Boxing Day is one of the busiest days for sports betting in the UK and it is not difficult to see 
why with so many stellar sporting events taking place, or starting, on this day of celebration and for some, recovery, after the rigours of Christmas Day.
Of course, to enjoy these sports events to their fullest, a little flutter on the event goes a long way and if you are looking for a top-quality site to sign up with then Instant Sports Money doesn’t hesitate in recommending Coral Sports for all your betting needs.
That’s because when you sign up, you can deposit just £5 and receive £20 in free bets as a welcome bonus as a new player. Alternatively, you can sign up with another Coral site and claim that bonus and then use the same account with Coral Sport. There’s so much flexibility on how you join and what Coral sites you can play with that it’s a great site for sports betting enthusiasts, casino gamers, bingo players, poker players or indeed someone that likes to do all of these things.
So assuming you have now signed up with Coral and are ready to indulge in a little betting yourself, let’s now take a look at some of the sporting events you can enjoy a flutter on at this festive time of the year.
Cricket – The Ashes Fourth Test
Regardless of what the score is in the series, the Boxing Day test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground is rated by many as one of the most exhilarating experiences in all of cricket. Around 80,000 pack this famous venue to watch the test match, in a series which the home side have dominated thus far.
Melbourne is famous for some dramatic matches and moments in cricket and it is hoped that Joe Root’s England can rise to the occasion and give the Australian team some payback after they dominated the opening two Test Matches in the series before England put up a bit of a better fight in the third.
That said, even if England come into this game 2-1 behind, the Australians will still be big odds on favourites to win this test series. Truth be told, regardless of the score in the Ashes, the home team would likely be massively odds on to win. Chiefly because how dominant they have been, particularly with the ball in hand, during the Test Series so far.
You can enjoy a wealth of betting on this massive game including pre-match betting and In Play betting with Coral throughout all the five days of scheduled action. Can England mount a comeback here, or will the Australians exert their will and dominate once again? Tune in to find out.
Kempton Park’s Winter Festival Meet – 26th and 27th December
Horseracing fans are already well aware that one of the biggest National Hunt racing meetings of the year takes place each Boxing Day at Kempton Park. Known by many as simply “the Boxing Day meeting”, the Winter Festival has a total of 12 races, featuring several Group 1 and Group 2 races across its two days of racing.
Rated as highly as the Cheltenham Gold Cup or Aintree Grand National Meeting by some, there are a number of big races taking place on the two days of action including the Kauto Star Novices Chase, named after the famous horse, and the Christmas Hurdle.
However, for true horseracing enthusiasts, there is one big race to look out for more than any other and that is the King George VI Steeplechase. This famous race has been won by some of the biggest names in jump racing since it was first contested in 1937. Winners include four-time champion Desert Orchid, five-time winning legend Kauto Star, Long Run, Florida Pearl, Silviniaco Conti and this year’s race will have the 2015 winner Cue Card and also the winner last year, Thistlecrack also competing.
Coral have Might Bite and Bristol De Mai as the ante-post favourites for the race with Thistlecrack and Fox Norton both 6/1 shots while he 2015 winner Cue Card is rated no better than a 33/1 chance. With Douvan and Djakadam also potentially running, it promises to be a hotly contested race which could well be one of the most exciting of the National Hunt season.
PDC World Championship Darts
After a two-day hiatus over Christmas, Boxing Day signals the restart of activities at the Alexandra Palace in London with the resuming of the Second Round of the competition, which will run throughout Boxing Day and part way through the 27th December. On this date, the first of the Third Round matches will get underway too and these will be completed by the following night.
This leaves the Quarterfinals and Semifinals to be played on the 29th and 30th December respectively before another night off for the players for New Year’s Eve. The two finalists will then return to the Ally Pally for the final time on New Year’s Day to compete over the best of 13 sets to claim the World Darts Championship 2018.
The question everybody is asking is whether anybody can stop Michael Van Gerwen? Phil Taylor, Gary Anderson, Adrian Lewis and Peter Wright seem the best equipped but all four are in the bottom half of the draw and cannot meet the Dutchman until the final. Could Raymond van Barneveld, scheduled to battle Van Gerwen in the quarterfinals if they get that far, be the man to stop Van Gerwen’s seeming total dominance of darts at the moment?
Top Football Action today with Coral Sport
Remember to take advantage of Coral’s Acca Bonus offer in what is a busy day of action in the Premier League. There are a total of eight games today in the league, with another two taking place across Tuesday and Wednesday nights. The full list of fixtures for those dates is shown below:
Tuesday 26th December
- Tottenham v Southampton (12.30)
- Bournemouth v West Ham
- Chelsea v Brighton
- Huddersfield v Stoke
- Manchester United v Burnley
- Watford v Leicester City
- West Brom v Everton
- Liverpool v Swansea City (5.30)
Wednesday 27th December
- Newcastle v Manchester City (7.45)
Thursday 28th December
- Crystal Palace v Arsenal (8.00)
This is the second set of matches clubs will face after the weekend games on the 22nd/23rd and they then face two games in the space of a few days from the 30th December through until the 4th January. These four games over the festive period will go a long way towards deciding which teams challenge at the top, or face the drop, over the course of the second half of the season.