Sports & Casinos UK

Will Lankshear’s debut strike ensured Middlesbrough made a winning start to the season as they beat Wrexham 1-0 in the Carabao Cup first round. Lankshear, a £10m summer signing from Tottenham, scored the only goal of the game in the 61st minute as he hooked home an excellent first-time volley.Middlesbrough almost claimed a seventh-minute opener but when Adilson Malanda prodded Sebastian Berhalter’s cross goalwards from close range, Danny Ward kept the ball out with a superb point-blank save. Continue reading...

Wakefield 22-24 LeedsHankinson’s try seals victory after 16-point deficitWhisper it but perhaps that was the performance of a champion side. All week the talk had been about Wakefield Trinity and whether this could be the night they declared themselves as a Super League force in front of a sell-out crowd against Leeds Rhinos.In the end, they probably did that, despite the result. These two West Yorkshire rivals served up a classic under the Belle Vue lights but in the end, despite never leading until the 77th minute, Leeds mustered up all their strength and championship credentials to complete a comeback which began when they trailed by 16 points with half an hour left. Continue reading...

We asked the experts for their picks for the best pickleball paddles, balls, running shoes and more to improve your game as a beginner Will these $23 socks last my entire life? I took 150,000 steps to find outSign up for the Filter US newsletter, your weekly guide to buying fewer, better thingsMaybe it was the contrarian in me, or maybe just the tennis player, but I must confess that I spent years dissing pickleball during its meteoric rise. When I finally decided to give up my grinching and try the sport I had derided as “mini tennis”, I discovered what I’d been missing.Learning how to play was fun, simple and affordable. I began my journey with a beginner class at Court 16, a New York-based indoor tennis and pickleball club where I started working with coach Dylan DeBiase, assistant director of tennis. Continue reading...

It has been a remarkable few days for an institution that may be irredeemable but this is a story that stretches back to a decision in 2010There are decades in which nothing happens, and weeks in which decades happen, and those weeks tend to result in leaders being toppled. Not even a fortnight ago, Gianni Infantino was taking his victory lap on Instagram, attacking “those behind their pens and papers, behind their screens spreading hate and false rumours” who had dared to question elements of his World Cup, which had generated a record $15bn in revenues. But the next day came the revelation of his plan to sell the World Cup to outside investors and a backlash that has him scrabbling to save his presidency.It has been a remarkable few days, but this is a story whose roots stretch way back, to the decision in Zurich in 2010 to award the 2022 World Cup not to the US but to Qatar, to a furious Bill Clinton hurling an ashtray across the room and demanding action, to an FBI inquiry into corruption, and to the flipping of the larger-than-life Concacaf general secretary Chuck Blazer, who had two apartments in Trump Tower, one for himself and one for his cats. Continue reading...

Vinícius Júnior and Yan Diomande are among more than 100 players at an agency owned by the hip-hop legendIn the end there was a clear winner. And Jay-Z’s latest victory came only 24 hours after the first record featuring him actually rapping for four years had been released by his wife, Beyoncé, on an extended remix pack of Morning Dew (Donk).These days, the man who remains one of the most influential artists in hip-hop has his fingers in many pies, from the streaming service Tidal and his own streetwear brand, to champagne and cognac. But it is Roc Nation Sports – an offshoot of his entertainment company of the same name founded in 2008 – making headlines in the summer transfer window. Continue reading...

Other demands meant he was unable to commit fullyMike Yardy will step in for upcoming Pakistan fixtureAndrew Flintoff has decided to step down as the head coach of England Lions with immediate effect before his winter spell working in Australia’s Big Bash League (BBL).The former all-rounder, 48, has been in charge of England’s second string since September 2024 and had been given the all-clear to leave this winter’s Lions tour of South Africa early to take up his new role at BBL side Sydney Thunder. Continue reading...

Pole leaves fellow contenders behind on iconic climbDemi Vollering trails by 15sec, Marlen Reusser by 39secKasia Niewiadoma took a spectacular solo victory on the legendary Mont Ventoux, securing a slim overall lead in the Tour de France Femmes after leaving behind her fellow race favourites Marlen Reusser and Demi Vollering.“It’s hard to describe my feelings because I’m still blown away by what just happened,” Niewiadoma, who won the yellow jersey in 2024, said of the first Tour stage victory of her career. Continue reading...

The 21-year-old British boxer has the chance to become the second youngest world heavyweight champion after Mike Tyson when he fights for the IBF crown this monthMoses Itauma was initially unmoved when hearing that his bout against Filip Hrgovic in London on 29 August had been upgraded to a fight for the vacant IBF world heavyweight title.“I didn’t really have any reaction,” Itauma said on Friday afternoon. “I was like, if I’m fighting Hrgovic and I’ve got the opportunity for it to be a world title, then yeah, chuck it on the line. I didn’t have any other feeling. I was taking Hrgovic serious – and, now the fight is for a world title, I’m still taking him serious. It’s still the same fight, innit?” Continue reading...

The Fifa president’s attempt to brazen out the storm, after attempting to sell a stake in the World Cup to private equity, adds insult to injury “How did you go bankrupt?” a character is asked in Ernest Hemingway’s novel The Sun Also Rises. “Gradually, then suddenly” comes the reply. Right now, Fifa’s justly besieged president, Gianni Infantino, is experiencing something similar in relation to the loss  of his own authority.Since taking over the running of world football’s governing body in 2016, Mr Infantino has survived regular criticism of a monetising approach which has often come at a sporting cost. But since egregious plans to sell a stake in the World Cup to the brother of Donald Trump’s son-in-law were leaked to the media, his credibility has been draining away at speed.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Millwall remain my main club, but others have turned my head, writes Michael Opitz. Also letters from Neil Bage and Ariel J FriedlanderI read Luke McLaughlin’s article with a great deal of empathy, yet still with some uneasiness about the taboo of having more than one club (Have you ever switched allegiance as a football fan? You are not alone, 1 August). A world I inhabit.I too was at the Millwall v Forest game marred by crowd trouble. It was my first! My family are mostly Millwall, who remain my club, but having seen them drop down the divisions and play in the third tier, my head was turned by better technique and Tottenham- and Arsenal-supporting friends. They will never understand my soft spot for both clubs. Continue reading...