Australians take their sports seriously. With some of the world’s most significant sporting events taking place right in the land down under. It’s safe to say how the sport is an indispensable part of Australian culture and an essential element of Australian life.
You can find out what sports Australians most revere in our list of 10 popular sports events in Australia.
One of the biggest sports events held in Australia is the Australian Open tennis tournament. Nicknamed ‘the happy slam’ and the ‘Grand Slam of Asia/Pacific’, the Australian Open takes place at Melbourne Park in the city of Melbourne every year over the last fortnight of January. As one of the highest attended Grand Slam events, it features:
Sports betting sites generally provide accurate odds online if you’d like to take a chance and bet on sports events in Australia.
The AFL Grand Final is an annual match of Australian rules football determining the premiers of the year’s Australian Football League (AFL). Traditionally, the AFL Grand Final takes place in the afternoon of the last Saturday in September in Melbourne, where Australian rules football originated in 1858.
The NRL Grand Final determines the Australian season’s premiers of the National Rugby League (NRL). It’s a major sporting event in Sydney and one of the biggest attended club championships globally. In 2021, NRL Grand Final should take place on October 3.
The Bledisloe Cup is a competition between Australian and New Zealand’ s National Rugby Teams contesting since the 1930s. Currently, there’s an annual three-match series, with two-match series in years when Rugby World Cup takes place. Two of the matches also count towards The Rugby Championship, contested annually by Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Argentina.
The State of Origin series is a three-series Rugby League premier sporting event taking place every year where Australian biggest rivals New South Wales Blues and the Queensland Maroons compete. It’s often described as the Rugby League’s pinnacle that regularly sells out the stadiums and has a huge television audience.
The horse racing Melbourne Cup takes place annually on the first Tuesday starting at 3 PM. It’s Australia’s most famous Thoroughbred Horse Race where three-year-old and older horses compete in a 3200-meter race as part of the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival. It’s known as the richest two-mile handicap and one of the world’s richest turf races that are locally referred to as ‘the race that stops the nation.’ The first race took place in 1861.
The Tour Down Under is a cycling race in South Australia that takes place in Adelaide. The UCI World Tour opening event traditionally happens in the middle of the Australian summer season over six days and it also features all the 19 UCI World Teams.
The Tour Down Under also features a ProSeries event for UCI Women’s. The ‘prelude’ is a one-day circuit race which is the primary race for the event.
Since 1996, F1 Grand Prix is held in Melbourne, over 58 laps of the 5.303-kilometers at the Albert Park Motorsport Circuit. Currently, it’s under contract to host Formula One until 2025. Australian Grand 2021 is scheduled to take place on Sunday, November 21.
The Australian PGA Championship of the Australian Professional Golfers Association is a home tournament in the South East Queensland region. Like a golf tournament, it’s co-sanctioned with the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia and European Tour. Unfortunately, the 2021 Australian PGA Championship has been canceled.
The first Australian Open was played in 1904. It’s the oldest and most prestigious golf tournament on the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia. As a “flagship tournament” of Australasia’s PGA Tour, it has a special status in the Official World Golf Ranking’s points system. It means that the Australian Open winner gets awarded a minimum of 32 points regardless of the field’s strength.
The Australian Open is held annually toward the end of the year.
Exciting World of Australian Sports
Whether you enjoy tennis, rugby, cricket, golf, motor racing, yacht racing, cycling, or horse racing, Australia offers a wide range of prestigious sports events. Many events are live-streamed so that you can follow and enjoy them from other parts of the world. There are also sports betting sites that generally provide accurate odds online should you want to try your luck and bet on your favorites.
