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Premier League confirms fixtures for restart

The Premier League has confirmed fixtures as the Premier League is set to restart on June 17th. The BBC is set to show several games for the first time since the Premier League began in 1992. All of the remaining 92 games will be shown on tv platforms, BT Sport, Amazon, BBC and Sky Sports.

On Wednesday 17th of June, Aston Villa will take on Sheffield United at 6pm. This game will be live on Sky Sports. The big game of the night will be between Manchester City and Arsenal which will take place at 8.15pm and is live on Sky Sports. Friday the 19th will see Tottenham take on Man United also at 8.15pm. This game will be on Sky Sports. Some other interesting fixtures include Everton v Liverpool on June 21st at 7pm on Sky Sports and Chelsea v Manchester United on June 25th with an 8.15pm kick-off. The full list of fixtures can be seen here on the BBC Sport website.

Sky Sports will make 25 of the games free to air, this will include the Merseyside derby on June 21st. Amazon will show 4 games, again all free to air. BBC will broadcast a live top football match for the first time since 1987/1988.

The FA Cup quarter-final details also have been announced. These games are due to take place on the 22nd/23rd of June. Manchester United v Norwich and Manchester City v Newcastle will be two of the games live on BBC. Premier League chief executive,Richard Masters said, “We are pleased to provide fans with further updates on the provisional restart of the Premier League season”. Mr Master continued, “We know it won’t be the same without our loyal supporters in stadiums but, together with our broadcast partners, we are able to ensure fans can watch or listen to each match live from home”.

Feature Races and Traditional Dates retained for 2020 Spring Racing Carnival in Australia

Despite expected changes to the 2020 Spring Racing Carnival in Australia, the Racing Victoria (RV) Board has retained the existing feature race programme and traditional dates for this year.

As a result of this decision, the 2020 Spring Racing Carnival will officially commence with the Group 1 Memsie Stakes meeting at Caulfield on Saturday, 29th August and conclude with the Ballarat Cup meeting on Saturday, 21st November.

All feature races conducted in the 2019 Spring Racing Carnival will be retained, including 21 Group 1 races and 26 country cups.

The Caulfield Cup Carnival will take place over three days with the Caulfield Guineas meeting on Saturday, 10th October, the Blue Sapphire Stakes meeting on Wednesday, 14th October and the Caulfield Cup meeting scheduled for Saturday, 17th October.

The Cox Plate Carnival at The Valley will be run over 24 hours with the Manikato Stakes meeting on Friday night, 23rd October and the Cox Plate on Saturday afternoon, 24th October.

The Melbourne Cup will retain its iconic date on the first Tuesday in November, with the four-day Flemington Carnival to be held on Saturday, 31st October (Derby Day), Tuesday, 3rd  November (Cup Day), Thursday, 5th November (Oaks Day) and Saturday, 7th November (Stakes Day).

 

Three Group 2 races added to Irish Oaks Weekend at The Curragh in July

Horse Racing Ireland has announced the key feature races of an enhanced programme over Irish Oaks weekend (July 18 and 19) at The Curragh.

Three Group 2 contests have been added to the two-day meeting, namely the Curragh Cup (14 furlongs) for older horses and the Railway and Balanchine (both six furlongs) for two-year-olds.

The Tattersalls Gold Cup, now open to three-year-olds and upwards, will be the feature race on a new Curragh card on Sunday 26 July.

Dundalk will host the Group 3 Ballysax Stakes over 10.7 furlongs on Sunday July 12, the first day that the newly resurfaced track will be in operation, as the final leg of the European Road to the Kentucky Derby. As a result, the Listed 12-furlong Nijinsky Stakes will move a week later than originally indicated, from July 9 to July 16, and will remain at Leopardstown.

HRI has also confirmed a change of date for the €200,000 Irish EBF Ballyhane Stakes which will be run three weeks later than originally planned at Naas on Sunday, August 23. This will allow two-year-olds more time to get runs before the race given the delayed start to the season.

Elite athletes and teams to return to training

High performance athletes and teams can return to training from Monday June 8th the government have announced.

RTE Sport that the easing of restrictions will now mean that the four provinces, Connacht, Munster, Leinster and Ulster can resume training in larger groups with hygiene and social distancing measure in place. It also means the four soccer Irish teams in European competition, Dundalk, Cork City, Shamrock Rovers and Bohemians can return to training. This is in line with the governments roadmap by expert group on return to sport in place. Carding Scheme athletes with Sport Ireland who were finalising plans for Tokyo 2020 will now return to training at the national training centres.

The Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport released a statement said, “Sport Ireland will compile a list of athletes that will be permitted to return to training, as well as coaching and support personnel”. It continued, “Sport Ireland and the relevant sporting bodies have developed detailed protocols for social distancing and hygiene drawing on international experience, where many countries have already resumed high performance training”.

John Treacy, Chief Executive of Sport Ireland said, “Since Covid-19 restrictions were put in place in March, the operations of our high performance programmes have been significantly affected,”. Mr Treacy continued,”The athletes have shown great dedication in continuing to train on an individual basis in their remote environments. “However, sports that are facility dependent or team based cannot easily replicate the benefits of training at their home environment”.

