Sports is never a done deal. The whole excitement of sports is that anything can happen, favou\rites can lose, underdogs can pull off shock wins. The unpredictability of sports is all part of its appeal, and it’s why people like to visit a sportsbook, like Sportsbet, so they can make money out of it. A winner coming good can be lucrative. 

However, no one could have foreseen what happened to sports in 2020, with events, leagues and tournaments all over the world grinding to a halt, in a way it has never done before. But what does 2021 have in store for us? It’s anyone’s guess…

A Strange Year

March 2020 saw the whole world come to a standstill, and sports was no different. All major American sports leagues, such as the NBA, NHL and MLB paused their season, for what they believed would be just a brief interlude. The commissioner of the NBA believed that sports would be back up and running in around 1-month’s time. However, many thought this was a little optimistic, and it was. Indeed, the break lasted for four whole months and to get it restarted, they had to create a whole new society at Disney World. Even when it reconvened, many believed it was far too soon, especially considering how America, as a whole, had handled the whole pandemic. With the virus spreading through the NBA players, many felt that greed had taken precedence over the public’s health and common sense. 

Pulling it Off

However, despite a few problems with the restarting of the year, the American sports leagues have seemingly pulled off the impossible and managed to finish the 2020 season. Many will argue that it shouldn’t have happened and that the powers that be were playing with people’s lives.

However, it cannot be denied that it happened, and it worked. It can’t be denied that what the whole of the sporting world did in 2020, with everything that was going on, was nothing short of a miracle. 2020 was never going to a pretty year for sports.

The seasons could never run smoothly, but at the end of the day, they got them done. It may have been a very ugly win for sports, but sometimes sports success is made up of ugly wins. 

What Does this Mean for 2021?

However, what does the future look like as it stands? Just because they made it through to the end of 2020 in one piece, it doesn’t mean that they want to replicate it. People were understanding of the 2020 season. It was considered a one-off, and not something anyone wanted to be repeated in 2021, and definitely not in 2022…

It took a lot of planning to get through last season, so if there’s a repeat, what happens could be devastating for the industry. To get the revenues they need to keep going, sports teams need to play all their games and logistically, if the problems start from the very beginning of the season it could be catastrophic. Let’s hope for a winning result for all sports this year.