy mess is bad, but let's be honest, it's not THAT bad. So before you get your panties in a knot, just remember it could always be much worse.

-WCK

Helping you double your paycheck through the NBA playoffs

If you need help in deciphering who is going to win each day's NBA playoff games because you're a degenerate gambler like me, let me guide you to the guys over at Stephen Jackson's Gun Rack who are putting up some great info about the matchups. These guys know what they're doing, because they made me a little richer on Saturday thanks to the Houston game.

We'll also be rooting like hell for Stephen later today, as he attempts to help the Warriors beat the Mavs.

-WCK