Columnist Jeff Haney: Game of the year? How about 161 of ‘em?

Wednesday, July 14, 2004 | 11:10 a.m.

Jeff Haney's sports betting column appears Wednesday. Reach him at (702) 259-4041 or haney@lasvegassun.com.

ACTION: Betting, a bet.

HANG: To offer a betting line that gamblers can wager against.

MIDDLE: A situation in which you bet both sides of a game and win both wagers, due to favorable line moves. Example: Bet on USC minus 18 points against Cal today. Let's say by the day of the game, Oct. 9, the line has moved to 21 points. Then, bet Cal plus 21. If USC wins by 19 or 20 points, you have hit a "middle."

SIDE: One team or the other in a particular game, as opposed to the over / under.

TOTAL: Another word for over/under. A bet on how many points will be scored in a game.

June 30 -- Worst things about Vegas betting.

July 7 -- Future books for the World Series.

Today -- Games of the year in football.

Next week -- Over/unders on wins in NFL season.

Tapping into the betting publics fascination with all things football, the Las Vegas Hilton has hung lines on 81 National Football League and 80 college "games of the year" for the upcoming season.

Those are just part of an all-out football blitz at the Hilton that also includes betting lines - totals as well as sides - on the first week of the NFLs regular season; odds to win the Bowl Championship Series title game; odds to win college conference championships; and total season wins for every pro team and 35 college teams.

Rather impressive, considering were still at baseballs All-Star break on the sports calendar.

"Every step that we move closer to the beginning of football season, well continue to attract more and more action," said Jeff Sherman, the assistant manager of the Las Vegas Hilton race and sports book.

The Las Vegas Hilton, formerly under the ownership of Caesars Entertainment, was recently acquired by Colony Capital. It officially began operating as an independent sports book on June 18, Sherman said.

Las Vegas Hilton race and sports book director Jay Kornegay and manager Ed Salmons, both formerly of the Imperial Palace, bring an aggressive approach to bookmaking to the casinos operations.

"We plan to offer the most extensive betting menu in Las Vegas while maintaining competitive pricing," Sherman said.

"The idea (behind games of the year) is to come up with the most attractive games for people to bet on, whether theyre nationally televised games, or games with implications for the national championship, or games with regional interest like those involving BYU or UNLV."

Betting has been brisk on the first week of NFL totals, Sherman said, while customers were beginning to pick away at the games of the year in light action early this week.

Notable among the key college games:

Notre Dame, which was blanked 38-0 by Michigan a year ago, hosts the Wolverines as a 4 1/2-point underdog on Sept. 11.

BYU, which lost 3-0 to Utah last year, is an 8-point underdog against the Utes on Nov. 20.

Even so, if youre a "middle" specialist, you might take a piece of them anyway. You might speculate that those lines will go even higher by game day, driven up by the masses likely to fall in love with the Trojans at the betting windows this season - particularly in Las Vegas, with its large base of gamblers who call Southern California home.

The Imperial Palace has also posted its NFL games of the year, listing a total of 35 games.

Las Vegas sports handicapper "Fairway Jay" Ginsbach played the course at Royal Troon Golf Club - site of this weeks British Open - 10 years ago, and called it "the experience of a lifetime."

The visit also gave him a first hand look at how challenging the course can be, Ginsbach said, with its devastating bunkers, its precarious weather, its "gorse and broom."

"When youre talking about the British Open, watching it on TV never does it justice," Ginsbach (fairwayjay.com) said. "It can be not-too-breezy, then all of a sudden the wind kicks up and its a different game.

"There are five holes - the 10th, 11th, 15th, 16th and 18th - where you can be playing right into the wind. ... Youve got to be able to control the trajectory (of your shots), and distance control is also very important given the situation with the wind."

Tiger Woods and Ernie Els, both 6 1/2-1 shots, are favored to win the British Open in Las Vegas casinos.

Ginsbach, however, will be looking for value with some of the longer shots on the board - including veteran Colin Montgomerie, who was listed as high 100-1 to win the tournament.

Montgomerie, whose father was a longtime club secretary at Troon, could also be worth backing in head-to-head matchups, Ginsbach said.

"He might be past his prime, but he knows the course," Ginsbach said. "Its like second nature to him."

Ginsbach said he would also consider Sergio Garcia (16-1 to win), Padraig Harrington (25-1) and Darren Clarke (25-1), either to win outright or in individual head-to-head matchups.

The field - meaning the "all other players" entry - could also hold some value, Ginsbach said, but only if the odds are better than 4-1, the current price at many shops.

"Some names that arent very familiar to a lot of fans will be up there on the leader board," Ginsbach said.

Several Las Vegas sports books offer betting on the Tour de France, with Casino MonteLago among those keeping a proposition on the board throughout the cycling race asking whether Lance Armstrong will win the event.

At last glance, it was minus 115 that Armstrong will win the Tour de France for the sixth time, and minus 105 that he will not win. The opening line, minus 145 on the yes, was more optimistic about Armstrongs chances.

Las Vegas betting shops offered a number of propositions on Tuesday nights baseball All-Star Game in addition to the side and total.

Manny Ramirez cashed as a 5-1 shot to hit the games first home run. The total number of hits (19 1/2) and runs, hits and errors combined (30 1/2) went over, while total home runs (3 1/2 at some places) stayed under.

Dont look for any betting opportunities on the Summer Olympics in Athens in local sports books.

State gaming regulations prohibit wagering on the Olympics in Nevada sports books. The decision to outlaw betting on the Olympics was made in 2001, at the same time the restriction on betting on UNLV and Nevada-Reno games was lifted.

Perhaps the most popular stretch of Olympic betting came in 1992, on games involving the original U.S. basketball "Dream Team" that won a gold medal in Barcelona.