I like sports. When I was a child I ran after a ball with most children my age and older, rode my bike and everything else children do when they are worry-free and happy.
As I grew up we moved, and later in life open spaces where children played started to be replaced by buildings under construction, so children of these days have to gather together in artificially landscaped places to be able to play, or enlist to do some kind of sport or dance to release their energy and maybe give them some focus in their lives, at least in some cases.
I don't know. Maybe this way is more efficient. But coming back from those early days, I feel it certainly cuts a big chunk of what childhood should be about: playing with other children without parents constantly watching and intruding. Even resolving conflicts between children would be much better for them later in life, when possible.
Anyway, I started saying that I like sports. I do. I don't practice any anymore, unfortunately. But as a spectator I think I like pretty much all sports. Maybe I like them so much because I was below average in all of them, even if I would have liked to be better. Except mental ones, I think I am above average in those "sports".
One huge aspect to sport is betting. Often the betting part is more important than the actual sport. I don't know if that's sad or if that reflects the fact that most people are in fact spectators and only a fraction are the actual athletes competing. What I find despising is when an athlete (or insider of any kind) bets for the athlete to lose. I have no problem if they bet to win. But I do if they bet to lose, because that means they are planning to intentionally lose the game (or certain aspects of the game). But that's a subject for a full post.
When I was young I did a little betting on different sports myself. Overall, I didn't lose or win much. But I gave up because there were too many "surprises" and I didn't like that it wasn't predictable. At least not for me.
Well.. time to change that! HiveBuzz has these World Cup events where we can bet on the outcome of the matches. Now the FIFA World Cup 2023 for women is undergoing.
I participated on the last two WC events from HiveBuzz for men, in 2018 and 2022, and, unlike sports betting, this is actually relaxing for me (instead of being tensed to catch the right result) and can be done without knowing anything about the respective sport, as history showed.
There is a 1 HIVE enlisting fee to prevent spamming and to build up a prize pool. From that and from sponsors' donations and curation rewards, I can tell from experience that most people who participate throughout the entire event will end up in profit, even though only a few will win the jackpot.
Personally, I joined and cast my first two votes. Unlike the men's WC from last winter, I won't be watching the games though. Will see what will come from that. Good luck to everyone participating!