We’re a week or two away from the big return of the major US sporting events and the return of a lot of entertainment that has been sorely missed, similarly we’re also coming to the end of many sporting seasons in Europe as the next scheduled starts come in September. The biggest hit may come for the NFL, however, as there are now concerns that the September start date could be at risk.
On July 10th a report was published stating that 72 players had tested positive for the coronavirus, and whilst it was unknown which teams or players were involved, it did spell initial concerns for the September date as further confirmed cases could leave many teams at risk. Further bad news has come in this past week however, NFL players were supposed to be heading to their training camps on July 28th with rookies expected to start a little sooner, but now a further 59 players have tested positive bringing a total of 131 confirmed players with the virus. Under the leagues testing protocols players will now be tested daily for at least the first two weeks of their training camps, but if current numbers hold then teams may be out of enough players to participate once the new season comes around.
There have also been concerns raised by some high profile players asking for the league to readdress their health and safety priorities to ensure player safety – currently players will need more than one negative test before they’re able to participate in any team activity and the guidelines that have been laid out in a way such as long as positive testing rates for Tier 1 and Tier 2 players remain below 5%, testing will be moved to every other day, but as the numbers stay above that daily testing will remain.
It is an exciting time for punters however with a number of big sports coming back – from traditional sporting to motorsports, and combat sports is having a good time too, although there have been a number of recent changes that may impact betting options such as the increased permissions granted to schemes such as Gamstop making it mandatory, many operators have chosen to register elsewhere to avoid these restrictions and there are now many gambling sites not on gamstop available for players to use ready for the big return of sporting next week.
If you are looking for alternatives whilst you wait, there’s plenty more going on – if you like motorsports the Formula 1 heads to the UK and Silverstone at the weekend for what will no doubt be an exciting race and the grid begins to close, similarly combat sports are going strong as the UFC continues to host big events with some even looking to return to the US soon enough for some more domestic events, European football is all but over though as the seasons have come to an end pending the restart in September, so you may have a bit of a wait if that’s your interest.
