The Festive Season is on the horizon, but don’t panic! If you love your sports, then we will guide you to some of the best annual Christmas sporting events you can enjoy each year!
The shops may be festooned with Christmas decorations; you may be planning for the big day and working out who to invite or not to invite to Christmas dinner. Perhaps you have your work party or a gathering of friends and family to look forward to.
Then, of course, there is the whole palaver of buying gifts for people, writing out and sending the Xmas cards, sorting out the copious amount of Christmas food and drink to buy!
And unless you are a guest at someone else’s residence, then you will likely have to cook the turkey and all the trimmings on the day too!
It’s easy for sports fans to feel overwhelmed during the festive season. However, in those rare moments of downtime, there are some incredible annual Christmas sporting events to enjoy.
Here’s our guide to the very best of them!
Bet365 Sport provides excellent betting opportunities for all these events and more, not only during the festive season but throughout the year.
Let’s dive into our countdown of the top sporting events happening just before, during, and after the Christmas and New Year period in 2024!
Perhaps no sporting event is more synonymous with Christmas than the World Darts Championship. Last year, Luke Humphries won the trophy, defeating 16-year-old Luke Littler in the final.
The tournament is broken up into two halves, pre-Christmas (when the first two rounds take place) and post-Christmas (when the latter rounds are played), with the final taking place in the New Year.
Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Years Eve are amongst the days the players have off.
In what has been an open season on the Darts scene, there are a large number of players who could be in with a chance of becoming the first major Sporting World Champion of 2025!
Christmas football has long been a part of the tradition in the UK and this year is no exception with no less than five sets of Premier League games between the 14th December and 6th January 2025.
Big games taking place over this period include; Man City v Man Utd (15th December), Aston Villa v Man City (21st December), Tottenham v Liverpool (22nd December), Newcastle v Aston Villa (26th December), Man Utd v Newcastle (30th December), Tottenham v Newcastle (4th January), and Liverpool v Man Utd (5th January)
The weekend of the 11th and 12th January 2025 will be the FA Cup Third Round weekend and the final two sets of Champions League, League Stage games take place in late January.
Think there is no sporting action on Christmas Day each year? Well think again as if you are a fan of the NFL, you can usually catch two games on Christmas Day. The action begins at 6pm UK Time as the Pittsburgh Steelers and Kansas City Chiefs face off, before later on the Baltimore Ravens and Houston Texans battle it out.
It is also a very important part of the season, as teams are now heading into the final four games of the regular season. That means playoff places will be on the line for a large percentage of teams, who will have it all to play for.
Others will want to try and secure the top seed in their conference as with it comes a bye week on Wildcard Weekend (11th to 13th January) and home field advantage throughout the playoffs.
Alongside the big Christmas Day games, there are a number of other important clashes taking place over the final weeks of the regular season. This includes Week 15 matches between the Detroit Lions and Buffalo Bills and Philadelphia Eagles @ Pittsburgh Steelers. Week 16 sees the Ravens @ Steelers, Seahawks @ Vikings and Chiefs @ Texans. Week 17 includes the two big Christmas Day games plus the Rams @ Cardinals, Vikings @ Packers and 49ers @ Lions. Lastly week 18 sees Broncos @ Chiefs, Lions @ Vikings and Buccaneers @ Saints to enjoy.
After losing his unbeaten record against Oleksandr Usyk earlier this year, Tyson Fury has activated the rematch clause against the Ukrainian former undisputed cruiserweight and heavyweight world champion.
This second bout takes place once again in Saudi Arabia with Fury seeking revenge for his defeat to Usyk back in the summer. The Gypsy King has been training hard for this bout and appears to have gained muscle for the contest.
However Usyk remains unbeaten and while he is no longer the undisputed champion, he still holds the majority of the belts and is the best heavyweight in the world today.
This should be another cracking sporting event to enjoy in the run up to Christmas!
Latest Betting from bet365 – To win the fight – Usyk 1.66, Fury 2.2.
The Ladbrokes Christmas Festival is a traditional 2-day meeting held at Kempton Park on Boxing Day and the 27th December, with the highlight race of the meeting being Boxing Day’s King George VI. Chase.
First contested in 1937, the race has seen a number of very famous winners over the year including four-time winner Desert Orchid, Best Mate, Long Run, five-time winner Kauto Star, Cue Card, the magnificent Thistlecrack and last year’s winner Hewick.
Hewick is back to defend the title this year but faces stiff competition from Grey Dawning, Corbetts Cross, Envoi Allen, Banbridge, L'homme Presse, Spillane's Tower and Fact To File.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=thistlecrack+king+george+2016
Other big races on the two-day program include the Kauto Star Novices’ Chase, The Desert Orchid Chase, the Wayward Lad Novices’ Steeple Chase and the Mare’s Handicap Hurdle.
And don’t think 2025 is going to be off to a slow start for sports fans either.
Early January will see the final round of NFL Regular Season games, with the Playoffs starting a week later with Wildcard Weekend.
We also have the third round of the FA Cup on the second weekend in January with the Australian Open tennis tournament starting in the first month of the year.
Then in addition to all your annual sports events, 2025 will also see the Women's European Football Championships in Switzerland, a brand new F1 season with Lewis Hamilton now at Ferrari plus the start of the World Cup Qualifying campaign for international teams in Europe.
As you can see, sports fans need not be too concerned as there is not let up in fantastic sporting action to get your teeth into over the Christmas 2024 and New Year 2025 period and beyond!
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