The coolest sports you've never heard of. Image: Supplied
Almost all bets are always placed on the same events or sports: football and tennis are by far the most frequently chosen options, while ice hockey, Formula 1 and basketball bets are also still quite common. Of course, these sports betting options are so popular because the associated sports are also so popular and widespread.
Sports betting and casinos are becoming increasingly popular in Australia. This is hardly surprising considering how exciting and first-class the betting experience has become. After all, the various operators amaze with a variety of great features, such as a Richard Casino no deposit bonus, top-notch service and options for playing from smartphones.
Nevertheless – in the long run, classic betting can get boring. That’s exactly why, in this article, we will present 10 exciting sports you’ve (probably) never heard of. These events, such as cheese rolling, calcio storico or underwater rugby, finally bring a breath of fresh air to betting.
Of course, the same applies to sports fans who don’t bet but want to discover a new sport to follow as a fan or participate in it themselves. In such a case, too, you will find plenty of exciting suggestions in our guide. Have fun discovering!
Cheese rolling is certainly one of the most exotic sports on our list. Although there are many offshoots of the event around the world today, cheese rolling originated in Cooper’s Hill, near Gloucester in England. The event is still held there today. In our opinion, none of the offshoots can compete with the original.
Because at Cheese Rolling, a wheel of cheese is rolled down the approximately 180-metre-long Coopers Hill in 4 races on 4 consecutive days. Afterwards, a crowd of athletes tries to grab the cheese. But since it rolls down the slope with some lead, this is almost impossible. In such a case, the man or woman who has made it down the slope the fastest wins.
The winners almost never get away without bruises. Because, as I’ve said, you only become the one if you are the first down the hill. You certainly can’t do that by descending slowly and safely. Instead, in cheese rolling, you can watch the participants usually tumble down the slope completely uncontrollably, rolling, falling and even briefly flying in free fall.
The only prize at this event is the cheese roll caught. Nevertheless, every year not only several hundred participants but also thousands of spectators turn up to enjoy the spectacle. This has been the case for several hundred years. Allegedly, the event has been around since Roman times, and for more than 200 years, the annual Cheese Rolling on Coopers Hill has also been documented.
And once you’ve seen one of the cheese races for yourself, whether on TV or live, you can immediately understand why. The determination with which the participants hurl themselves down the hill and after the cheese is unsurpassed also provides the spectators with endless enthusiasm. A spectacle you really shouldn’t miss!
Crossminton is considered the tuned version of badminton and also incorporates elements of squash and badminton. Unlike traditional badminton, there is no net between the players. Instead, each player plays from a square drawn on the court. The two squares are located at a distance of 12.8 metres from each other.
Crossminton is becoming increasingly popular and is now played in regulated tournaments all over the world. There are several reasons for the popularity of the sport. One of them is certainly that you can play the game on all kinds of surfaces. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a tennis court, grass or concrete in the neighbourhood: a game of crossminton is fun on any surface.
Although crossminton is already an incredibly exciting game, there is an enhanced version of it: blackminton. The same rules are followed as in crossminton, with only one difference: the game takes place in the dark. With fluorescent balls, rackets and court boundaries, you can play in total darkness and enjoy unlimited fun.
Although it sounds crazy, chess boxing is exactly what the name suggests: this is a combination of chess and boxing. An absolutely exotic combination that promises all the more fun and action, the mix of chess and boxing could not be missing from our list.
In chess boxing, similar to a pure boxing match, there are 11 rounds. The important difference: in this sport, the rounds of chess and boxing alternate. The winner is the participant who first succeeds in defeating the opponent in one of the two disciplines. If there is still no winner after the 11 rounds, the fighter who scored more points in the boxing rounds wins.
This type of golf is created by removing all the traditional elements of a golf game, such as the turf, dress code, caddies and club sets, and replacing them with urban action. Urban golf is all about hitting a set target with the golf ball.
Theoretically, almost any environment can become a golf course: forest and meadow, the Ikea car park on Sunday or, most popular, the abandoned industrial building. But one thing is extremely important. Golf balls can actually become a deadly projectile. So here, it is extremely important to only play where no other people can be endangered.
Similar to crossminton, racketlon reinvents the classic backstroke games. Better said, racketlon combines all these games with each other. A game of racketlon includes one round each of table tennis, badminton, squash and tennis. At the end, the points from the four different disciplines are added up to determine a winner.
Racketlon is, therefore, the ideal choice for all athletes who already enjoy one of the four different disciplines. During our self-experiment, we were surprised at how much fun it is to switch between table tennis, badminton, squash and tennis and how much action the switch between the rackets brings. For racketlon, we can therefore give a real recommendation. You should definitely try it out for yourself!
