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The 2023 EFL Cup gets underway with the first round starting the week of the 10th August. The games then come quick and fast through the autumn and winter in order to complete the competition by February. That doesn’t however mean teams won’t want to play seriously for the silverware that could come. Manchester City have won six of the last nine finals since 2014 and have come to own the competition of late. The only other teams to win in that time are Liverpool and Chelsea. Then again this is a cup competition and anything can happen, this will be in City’s mind too having been beaten in one of the biggest FA Cup shocks when Wigan overcame them in the 2012 final.

With Man City likely to dominate the Premier League again it gives added importance for the League Cup where it will be high on the list for teams like Tottenham, Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs and Man United as a way to earn silverware to grow their teams. Equally upcoming teams like Everton, Newcastle and Wolves could get a lot out of a good EFL Cup run.

For 2023 the quarter and semi-finals are delayed due to the World Cup with the quarters now taking place in January and the Semi’s in Jan/Feb, the only game held at a neutral venue is the final at Wembley on 26th February 2023.

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The Premier League is the worlds biggest sporting competition in terms of revenue, number of people watching, wages, attendance and pretty much any other stat you want to look at; including betting, accounting for over half of bets placed on football in the UK.

Let’s face it the league is elitist and based on money, and for a long time this caused stagnation with three teams dominating the first 20 years; Man Utd, Chelsea and Arsenal. Lately, however, the league has gained a new competitive streak, most notably with Leicester winning in 2015 and then two new dominant forces arising in Liverpool and Man City, who look set to continue their battle in 2022-23, in the way United and Arsenal did 15 years ago – that is except the level is now much higher, as seen with Liverpool coming second in 2019 with an astonishing 97 points.

In the UK 70% of bets are placed on football and nearly three quarters of those wagers go on the Premier League, making this one event responsible for around half of all bets placed. Considering this if you bet on the PL you would be insane not to search around for the best offers and odds from our leading bookies. Read our detailed guide for more.

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The 20th Club World Cup takes place in the Saudi Arabia in the old format. A newly expanded tournament was rescheduled from 2021 to 2023 and again to 2025 due to disruption caused by coronavirus. This will be the last year that 7 teams compete for the title annually, after this the tournament expands to 24 teams in the summer on a 4 year cycle.

For the new format UEFA has 8 berths that will include winners and runners-up from previous editions of the Champions and Europa League. They are joined by a further 15 teams from the other 5 confederations alongside a single host team (Chinese Super League winners). Teams are divided into 8 groups of 3, the winners of each group progress to the quarter-finals from which point the cup follows a traditional knockout structure.

The tournament has not been well loved over the years, seen mainly as another FIFA money spinner, which let’s face it it is. Especially considering that when the expanded tournament was announced in 2016 FIFA only seemed to be concerned about making it more attractive to broadcasters and said nothing about clubs or fans.

With Liverpool winning in 2019 and Chelsea in 2021 (played in 2022) it has stoked more interest in the competition of late.  Manchester City will be vying for their first cup this year having won the Champions League last year.

The PDC World Darts Championship is without doubt the single biggest event in darts, it runs each year at the famous Ally Pally (Alexandra Palace) in London from the second week in December and finishing on 2nd January 2024. From personal experience there is no better way to get over the New Years hangover than a best of 13 set darts final.

No less than 96 players take part, made up of the 32 best PDC players in the order or merit along with 32 qualifiers from the Pro Tour and 32 international qualifiers. There are 95 matches total taking place in a knock-out format over 7 rounds. The tournament is set based, each set being the best of 5 games. Best of 3 sets first round, best of 5 second, best of 7 third and fourth, best of 9 QF’s, best of 11 SF’s and best of 13 in the final.

Phil Taylor dominated the event since its inception in 1994 following the PDC split from the BDO, with 14 titles to his name. The Power is however now retired and it is Michael Van Gerwen with 3 titles and Peter Wright with 2 titles who are the men to beat. With a prize purse of £2,500,000 and £500,000 to the winner it is one of the biggest things a darts player can hope to win.

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The BBC Sports Personality Of The Year awards have been running since 1954 when Peter Dimmock first hosted it. Since then the awards have taken place every year and have become a firm favourite of the British public.

For 2023 the awards will take place again in the BBC’s own Media City in Salford. There are actually nine awards up for grabs in addition to the big one; the lifetime achievement, team of the year, world sports star of the year, Helen Rollason award, coach of the year, young sports personality of the year, greatest sporting moment and unsung hero awards.

