In the News..
I’m guessing I’m not the only person who’s been watching the news. It’s 2020, the year of the coronavirus, what more is there to do? So, as we’ve all been sitting around the house, watching the depressing news, we see now that many countries and now many of the states within the United States are loosening restrictions on locking down. And with that, many of the world’s professional sports leagues are making plans to finish or begin their seasons. This is terrific news for those of us who have a nasty sports and gambling itch. While it may be a little longer for casinos to open, there are plenty of live betting platforms we can pour over to apply that soothing ointment.
As many of us have already seen, the Korean Baseball Organization has been up and going for a little less than a month now. And while they’re doing it without fans in the stands, it’s great to see something on television that is about competition. Here in the United States, Major League Baseball is going over ideas to start the 2020 season in late June or early July. This would be around the traditional All-Star Break, so a half season’s worth of games from there seems very plausible - health pending. The main questions seem to be the number of games to be played, locations, playoff format and, of course, the money to be divided. Hopefully they get it right and find a good middle ground. Missing the entire season would be almost as damaging as the 1994 player’s strike. Nobody wants or needs that.
The National Hockey League announced a radical plan to finish their season, just in the last few days. As of this writing, the regular season is over. Twenty-four teams, twelve from each conference, are slated to make the playoffs. The seven non-qualifiers will go into their Draft Lottery. The top four teams in each conference are to be slated against each other in a round-robin fashion, meaning three games apiece. From there, those teams would be seeded #1 through #4. The other eight teams would be matched up in best-of-five series to advance to play the seeded teams. It’s a very different idea and it’s actually a unique idea for these unique times we are in.
The National Basketball Association has been in talks about resuming the season or going straight to the playoffs, but nothing concrete has been announced. In early April, there was an idea of doing the entire playoffs in Las Vegas, using a best-of-three series throughout to crown a champion. This is a developing situation.
For months, the National Football League has been going business as usual, as their season isn’t scheduled to begin until September. Yes, preseason games and camps are set to begin in the months before, but they seem more focused on the end goal - again, health pending. Related, the NCAA is mulling over options as to whether they will be playing football in 2020. Ideas to cancel, play only conference games or go 100% are all still on the table. As ravenous as fans are for their football, I would think this is probably more at the front of every sports fan’s mind than the rest.
There have been a few leagues in Europe that have started playing soccer again. And the talk about tennis without fans is circulating. But for those of us looking to take advantage of these live betting platforms, we need everyone to stay healthy. We need everyone to get out there and play. We need everyone to get back to a normal life and not waste 2020 by living in fear.
