If you’re a sports fan, there are plenty of destinations you can visit to feed your love of competition. New York is packed with historic baseball stadiums, Monte-Carlo is home to its famous Rally, and Liverpool hosts one of the biggest horse races on the planet.
Photo by Ameer Basheer on UnsplashBut another place you definitely need to visit is Las Vegas, a city that is fast becoming one of the biggest sports destinations on the planet.
What’s the Deal With Sport in Las Vegas
Las Vegas is best known for its casinos. These giant gaming galleries have become landmarks in their own right thanks to their unique architecture, extravagant light shows, water displays, and art.
The casinos are integral to the city, its identity, and its economy. It was these gaming establishments that helped to grow it from a small desert settlement to a thriving city with a booming tourist trade.
And in addition to inventing the integrated resort that packs in a hotel, restaurants, shopping, and entertainment alongside a huge gaming floor, Vegas also helped to create and mould many of the popular games we know today.
For example, blackjack is one of the most popular card games on the planet, thanks in part, to the range of different variants that are on offer, including classic, premium, and high roller versions. But before the game took hold in Las Vegas, it was generally known by other names, most frequently just “21”.
But Vegas casino owners, in the early days of the city, needed ways to stand out from the crowd. So many would create special rules for games, one of which was a payout if you had a black jack card in your hand. This eventually stuck as the name of the game, even when the special payout became a distant memory.
But casinos aren’t enough to keep visitors flocking to the city in their millions, especially since they can find the same games in other parts of the USA, the rest of the world, and online.
So the city and its casino owners looked for additional ways to attract guests and one option that’s proven incredibly successful is hosting live sports and letting professional teams make their home there.
So if you’re a sports fan looking to make the most of your trip to Vegas, here’s what you need to know.
Football
Las Vegas recently welcomed the Raiders NFL team which moved from Oakland in neighbouring California. This means that, throughout the NFL season, you’ll find regular games taking place at the newly-built Allegiant Stadium.
Photo by Anelale Nájera on UnsplashThe Raiders don’t have a monopoly in the city though. The UNLV Rebels team competes in the NCAA Division I FBA each year and there has been a revolving door of minor league teams coming in and out of the city.
If you’re visiting at the right time, you’ll likely be able to catch a game or two.
Motorsport
Las Vegas offers plenty of adrenaline-inducing excitement on a daily basis, but things get turned up to 11 when there’s a motorsport event taking place in the city.
In 2023, Formula 1 will be hosting its first-ever North American night race along and around the Las Vegas Strip. It will be a phenomenal spectacle that will be unlike anything we’ve seen before.
It’s not the only car racing taking place in Vegas though. Las Vegas Motor Speedway regularly hosts events throughout the year, including drag racing and NASCAR.
Combat Sports
Boxing was one of the first sports to take place in Las Vegas. The first fights were organised in the city after the sport had trouble in its traditional home of New York.
The casino owners quickly discovered that it was good for business and soon began building their own arenas to host big bouts on a regular basis.
Throughout the year, you can now find some of boxing’s most famous names squaring off in the rings of Vegas casinos.
Following the success of boxing, MMA organisers like the UFC have also made Vegas their home, hosting a regular schedule of fixtures in the city.
