Barca, Real title race goes down to the wire

Soccer Betting Lines

05/14/2010 - Barcelona, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Barcelona has secured the La Liga title at Camp Nou in the final match of the season four times, but captain Carles Puyol warned that Sunday's match against Valladolid "will be no stroll."

Barca enters the finale with a one-point cushion on Real Madrid and a win over relegation-threatened Valladolid would clinch the club's 20th Spanish crown.

Real Madrid visits relegation-threatened Malaga on Sunday, but needs Barcelona to falter to have a chance. Barca will still claim the title with a defeat, if Real losses or draws.

Although Barcelona is unbeaten at home - 17 wins and one tie - Puyol was still cautious with Valladolid facing the drop, and his teammates feel the same way.

"It will be difficult playing against a team facing relegation," Puyol said on the club's website.

"They've got a lot at stake," Barca's Bojan Krkic said on the team's website. "We expect it to be a difficult match and we'll have to clinch it as soon as possible."

Other than its 1-1 draw against Villarreal, Barcelona has been nearly flawless at Camp Nou. In its 17 wins, Barca has scored 52 goals and allowed just 10.

Krkic felt it was important to get an early lead against Valladolid, which has earned 10 results on the road this season.

"In this kind of match you have to avoid getting stuck at 0-0 for too long. That's why it's important to start well and get the support of the fans right from the beginning," he said.

Barca coach Pep Guardiola should welcome back Andres Iniesta and Eric Abidal, but Xavi is out after picking up his fifth yellow card last week. He earned an automatic one-match suspension for accumulated cards, but Barcelona has appealed.

Valladolid, led by former Spain coach Javier Clemente, can still remain in the top flight with a loss, but will be counting on other results in a fight among five clubs.

Valladolid is one of four teams on 36 points - along with Malaga, Racing and Tenerife - and Xerez is three points back but still has hope.

Malaga faces a tough test against Real, which is trying to avoid finishing the season without a single title after its nearly $400 million makeover.

"We expect to win, but it will be a very difficult match because both teams have so much at stake," Real's Gago said on the club's website. "We will both play to the fullest. We need the points to have a chance of winning the title and Malaga need to win in order to avoid relegation.

"I hope it's Real Madrid that win. No team can ever be too confident because every match is like a final."

Tenerife also faces a top club Sunday when it visits Valencia, which has third and a Champions League spot secured.

Racing is in the best position of the relegation-threatened sides, as it hosts Sporting Gijon. Sporting is just above the drop zone. Xerez visits Osasuna but may not even survive with a win.

The last Champions League berth and two Europa League spots will be determined on Saturday.

Fourth-place Sevilla visits Almeria and fifth-place Mallorca hosts Espanyol in the battle for the Champions League spot. Sevilla would secure the spot with a win, while Mallorca needs a win and either a loss or draw by Sevilla. Fifth is still good enough for a Europa spot.

The other Europa spot will go to Getafe or Villarreal, who enter the final day level on points. Getafe holds the tiebreaker, so it will claim the berth if it matches Villarreal's result against Real Zaragoza when it visits newly-crowned Europa League champions Atletico Madrid.

Athletic Bilbao hosts Deportivo in the other match in La Liga on Saturday.

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SPORTS BETTING: NFL Football Sportsbook Betting

NFL owners, already life's biggest winners, want to try their luck with the lottery.


That was the news out of their meetings last week, where team bosses voted unanimously to allow stamping state and local lottery tickets with franchise logos, if, ahem, any governments wanted to do a deal.

A shocker: Within days the Pats announced they'd be sponsoring the Massachusetts state lottery, the Skins said they'd slap their sticker on Virginia scratch-offs and the Ravens admitted they were talking to Maryland lottery bosses. In all likelihood, it won't be long before every team is a presenting sponsor of scratch-offs or just plain old pick fives. "The change in policy was approved 32-0," said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. "So you can expect to see more deals soon."

It's a branding opportunity too big for the owners to ignore, and one a couple of dozen baseball franchises have enjoyed for years. The fact the NFL has been slower to act than those slack-brained Seligites is indicative of its complicated relationship with all forms of gambling. Consider this: Last Thursday, as the Pats and the Redskins finalized their new lottery deals, a lawyer representing the NFL argued before Delaware's Supreme Court that the state's newly signed sports betting law should be repealed.

The NFL betting is the face of opposition to sports gambling . And as much as it would like to share that responsibility with other leagues, that's not going to happen as long as more than 40% of all money legally wagered on games is bet on football. That's why the Brewers can do a multi-million dollar deal with a local casino, or the Celtics can make their own pact with the Mass lottery, and the response is, "Sweet, let's play." But when the NFL does it the stakes are higher, and everyone from NPR's Frank Deford to the Associated Press to the guys blogging at Deadspin will line up to play gotcha.

So I asked Aiello, who surely knew there'd be piling on, how the league can rail against being bait for sports bettors, then allow its franchises to be just that for lotteries, the most insidious and addictive form of gambling around. He emailed me this response: "We are not moral crusaders. NFL personnel are permitted to engage in legal forms of gambling, except for betting on NFL games. We are making a distinction here between the spread of gambling on the outcome of our games and supporting state lottery scratch-off games, that have nothing to do with the outcome of our games."

Here's where I should rip him. But, the thing is, he's right. Not to get Obama on you, but this is a complicated, nuanced issue. As much as lotteries are considered a tax on the poor, the NFL isn't a socially obligated government program -- it's just a business. Scratch-off's help the bottom line, sports betting doesn't. Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors … But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal.

Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors. And it's okay to mutter something obscene when the league pretends gambling doesn't help drive TV ratings and fan interest and put money in owners' pockets. But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal. The Bears should put an orange "C" on every deck of cards dealt at Harrah's in Joliet; the Eagles should slap their logo on roulette wheels at the Borgata in Atlantic City; the Dolphins should hold training camp at the El San Juan in Puerto Rico.

Seriously.

The NFL's problem, when it comes to the gambling world, isn't hypocrisy, it's worse: The bosses lack vision. That's why the league is picking unwinnable fights in Delaware and taking pot shots from critics after making smart sponsorship deals. Roger Goodell and his gang are acting and thinking locally rather than globally, which is rare for them, especially compared to their professional (and amateur) counterparts.

The NBA held its All Star game in Las Vegas and David Stern's kingdom didn't crumble (although the town did bring plenty of players to their knees.) I'd say it's 6 to 5 and pick 'em that Lebron will make a road swing through Sin City before his career is over.

Even the NCAA College Football Betting is more progressive on this issue than the NFL. Several years ago Rachel Newman Baker, college sports' gambling czar, opened a dialogue with Vegas bookmakers to learn about how they do business. She's visited Nevada sports books, studied their operations and listened to how they regulate action. Now she knows she can expect a call from bookmakers, who lose money when sports are fixed, if they think something sketchy is going on in NCAA games. She's not in favor of sports betting, but, as she once told me, "I know it's not going away, either."

The NFL can't seem to accept that. And until it can find peace with the idea, it'll get flack, even when it's right.

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