Vegas sports books happy there will in fact be an NBA season by The Gaming Today’s Mark Mayer

Las Vegas Sports Books have received the best of Black Friday
bargains with the announcement early Saturday that there will in fact be an NBA
season.

League owners and players in New York after a 15-hour marathon
session reached a tentative agreement to end the 149-day lockout and hope to
begin the delayed season on Christmas Day.

Barring a change in scheduling, the 2011-12 season will open with
the Boston Celtics at New York Knicks, followed by Miami at Dallas in an NBA
finals rematch before MVP Derrick Rose and Chicago close the tripleheader
against Kobe Bryant and the Lakers.

The league plans a 66-game season and aims to open training camps
Dec. 9, with free agency opening at the same time. Sports Book directors in Las
Vegas had been especially worried that a cancelled NBA season would hit
especially hard after January when most of the NFL and college football had been
completed.

Without the NBA it would just be college basketball carrying the
majority of wagering on a daily basis from the January to April period before
the start of major league baseball. March is the height of college basketball
wagering with the NCAA men’s tournament play over three weeks in March.

A majority on each side is needed to approve the agreement. The NBA needs
votes from 15 of 29 owners. (The league owns the New Orleans Hornets.) NBA
Commissioner David Stern said the labor committee plans to discuss the agreement
later Saturday and expects them to endorse it and recommend to the full
board.

At www.aasiwins.com, you can read all of Mark Mayer’s free NBA articles.