Holiday Sports Betting Schedule
Sports betting–particularly at the professional level–is a day in/day out grind with little respite. The next few days are the exception. There are two times of the year with absolutely nothing on the betting board (at least in most years). The first is the Major League Baseball All-Star Break. The days after the All Star Game are usually completely devoid of North American sports. The All Star Game itself isn’t much of a betting proposition, nor is the ‘Home Run Derby’ so far all intents and purposes that’s a nice block of three or four days off.
The other time is now. At one point, there seemed to be a lot more going on in the days before Christmas and particularly Christmas eve. My memory could be a little bit inaccurate, but I sure remember when I was a kid watching all sorts of meaningless minor bowl games on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. In all fairness, there are a few things on Christmas Eve including a NFL football game between the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders. This is a nasty rivalry dating back decades but now its the Raiders showing signs of life and the Chargers in the toilet. There’s also two minor bowl games.
On Christmas day, there are five NBA games. At some point during the Michael Jordan era it became a ‘tradition’ to have NBA basketball on Christmas Day. It was fun when monsters like Jordan, Barkley and Shaq roamed the hardwood but it’s just hard to get excited about now. The matchup between LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors could be very entertaining–assuming both teams ‘come to play’. The problem is that you just can’t ‘assume’ that any more in the NBA. That’s why I have all but lost interest in pro basketball and why I love NHL hockey. Hockey players just aren’t the type to ‘phone it in’, particularly in a high profile national TV game.
Other than the above games there’s nothing until December 26. The NBA will be off but there will be NFL football, college bowl games, NHL hockey and a bunch of European soccer. The bowl games will then come fast and furious until the New Year.