This past weekend marked an exciting time for many sporting fans as the bigger sports across the US started to see a return after the initial delays that came rolling out towards the end of March – the NFL being the only name absent as the season isn’t set to start until September, but it did see the others in the likes of the NBA, NHL, and the MLB grace our screens again – but it might be a little too early to be excited, as it’s looking like some cancellations may be looming.
The most notable had been the NBA, although some higher profile players had initially tested positive it does seems as if the move to a bio-secure environment in the Orlando bubble that had been created was successful, since the move to the location there have been few if any confirmed positive cases coming out of the teams – with a number of games taking place over the weekend too it does seem like the sport is back on track to seeing the current campaign seen through to completion, but this same good news isn’t true for all.
The big doubts have started to fall on the MLB season however, as this weekend saw the 18th postponement in just 10 days as a growing number of players had been testing positive for the coronavirus and prompting at least two more players to opt out of playing this season entirely. The list of players opting out is growing day by day, and there have also been 11 MLB umpires that have reportedly opted out too, the next challenge to overcome will be the growing number of players testing positive for the virus which as of Aug. 4th had been at 86 made public, although the numbers in private could be higher. Given the current postponements and growing numbers, it’s starting to look much more likely that the MLB won’t run its full course unless drastic changes are made – some suggestions have been made toward recreating a bubble similar to what the previously mentioned NBA had done, although at this stage there’s no guarantee that even that could work as more positive tests are emerging and could put more players at risk if enough security isn’t put in place to ensure that testing is done quickly and accurately.
The cancellation of these events will lead to further struggles for online betting as further delays come through – whilst it may not be the biggest hit to have one or two sporting events finish early, it definitely does hurt the industry that has already been struggling during this period of time – there are alternatives fortunately as a growing number of popular new online casinos services as the reviews at 4crowns casino show, and may serve as a viable alternative for punters whilst waiting for sporting events to get back to smooth sailing, but for the time being things are certainly looking a little rocky and far from the clean restart that many fans and organisations had hoped for.
