Bye 2021, Hello 2022

While many of us had a glimpse of normality over the recent months 2021 has been another challenging year. The Covid-19 pandemic is still controlling the world and it will continue to do so into 2022.

2021 has nevertheless been a good one for sports and online betting and we have seen a lot of exciting sport events and enhancements in the betting offering. While we recap 2021 we also have a look at what to expect for betting in 2022.

Betting Highlights of 2021

Overall, 2021 was quite an exciting year for us punters. While COVID-19 still caused a lot of disruption to sport events a lot of events actually took place and with it a lot of betting activity.

Sport Highlights

2021 was full of our favourite sports, with rugby, cricket as well as soccer being at the fore:

• British & Irish Lions Tour to South Africa: South Africa won the test series 2:1. While the Lions won the 1st test on 24th July 22–17, South Africa would win the 2nd test 27–9 a week later before then winning the 3rd test 19–16 with a late penalty on 7th August. Well done Bokke!
• UEFA Euro 2020: Italy won the title European championship title for the first time since 1969 in a nail-biting final against England in Wembley. England were in the lead but Italy fought out a 1-1 extra time and lastly won on penalties 3:2.
• T20 World Cup 2021: The Australian Men’s Cricket Team won the T20 2021 against New Zealand in an 8 wicket victory (7 balls left). The Proteas played well but were knocked out against England, who went on to the semis.
• Formula 1: Both Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen went head to head into the last race of the season on 12th December in Abu Dhabi. Hamilton was in the lead for most of the race but in the end Verstappen was crowned the F1 champion after a dramatic final lap which is still controversially discussed.

While 2021 had some great sport events a look at the 2022 sports calendar below promises another great year for sports and hence betting.

Offer & Games Highlights

We haven’t seen as many new betting sites in 2021 as in 2020. But we prefer quality over quantity anyway. One new betting site that took SA players by storm is Purebet. Launched only in September 2021 already thousands of punters bet via this well designed, mobile friendly site. We are sure that Purebet will impress the betting scene in 2022 even further.

Well established bookies such as Betway, Gbets or Hollywood Bets didn’t stand still and had some exciting updates:

• Betway launches Horse Racing betting: While over the last few years we have seen a trend to not offer horse racing betting, Betway has gone the other way. It took a while to design the right offer but in November 2021 they officially added the horses to their betting portfolio.
• Slots and Instant Games: One of the most interesting changes was the appearance of online slots and instant games on licensed betting sites. Hollywood Bets launched its Spina Zonke games range while Supabets added online slots by the well-known providers Pragmatic Play and Yggdrasil. Supabets even added free spins to its new player welcome bundle bonus.
  With the expansion into slots we can hence play these highly entertaining games in a legal and safe way. We expect this trend to also continue into 2022 and more betting sites adding them to their title range.
• Immense Live Games variety: in 2020 we have already seen more and more bookmakers expanding their offering into Live Games. This continued into 2021 but now live dealer games are nearly a given. The games by Evolution and Ezugi’s Bollywood Games as well as Betgames are amongst players’ absolute favourites. In 2022 we expect an even wider variety of live dealer games to be available across betting sites as well as possibly additional provider integrations.

Best Sports Betting Events for 2022

While we have seen some fantastic sports in 2021 the sports betting calendar for 2022 looks possibly even better. Some events were postponed from 2021 and also for this year we might see some disruptions. Anyway, below are our sports highlights for 2022 which we will surely place some bets on.

January 2022

• India Tour of South Africa 2021/22
• Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) (9 January – 6 February)
• 2022 Australian Open (17-30 January)
• The Met 2022 (29 January)
• Handball Men’s European Championship (13 – 30 January)

February 2022

• Guiness Six Nations 2022 – opening weekend (5 February) – England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France, Italy
• 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing (4 – 20 February)
• NFL Super Bowl (13 February)
• Women’s Rugby World Cup 2021 Final Qualification (18 and 24 February in Dubai)

March 2022

• 2022 Women’s Cricket World Cup in New Zealand (4 March – 3 April)
• 2022 Winter Paralympics in Beijing (4 – 13 March)
• Cheltenham Festival (15-18 March)
• Guiness Six Nations 2022 – final weekend (19 March)
• Formula 1 season starts in Bahrain (18-20 March)

April 2022

• The Masters, Augusta (7-10 April)
• The Grand National, Aintree (8-10 April)
• 2022 Invictus Games, The Hague (16 – 22 April)
• London Marathon (24 April 2022)

May 2022

• Kentucky Derby (7 May)
• Giro d’Italia (6 – 29 May)
• French Open (16 May – 5 June)
• Final Day of Premier League (22 May)
• 2022 UEFA Europa League Final, Seville, Spain (18 May)
• 2022 European Rugby Champions Cup Final, Marseille, France (28 May)
• UEFA Champions League Final, Saint Petersburg, Russia (28 May)
• Indianapolis 500, USA (29 May)

June 2022

• 2022 Epsom Derby (3-4 June)
• 2022 NBA Final (2-16 June)
• 24 Hours of Le Mans (11-12 June)
• United Rugby Championship 2022 Final (18 June)
• Royal Ascot (14-18 June)
• U.S. Open Golf (16 – 19 June)
• Wimbledon Tennis Championships (27 June – 10 July)

July 2022

• Tour de France 2022 (1-24 July)
• 2022 Hollywoodbets Durban July (2 July)
• UEFA Women’s Euro 2022, England (6-31 July)
• The British Open 2022, St Andrews, Scotland (14 – 17 July)
• World Athletics Championships 2022 (15 – 24 July)
• 2022 Commonwealth Games, Birmingham, England (28 July – 8 August)

For more info please also have a look at our Betting News July 2022 article.

August 2022

• US Open, New York City (29 August – 11 September)
• Vuelta a Espana (19 August – 11 September)
• Comrades Marathon (28 August)

September 2022

• World Cup Rugby 7s, Cape Town (9-11 September)
• Ryder Cup, Rome, Italy (30 September – 2 October)

October 2022

• Women’s Rugby World Cup 2021, New Zealand (8 October – 12 November)
• ICC World Cup T20 (Men), Australia (16 October- 13 November)

November 2022

• 2022 Melbourne Cup (1 November)
• FIFA World Cup, Qatar (21 November – 18 December)
• F1, last race of the season in Abu Dhabi (20 November)

December 2022

• 2022 FIFA World Cup Final
• World Darts Championship

Enjoy betting in 2022

As you can see there is in conclusion a lot to look forward to in 2022 for betting enthusiasts. All the big events will surely bring some exciting betting fun in 2022.

If you want to end 2021 with great betting action then have a look through the best betting sites. Most of them offer special bonuses as well as promotions to celebrate the festive season and the New Year. For example, in HollywoodBets latest Betgames promotion you could win a share of R250,000. Or participate in the World Sports Betting Festive Spin & Win Promo where prizes worth over 1 Million are waiting until 31st January 2022. The Bet & Win team wishes you a wonderful festive season and a great New Year 2022 with lots of betting action and winnings.

For an overview of what to expect in 2023 have a look at our betting in 2023 article.