Online Betting UK

It’s the pinnacle of European club football and the competition every fan wants to win and this year with no less than six English teams in the competition and this means even more attention than before. Liverpool are of course the record English side in the competition and were finalists in 2018 and 2022 and won the competition in 2019 and they will be looking do to well this year.

This year, however, it will be last years champions PSG along with record champions Real Madrid who will be the clubs to beat. Man City will be up there again having now won their first Champions League in 2023 it could now open the floodgates and it is likely more wins will follow. Arsenal, Chelsea and even Newcastle cannot be discounted and if they make the knockout rounds anything is possible.  Spurs seem a little more of an uncertainty but you never know with them.

Form 2024-25 the competition expanded to 36 teams with a new league phase replacing the group stage.  This now means 8 league matches between September and January (no winter break anymore) with four home and four away ties all against different teams.  The top 8 go straight to the last 16, those who finish 9-14 in the league contest a two legged play off in February with the 8 winners progressing to the last 16.

From that point it is a straight knockout as we are familiar with.  The top 8 league teams are seeded at the last 16 stage but country protection is removed now.  The knockout draw in February now also plots out the route to the final, as with the likes of the World Cup, which helps ensure the 8 seeded teams are more likely to make it to the later stages – as if the big teams needed anymore help.

Watch: TNT Sport

The darts Premier League takes place from February to May every Thursday evening, it moves around each week meaning that 17 different venues across the UK and Europe will be used this year.

The format changed in 2022 and now takes place over 17 evenings with 8 players competing in a series of 16 mini-tournaments before a final play-off. For the first 16 nights players play quarters, semis and a final with the winner getting 5 league points and a £10k bonus, runner-up 3 points and losing semi-finalists 2 points.

The top 4 players in the league progress to the final play-offs and the final due to be staged in late May. The world’s eight best PDC players compete in the Premier League. Michael Van Gerwen won the 2022 and 2023 versions and is record holder with 7 titles, ahead of Phil Taylor with 6 titles. MVG also won four titles in a row between 2016-2019.  Luke Littler won on his debut in 2024, only the third player to do so and the youngest winner in history.  He also managed a 9-dart leg in the final.  He seems to be the one to watch for the future.

The only player it seems that may stop Littler being completely dominant is Luke Humphries who beat Littler in the final in 2025 – despite Littler setting a new record of 45 points in the league phase to get there.

The event was only conceived in 2005 and yet has already become one of the most high profile events on the darts calendar, second only perhaps to the World Championship.

You can find some excellent linked free bets and price boosts, especially from the previous event sponsor Unibet. For nights 1 to 16 each match is best of 11 legs, the semi-finals best of 19 legs and the final best of 21 legs.

Watch: Sky Sports

Those who love long distance jump racing are in for a bumper treat in 2026 with the Scottish Grand National coming just one week after the English and two weeks aftere the Irish versions of the national.

The Scottish National is not quite as tough as the one at Aintree but is still a gruelling race over just under 4 miles (3 miles, 7 furlongs and 176 yards) jumping no less than 27 fences. With a purse over a quarter of a million pound too this is one of the richest jump races on the calendar.

Amateur punters might fancy testing their newly acquired knowledge obtained betting on the English National the week before, while more experienced punters know this is the business end of the jump season and can predict the horses likely to be in best form.

As with its English counterpart the Scottish National is not held independently but is part of a two day festival of 15 races held on Friday and Saturday.

Watch: ITV

The old ones are the best and despite the proliferation of snooker globally the World Championship, at the famous Crucible Theatre, will always remain the pinnacle.

The format hasn’t changed much in 50 years, no bad thing – if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. The world top 16 ranked players are joined by 16 qualifiers who play in five knock-out rounds over two weeks from Easter weekend to the the final on May bank holiday weekend. This is a straight knockout event ranging from the best of 19 frames in round one to best of 35 in the final. This is about serious competitive matches between top players, none of this league or group stage BS that has permeated so many other sports.

Ronnie O’Sullivan is a threat as always, he failed at the first hurdle in 2019 to an amateur qualifier but then won it in style in 2020 & 2022 – you never know with Ronnie! The only person that is likely to stop Ronnie winning a record 8th title (beating Hendry’s record) is Ronnie. Should the legend of the game falter then Mark Selby, Judd Trump, Neil Robertson and Mark Allen will all be waiting for an opportunity to win the crown – or perhaps there will be a surprise like when Mark Williams stormed the competition beating John Higgins in 2018? Maybe John himself is due a 5th title having lost three on the bounce from 2017-19?  Maybe Mark can become the first winner over 50-years-old, he was the first player aged over 50 to get to a final in 2025.

Maybe the Chinese will now start to dominate?  It took until 2025 for Zhao Xintong to become the first Asian player to win the tournament but with the sport growing and growing in China and a third of the top 16 consisting of Chinese players I think we can expect to see more winners from China in the coming years.

Watch: BBC

The flat horse racing season in the UK gets underway officially with the Lincoln Handicap in late March / early April each year. For many though the season doesn’t really begin properly until the Guineas at Newmarket, the first two of the traditional five English classics.

Both races are held on the famous Rowley mile at Newmarket, the home of the jockey club and seen as the birth place of elite flat racing, having been hosting racing sine the 1600’s. Predictably they are both one mile long with a prize purse over £525,000 with over £297,730 for the winner for the 2000 and even more for the 1000, £548,500 with £311,025 for the winner.

The 2000 Guineas is held first on the Saturday and is in fact older than the 1000 Guineas on the Sunday. The 2000 is open to three-year-old colts and fillies and for four of the last eleven years has been won by Aidan O’Brien trained horses, he is also the leading trainer with 10 wins since 1998.  Also dominating the recent races has been Charlie Appleby who has won three of the last four.

The 1000 Guineas is an identical race held on the Sunday but only open to 3-year-old fillies. This race has also been dominated in recent years by O’Brien horses, winning in 2016-18 and 2020-21. He is also the leading trainer of modern times for this race with 7 wins since 2005. He is favourite to win the race again in 2026 – along with Appleby, who won the 1000 and 2000 last year both ridden by William Buick.

The Guineas is a perfect time to see how the best milers are running early in the season and also a good time to see all the new bookies offers for the flat season.

Watch: ITV

The biggest race in America, and dating back to 1875 the Kentucky Derby is truly ancient by their standards. The 1 mile 2 furlong feature flat race at Churchill Downs commands an incredible prize pool of over $5M with over $3.1M for the race winner. You can see now why this race draws such a high amount of international attention from punters.

The Derby itself comes at the end of an entire festival built around it that includes two full days of high profile racing, including the 1 mile 1 furlong Kentucky Oaks on the Friday. Unlike in the UK however when they say ‘festival’ in the US they mean it, and racing is just part of a two week long event of celebrations.

As the home of horse racing and with so much going on in the summer many bookies pay little attention to foreign racing, especially for promotions and enhanced value. The Kentucky Derby is a distinct exception to this however and if wait until a day or so before the race to bet and you shop around you should be able to get some decent offers.

Watch: NBC Sports