Greyhound Racing to return behind closed doors

Greyhound Racing in Ireland is set to return behind closed after the current guidelines were pushed forward today by Leo Varadkar. The Irish Greyhound Board have welcomed this decision as part of the Roadmap for Reopening Society and Business.

The IGB said they have arranged a comprehensive package of greyhound trials which will begin on June 8th. They have also said that all 14 greyhound will have the intention to resume behind closed doors racing from June 15th. The chairman of the Irish Greyhound Board (IGB), Frank Nyhan said, “We very much welcome the government decision today which allows the greyhound industry to make the necessary arrangements for the resumption of greyhound racing.” Mr Nyhan said it was “critical” for the wider industry including breeders, owners, stadia networks and other support services.

Public health recommendations will continue to put in place and detailed protocols and response plans have been put in place by the IGB for those working in the current environment. Nyhan acknowledged Minister Creed for his his support stating, “I would like to acknowledge the support of Minister Creed and his officials at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine in what has been a difficult period for all associated with the greyhound industry’’.

Furthermore the IGB put in place a Covid 19 Greyhound Care Payment Scheme. This meant a subsistence payment was paid in respect of over 6,600 greyhounds. This was to ensure care and welfare of racing greyhounds were adressed during the suspension of racing. It is expected the scheme cost around 1.3 million euros. The IGB have also said they will announce a detail scheduled of race meetings behind closed doors in the coming days

How do bookmakers cut their losses due to the corona crisis?

With the emergence of corona crisis which has become a great impediment and ravaged our global economic growth, the question that is yet to be answered is that, is there any industry or organisation that is immune to the massive effect of this pandemic? The answer is absolutely no. Not only are the top industries, governments and businesses affected but also the less-developed and staggering organization are affected, so are the bookmakers on the sporting industry. How then, can the bookmakers revive from such a desperate situation and try to cut their losses in this tragic situation when the world is fighting the corona crisis?

With the fear that comes with the great uncertainty of the resumption date of all the leagues and gaming events, the UK bookmakers are willing to offer odds and future prediction of gaming event at a lower price. Bookmakers are forced to do so just to keep up with the competition from other emerging bookmakers in Asia and other parts of the world. Therefore, below are some remedies on how bookmakers use to cut losses and recover partially if not fully from this crisis.

Bookmakers are left with no option but to focus on online gaming events and E-sports. With the rising competition within online gaming events, many bookmakers have shifted their current attention to online gaming events and E-sports. The bookmakers now offer the best possible odds in different events and markets with Bet365 as one of the top bookmakers in UK offering variety of option with more than a thousand different events than its greatest competitor Unibet. Bet365 continues to top the list of E-sports bookmakers by covering most competitive games like league of legends, StarCraft, Overwatch among others.

Bookmakers also venture into new potential market to bet on as a way to cut loses during this pandemic. The focus has shifted from purely sports and gaming events, to other fields such as politics and natural phenomena such as weather prediction and even further to health matters prediction. With Paddypower venturing in more than six new markets, Bet365 has raised the bar to more than thirty new markets. This has enabled bet365 to be one of the best bookmakers to reach different markets and provide more events and odds than any other bookmaker.

This also makes it essential for punters to compare bookmakers. Of course, most of the big players in the market offer more niche sports and leagues than the smaller ones. Odds for popular leagues and matches often aren’t that different on popular sports betting platforms. But in niches like e.g. the widely unnoticed Belarus Leagues the odds tend to be far apart on different bookmakers, because experts calculating them are not as easy to find and the consensus between them therefor rather small. A bettor could miss way better odds if he places a bet on a match without having compared bookmaker odds before his decision.

Also bookmakers have changed their trend and focus on minor soccer events that were less popular. Amid the corona crisis, other countries like Belarus with minor soccer events continue to carry out their sporting activities as normal hence providing an opportunity for bookmakers to identify a business niche and capitalize on it. With bet365 as one of the popular bookmakers in UK offering a wide range of football market details, Betfair has since upped their game by allowing bettors to place their bets in pre-match or in-plays match. This allows bettors to choose odds on Belarus matches as one of the surviving events available.

Cutting cost has become one of the great strategies used by bookmarkers today. With the latest integration of cheaper payment options like the online currency, it has greatly reduced the amount one has to pay for processing card transaction. This offers more option for the bettors to either use bank-acquired cards or the online currency to bet. With bookmakers such as betonline they offer online currency such as the use of bitcoin to enables bettors to place bets.

Expansion by the bookmakers to new geographical location is one the best option used today. With the effect that has come with the corona virus, bookmakers impose incentives in order to attract more bettors from all over the world. They continue to offer better odds and free bonuses on their betting events in different market so as to boost bettor’s morale. Bookmakers such as Betway have expanded its wings to some of the African countries like Kenya and Nigeria to attract more bettors.

