After a breathless 2023, we’re all set for another cracking sports year in 2024. With 3 major world sporting events on the horizon, sports fans, pundits and betting enthusiasts alike will be licking their lips at the prospect of captivating and exciting sports action this year. In anticipation, we’ve highlighted 5 must-see sports events to look out for this year.
UEFA Euro 2024: 14 June to 14 July
Second perhaps only to the FIFA World Cup in importance, the European Championships is always an exciting tournament that produces plenty of exciting football and drama. Euro 2024 will be hosted by Germany, and the hosts will once again be a major tournament threat, along with several other countries including defending champions Italy, England, Spain, France, Netherlands and Portugal.
The beauty of the European Championships is the tendency to spring surprises, as we saw when Denmark won the tournament in 1992 and even more so when unheralded Greece literally beat the odds to win the tournament in 2024. So, really, any of the 24 teams competing in the tournament have a realistic chance of winning.
2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup: 1 to 29 June
The US will host an ICC event for the first time in 2024, co-hosting the T20 World Cup with the West Indies. This T20 World Cup will also be the largest by far, with 20 teams competing. So, besides the “usual suspects, cricket enthusiasts will also get the chance to watch teams that aren’t traditionally known as cricket-playing nations, including Papua New Guinea, Uganda, the USA and Nepal.
Due to the nature of T20 cricket, with many matches impacted by luck and circumstance, there will be far more opportunities for upsets, such as the upset South Africa suffered at the hands of the Netherlands in the 2022 tournament.
2024 Summer Olympics: 26 July to 11 August
Paris, France, will play host in 2024 to the 33rd Summer Olympics, becoming the second city after London to host the Olympics on three occasions. This year’s Games will feature 32 sports encompassing 329 events and will be the first Olympics to feature an identical number of male and female athletes. It will also be the first Summer Olympics since 1960 to have fewer events than the previous edition. This year will see the addition of 4 new sports: breaking, skateboarding, surfing, and sport climbing. The US and China will be favoured to top the medals table, much like they did in the 2020 Summer Olympics (which were held in 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic).
Wimbledon: 1 to 14 July
Nothing quite beats the tradition, history and prestige of Wimbledon, which is the only Grand Slam tournament to be played on grass. This year’s tournament shapes up once again as another classic, with a new generation of exciting players hoping to make their mark on arguably the most coveted prize in tennis.
The 2023 tournament saw a classic Men’s final between Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alzcaraz, with the latter dethroning the 7-time champion in a thrilling match, while Ons Jabeur heartbreakingly lost the Women’s final for the second year in a row to Markéta Vondroušová. This year’s tournament promises once again to offer 2 weeks of pristine play and tennis fans and sports enthusiasts around the globe will be hugely excited to see who emerges victorious this year at SW 19.
Rugby Championship: August/September
This year’s rugby Championship presents another mouth-watering prospect, with the 2024 Rugby World Cup (RWC) winners South Africa up against their bitter rivals New Zealand, who narrowly lost the RWC final 12-11. South Africa will have the advantage though as they will play both of their matches against the All Blacks on home soil. Australia and Argentina also can’t be discounted; Australia will be eager to bounce back from a poor RWC, while Argentina is always capable of producing massive upsets.
Get Your Game on in 2024 at Gbets
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