Only Andy Murray has won the accolade three times, with four others winning it twice (Henry Cooper, Lewis Hamilton, Nigel Mansell and Damon Hill). Athletics dominates in history, with the sports stars from the discipline winning 18 times previously, F1 is a distant second with 8, tennis with 7, football, boxing, cricket and cycling with 5.

Women’s Euros winner Beth Mead won the award last year and fellow England star Mary Earps is favourite this year thanks to her leading performance at the woman’s World Cup.

Watch: BBC1

Held on Boxing Day and the 27th December each year the Winter Festival has a magic about it that no other jump race meeting can match. This is partly because of the famous 3 mile Grade 1 race named after King George VI in 1937 but also coming the day after Christmas it has a jovial festive atmosphere not seen at other meetings.

The King George VI is the obvious highlight, carrying a purse of £250,000, it sets a marker for the best horses we are likely to see at Cheltenham in March. It has been won by all the legends, such as Kauto Star no less than 5 times and Desert Orchid 4 times. It is however just one of three grade 1 races on Boxing Day that also includes the 3 mile Kauto Star Chase and the 2 mile Christmas Hurdle.

Most people don’t realise this is a two day meeting either with a further 6 races to enjoy on the 27th, including the Grade 2 Wayward Lad Novice’s Chase and the Desert Orchid Chase (both 2 miles).

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Professional racing punters are not keen races like the Welsh Grand National, they prefer higher grade smaller field races with more certain outcomes for obvious reasons. For the casual racing fan however it is the opposite, there is nothing more exciting to watch than a long big field handicap race on a cold day, this is one reason the Aintree Grand National is the biggest race in the world, as normal people want to watch.

The Welsh version doesn’t quite have the appeal of its English cousin but it is still a great race and coming at a festive time there is more time for people to enjoy racing during the holiday season. The National itself is run over 3 miles, 5 furlongs and 110 yards, it is a Premier Handicap with a prize pool around £147,500. There are 23 fences to be jumped and the event is open to 4 year olds and over. Many horses that have won this in the past have gone on to perform well in the Cheltenham Gold Cup in March.

The Welsh National isn’t the only race of the day either, it is joined by another 6 races on the card, including the Grade 1 Finale Juvenile Handicap over 2 miles and 11 yards.

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The 2024 FA Cup could be one of the best in years, yes there is an expectation that Manchester City may simply walk it, but then they said that in 2012 when Wigan produced the biggest shock of the last 30 years. This is the 143rd edition of the world’s oldest and best domestic cup competition and see 732 teams compete in 764 games to find a winner.

Despite the magic and all the giant killings it remains true that the FA Cup has been won by only three teams other than Man Utd, Man City, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea since 1992. That doesn’t stop fans believing however and an upset is due again soon surely? After all, Leicester won it in 2021.

Man City have their eyes on other prizes this year there is no doubt, but then they have one of the deepest squads to cope with it and are aiming to win as much as they can. On the flip side the likes of Man Utd, Newcastle and Chelsea will be taking the tournament more seriously this year as they won’t win the Premier League, a lot of clubs will also be courting the Europa League spot available to the winners along with the trophy.

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The Breeders Cup was established in 1982, not very old in British horse racing terms but in typical American style it has smashed its way to the top of the worlds best meetings by offering staggering amounts of prize money. This year the fund is expected to exceed $35 million, which beats any UK meeting by a country mile.

Despite the name the Breeders’ Cup is a series of races over two days. It moves around each year but for 2024 it will be held at Del Mar for the third time. The races are held on both turf and dirt tracks and range from 5 furlongs to 1 1/2 miles. There are 14 races, five on Friday and 9 on Saturday; 12 of which have grade 1 status. The biggest and final race (late night UK time on Saturday) is the 1 mile 2 furlong Breeders’ Cup Classic on dirt, which has a prize pot of $6 million alone.

The biggest turf race precedes the Classic, the Breeders’ Cup Longines Distaff, a one and a half mile run with $4 million prize fund. Even the lower races that would often be counted as filler at other events offer at least $1 million.

Obviously given the lavish amount of cash to be won the Breeders’ Cup attracts a lot of interest around the world and UK bookies like to get in on this and will have their best prices and promos around 24-48 hours before the main races.

Watch: NBC