With the adaptation of these new trends like online gaming, Esports, the use of crypto-currency and even venturing into new betting markets like politics, is indeed the new way for many bookmakers use to cut their losses in this tragic moment. Since change is inevitable, then all the bookmakers should adapt to these trends.

FAI confirms all second batch of Covid-19 tests return negative results

The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) has confirmed that all of the second batch of Covid-19 tests carried out on players and staff at four SSE Airtricity League clubs on Monday last, June 1, have returned negative results.

The FAI’s Medical Director Dr Alan Byrne received the results today from the tests carried out at Dundalk, Shamrock Rovers, Derry City and Bohemians. All of the indivduals tested have been informed of their negative result.

All four clubs will undergo further testing next Monday, June 8, when they return to collective training.

Horse Racing Ireland arranges 48 new dates for cancelled meetings

Horse Racing Ireland have 48 new dates to make up for some of the cancelled meetings due to the coronavirus pandemic. RTE Sport are reporting that the flat season will be extended by one week, while five further meetings at Dundalk in November are just some changes announced.

Horse Racing Ireland the fixtures for June and July last month, but have added a further 39 in the last 5 months of 2020. The total number of fixtures for the year according to  RTE is 331 compared to 370 the previous year. September and October will be busy months seen an extra 10 and 11 meetings respectively. Three all weather meetings will take place once the flat season comes to and end. These will take place Monday, Wednesday and Friday in November.

Director of Horse Racing Ireland, Jason Morris said, “We have worked closely with all racecourses to develop a fixture list for the remainder of 2020 which is appropriate for both the horse population and each individual track, and we are very grateful for the excellent co-operation received from racecourse managers”. He continued, “We have spread the additional opportunities throughout the year and over both codes to reflect the meetings that were lost over the March to June period”.

Mr Morris said there is still some doubts over Laytown and Listowel festivals. He said,”The meeting at Laytown on 1 September will be kept under review to determine, based on the government guidance that will apply at the time, whether it is possible to implement the necessary protocols at the beach venue”. In regards to Listowel he said, “Depending upon social distancing requirements and potential crowd limitations in late September, Listowel could host mixed cards on the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of their seven-day Festival”.

 

Premier League to have five substitutes on return

Premier League teams will be allowed to have five when action returns later this month. BBC Sport report that the clubs approved the new rules which will see clubs now allowed to make 5 substitutes instead of the original three.

It is also expected clubs will be allowed to name 9 substitutes instead of 7. Although teams will be allowed 5 substitutes each team will only have three opportunities to make changes in the games to minimise disruption. The main purpose of the change is to help workload of players who are returning to action on the back of coronavirus pandemic. The players are in fact likely not to have much of break for the remainder of the year as next season will start in August given the players limited rest periods.

The Premier League released a statement on Thursday confirming the news. It said, “Premier League Shareholders today agreed to temporary changes to the rules relating to substitute players. For the remainder of the 2019/20 season, the number of substitutes that can be used during a match will increase from three to five players”. The statement continued, This is in line with the temporary law amendment made by the International Football Association Board last month. Shareholders also approved for Clubs to increase the maximum number of substitute players on the bench from seven to nine for the rest of the 2019/20 season.”

In Germany, the five substition rule was also put in place in May with the same rules in place. Just like what the Premier League have adopted the Bundesliga coaches will only have three opportunities to use all the five substitutes if needs be.

Shane Long signs new contract with Southampton

Republic of Ireland international Shane Long has put pen to paper and has signed a new two year contract with Premier League side Southampton. 

RTE Sport report that long, who was due to become a free agent is now set to remain at St Mary’s till the end of the 2021/22 season. Long has been ever present at the club since 2014. He has made over 200 appearances for the club. The 33 year old is said to be delighted. The Tipperary man has been a key part of Ralph Hassenhuttl’ squad for the last 18 months and he now has another two years to look forward to. Long has scored 35 goals for the club, with 8 coming since the new managers arrival.

Speaking to Southamptonfc.com Saints boss Hassenhuttl said, “Shane is an outstanding professional. He has been an important player for me and I know also for the managers before me. He continued, “He has scored some big goals for us and helped to create many more for his teammates too. I think that is one of his top qualities. He is a great team player, and someone who has a positive impact on the group as a whole when he plays”.

Long also speaking to the club website said “he loves what the clubs stands for” and is looking forward to the next couple of years to see what the club can achieve. He continued, “I can see the club pushing up the league, back to where we all want to be, and I want to be part of that. I’m just delighted to get it done.”

Hassenhuttl has also signed a new deal at club for another four years. Alongside Ralph, Richard Kitzbichler has also extended his contract as First Team Assistant Coach, and will continue to work alongside the existing first team staff of Craig Fleming, Dave Watson, Kelvin Davis, Andrew Sparkes and Alek Gross. Speaking to the Southampton website he said, Ralph Hasenhüttl said: “This, for me, was a simple decision. Simple because of the relationship that I have built with the club, the players and the fans, and also because of the relationship they have built with me too.”