Photo: Golden State Warriors/Twitter

During the last few days and weeks, many sports events have already been canceled. This is either because the countries where these will be held have imposed a ban on local events or the leagues just really decided to postpone the matches for a few weeks to ensure everyone’s safety.

It may be harder for fans to cope since different countries are already ordering the locals to stay at home to avoid getting the virus and so the question is, what can these fans do while waiting for their favorite leagues to come back?

There are surely many things that they can do while they stay safe at home. If you’re a sports fan and a sports bettor as well, there are still other things that you can wager on online. If it’s really the thrill of gambling that you’re missing, you can always play casino games like slots or even baccarat. Now, where to play baccarat online? There are many online casinos that are still operating that offer this for sure.

While the cancelation and postponement of many major sports events are all for the good of many, it could still mean that it’s just really a sad time for many sports fans out there. March is usually an exciting time of the year for these people with many leagues either closing or opening their seasons.

Right now, the NBA, the Indian Premier League, the English Premier League, the MLB, NHL, and many other more sports events are already canceled. The NBA announced that the remaining matches of the season will have to be canceled on March 11.

The first announcement from the NBA only pertained to the match that night. The statement said that a player from Utah Jazz has tested positive for the 2019 coronavirus or COVID-19. Later on, the infected player was known to be Rudy Gobert. 

It was quite a moment in the sports industry when this happened because the cancelation happened just 35 minutes after the game between Utah Jazz and Oklahoma City Thunder was supposed to start. Initially, the NBA was planning to still continue the matches without an audience, but this didn’t happen as players were already advised to quarantine themselves.

The English Premier League had to go through something a bit similar. The EPL was nearing the closing of its season but a coach of football club Arsenal came out positive for the COVID-19 too. This forced the league to just cancel the remaining matches of the season.

However, this also sparked quite a controversy regarding the crowning of the championship. Liverpool is sitting on top of the board when this happened and the team has a 25-point advantage from Manchester City which is in second place.

There were talks that Liverpool should already be crowned champions without waiting for the season to end, but the UEFA didn’t seem to agree with this. UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin himself denies that they will be crowning anybody the champion without naturally ending the season. 

Ceferin said that doing so will just jeopardize the selection of the European places and they are simply eager to roll out the remaining matches by the end of June. It’s simply not ideal to crown anybody just yet. He said that this season has to end with the same rules and nothing should be changed despite the current situation.

With the postponement of these leagues, the sports betting industry has been struggling. Land-based bookies and casinos in Nevada were all ordered to close for now but online bookies are choosing to remain in operations.

Sports fans can still place their bets on matches that are still pushing through despite the pandemic. The choices are most likely to be scarce as of the moment, but these bookies are getting creative when it comes to this.

They are booking sports events that are usually not part of their selection. Some bookies are also exploring to book other events inside and outside the entertainment industry. There are bookies that now accept wagers on the weather of cities in the states.

There are also bookies that offer odds on TV shows like The Voice and American Idol. Even political odds are offered for the election results. These are the ways that online bookies are exploring to keep the business going and to ensure that the fans still have something to do during this trying time.

For now, it appears that these sports events are canceled at least until mid-April. However, whether the postponed matches will come back on by then or not will really depend on how the COVID-19 situation rolls out. Fans will just really have to wait for further announcements at the moment.