Quidditch is the famous wizard sport from the popular Harry Potter series. And if you are also a fan of J.K. Rowling’s magical world, we now have excellent news for you: quidditch is becoming more and more popular in the real world, too, and now you can find a team playing the Harry Potter sport almost everywhere in the world.
The basic rules of quidditch, which is now played all over the world, differ only slightly from those of the original version in the Harry Potter books. With one crucial difference: unfortunately, it is not possible for us as Muggles (non-magicians) to fly through the air with our brooms.
Instead, the brooms are guided between the players’ legs as a handicap. Apart from that, everything remains the same: Muggle quidditch is also a mixture of rugby, handball and volleyball and, moreover, a real full-contact sport. As in the Harry Potter series, there are also different roles or positions for the different players in this version, who perform completely different tasks.
Muggle quidditch was first recorded in a real set of rules by two US students in 2005. Since then, an incredibly large community has developed around the sport, with teams all over the world. There are now even national championships every year and European and World Championships at regular intervals! Most teams come from North America and Europe, but quidditch is also played in South America, Australia and even Rwanda!
Hockey is already a very challenging sport. But unicycle hockey takes it to a whole new level. As the name already suggests, it is about mastering a classic hockey game on a unicycle. Such a game demands not only the skills that a hockey player needs. For example, strength, endurance and accuracy.
No, because of the special nature of the game, you also need a great sense of balance and a good deal of courage: to concentrate completely on the next shot at goal while balancing on a unicycle and being attacked by other players at the same time requires a great deal of self-confidence.
A team in unicycle hockey consists of four field players, a goalkeeper and a substitute. A game has two halves and always lasts between 20 and 40 minutes. The break is always 5 minutes. The team that has scored the most goals at the end of the game wins the game.
Calcio Storico, the last sport on our list, is also by far the most historically important sport on our list. Calcio Storico has been played since the 15th century! And only in Florence in Italy – all other events of this kind are only offshoots and are not officially allowed to call themselves Calcio Storico.
Calcio Storico can be thought of as a kind of mixture of football, rugby, wrestling and boxing. The aim of the game is simple: the team that manages to get the ball into the opponent’s net scores a point. The ball can be played with any foot and hand technique.
The special thing about it, however, is that any player can attack another player at any time during the game. Almost anything is allowed: wrestling throws and boxing techniques, as well as kicks and strangleholds. Only kicking to the head and attacking from behind are prohibited. In addition, only one player may fight with another at a time – group fights are therefore forbidden.
A match lasts a total of 50 minutes. Each team has 27 players. There are no breaks, only short interruptions when paramedics have to come onto the field to treat one of the players. Despite the rules and the many referees on the field who monitor compliance with the rules, injuries regularly occur among the players simply due to the nature of the game.
What sounds like chaos at first is actually a wonderful sport with, as already mentioned, an incredibly long tradition. On top of that, it is probably the most important annual event in Florence. Being allowed to play as a teammate in the Calcio Storico is considered a real honour, and the participants, who all receive no payment but play voluntarily, receive more admiration in Florence than professional athletes.
These participants or fellow players must come exclusively from Florence. To be more precise, each participant must come from one of the four traditional quarters that provide the 4 participating teams each year: Santa Croce / Azzurri (the Blues), Santa Maria Novella / Rossi (the Reds), Santo Spirito / Bianchi (the Whites) and San Giovanni / Verdi (the Greens).
The Calcio Storico is a truly breathtaking spectacle that you definitely have to see at least once in your life. Not only is the entire city in a state of emergency. No, the traditional procession that starts the game, the game itself and, above all, the commitment of the participants is a sight you will never forget.
Football, tennis, and basketball – it doesn’t always have to be well-known and popular sports if you want to experience an amazing sporting event as a fan or participant. In fact, the sports presented here are so popular precisely because they finally bring excitement and variety back into the world of sport.
After all, it is often much more fun to watch a round of quidditch or racketlon than to follow the 600th football match in one’s life. Even watching a cheese-rolling competition has never left a spectator cold! The same certainly applies to the breathtaking spectacle of Calcio Storico.
And it’s even more fun to try out these exotic sports yourself! If you too want to experience the thrill and fun of one of the sports presented here, then we have good news for you: the games are now so widespread that you can play them in almost every major city – a few minutes of Google should be enough to find a suitable club. So it’s best not to wait long at all but instead simply plunge into the adventure. You will definitely not regret it!
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