The start of the year had caused a lot of questions in the sporting world for how many events would operate moving forward – there had been a huge number of postponements and cancellations early on, but many of the problems started once events found themselves returning. Major League Baseball had been the most noticeable here, but there had been issues in European football too as positive tests for a number of players put many events at risk again, but despite this there have been outliers for success, and the NBA is perhaps the biggest.
The season has just drawn to a close with the Lakers winning bringing a lot of emotion – it was the Lakers first NBA title in 10 years and had all been brought together in the protective bubble created for the ending of the season. The bubble brought all players to Disney World Florida and had initially been criticised, many fans thought that it could spell further problems for the sport moving forward as everything else had been aimed at bringing around a normal return and with such a firm stance against any fans in attendance at the time where the situation was still developing, it had certainly been met with mixed reviews.
The results speak for themselves however – the organisation was able to stick to the control it had within the bubble, and not a single positive coronavirus case was detected within the bubble. To illustrate this too, a 100-page document had been released showing what was expected from the players and the teams earlier in the year for the bubble and what was to happen throughout, and in some part may become a blueprint for other sporting events to follow. For most of the world, it seems the second wave of the virus that had been warned is very much arriving as parts of Europe have started to re-enter lockdown and numbers across the US continue to rise, heading in to the new year it may become a requirement for others to follow suit to provide a safe space for the teams, but also a safe space if there’s any attempt to get fans back in the stadium too.
(Image from BBC.co.uk)
The good news has helped others relying on sporting events returning too particularly in the betting industry as the early cancellations had many wondering what the future would look like for them as struggles set in fast, the success of the NBA and the possible blue print laid out could prevent any further issues there – despite some regulation change to initiatives such as Gamstop and other measures put in place too there had been a steady increase in sports betting once these events did return, many operators looking to avoid some muddy water had been able to register elsewhere as betting sites not on gamstop had become widely available and led to the healthy sports betting scene despite the pandemic – something expected to stick around too. Whether or not we’ll see big changes in major sporting events moving forward is yet to be seen, but the current outlook is certainly a positive one.
