2009 – Not so bad.

It’s the end of the year and 2009 will be daunting for many of us. Scanning the newspapers this morning there’s little to encourage and much to make us wish for the year to hurry by and bring on 2010. Then, like a little oasis of joy, fellow sports betting friends, in the middle of all the gloom, are a couple of pages that every year I grab and scuttle off to read. They are this year’s Sporting Calendar.

Suddenly the clouds lift to be replaced with the anticipation of what will unfold. What a year it promises to be. While the battle to the top of the football tables goes on, will Lewis Hamilton do it again and can Andy Murray win his first Grand Slam? There’s the Six Nations and the Cheltenham Gold Cup just round the corner and soon spring will come and with it the Masters at Augusta and the return of the Tiger. Over the summer there will be Ascot and Wimbledon, the Open Championship, Mark Haye taking on the Klitschko brothers and a whole lot more. Will we trash a weakened Aussie side in the Ashes and how will the World Cup tables turn out?

And as if that isn’t enough there’s the Oscars and the Baftas, and all the TV stuff such as Big Brother and the return of Hell’s Kitchen, a whole new X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing, the Eurovision Song Contest, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s search for an, as yet, unknown star and I’m a Celebrity . . . Get me out of Here. And if you still need more, check out William Hill’s amazing new range of one-off celebrity and TV specials. So . . . in wishing all my fellow online betting enthusiasts a Happy New Year, I think we can all agree – there are plenty of reasons why it will be.