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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 three new dominant forces arising in Arsenal, Liverpool and Man City, who look set to continue their battle in 2023-24, 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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It’s the pinnacle of European club football and the competition every fan wants to win and this year with no less than four 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 having missed out in 2024.

This year, however, it will be last years champions Real Madrid who will be the club to beat with now 15 titles to their name, winning in 2024 against a Dortmund team that were far better – Madrid just always find a way. Man City will be favourites 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 and even Aston Villa cannot be discounted and if they make the knockout rounds anything is possible.

Form 2024-25 the competition has expanded again 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 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 3rd January 2025. 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.  There is also a new generation coming through with the past four winners winning their first title and last year Luke Littler was runner-up at just 16 years of age.

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.

Watch: Sky Sports

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 2024 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 World Cup runner-up Mary Earps won the award last year after fellow England star Beth Mead won the year before for England’s Euros win the same year.  Don’t bet against the England women’s team basically.

Watch: BBC1

While the world had hoped to see Tyson Fury take on AJ last year it was not to be as they couldn’t agree terms. Fury wanted to take on AJ to settle the question as to who is the greatest British boxer of this generation. With the fight in limbo Fury instead decided on a trilogy fight against Derek Chisora, which he again won easily.

He followed this up with a fight that was purely about money against former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou in Saudi Arabia.  The 10 round fight was a boxing match but Fury’s WBC belt wasn’t on the line and he might have been thankful of that as he certainly didn’t win it easily.  The fight was called to Fury to split decision but many felt Ngannou should have won, especially as he knocked down Fury in the 5th.  It is hard to know how much of the real Fury was on display that day but he was better in the next fight; the long awaited unification fight with Usyk that was narrowly lost in May by split decision.

Usyk was knocked down in his previous fight with Daniel Dubois.  It wasn’t an official knockdown as the punch was declared below the belt (controversially).  Usyk went on to knock him out in the ninth but it showed some weaknesses that Fury could exploit if he can get some lower punches away to the body.

There is no firm favourite in this rematch fight and it could genuinely go either way.  Boxing fans are just thankful to have a fight like this having waited years.  What we do know is Usyk is now the first unified heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis in 1999 but will he keep that accolade in December or will Fury avenge his only career loss and take all the belts?

Round betting is where the value can be found if you have an inkling as to when the fight might end. bet365 especially are renowned for price guarantees and enhanced specials if you wait until the week of the bout to bet.

Watch: Sky Box Office

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).

Watch: ITV

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 2 Finale Juvenile Handicap over 2 miles and 11 yards.

Watch: ITV