Enjoy the Biggest Sports Betting Events in February 2018 with Coral

February can often be a strange month, it’s the shortest month of the year, sometimes it even has an extra day stuck onto the end of it and you can get a real mix of weather here in the UK. These range from freezing winter days with a covering of snow and ice, to warmer spring mornings when you start to feel that the first days of spring are on the way.

Despite being a short month in terms of duration, it is also one of the most exciting months of the year when it comes to sporting action and in this preview article, we are going to take a look at some of the biggest and best sporting events you can enjoy top quality betting on with Coral Sport throughout the month.

Let’s begin with a look at some of the major sports events taking place in February 2018.

1^st February – 17^th May – Premier League Darts

Starting on Thursday 1^st February and with fixtures every Thursday night at a host of venues across the UK, Ireland, Holland and Germany, the expansion of the Premier League Darts continues with the first night of action from the 3Arena in Dublin, Ireland. There’s a very different line-up of stars for the 2018 event with many famliliar names out or retired allowing a number of PDC stars to make their debut in the event.

The ten players competing initially are: Gary Anderson, Daryl Gurney, Gerwyn Price, Michael Smith, Mensur Suljovic, Ramond Van Barneveld, Michael van Gerwen, Simon Whitlock, Peter Wright and newly crowned World Champion Rob Cross.

You can bet each night on all the different matches taking place throughout the tournament, which concludes in May. Michael van Gerwen is the 8/11 favourite to retain the title he won last year, with Rob Cross a 7/2 shot, Gary Anderson 11/2 and Peter Wright an 8/1 chance. The remaining  players are very much outsiders with Daryl Gurney, Raymond van Barneveld and Mensur Suljovic all 40/1 chances, Michael Smith 66/1, Gerwyn Price 100/1 and Simon Whitlock 200/1 to lift the trophy.

3^rd February – 17^th March – Six Nations Rugby

England begin the defence of their Six Nations crown in what promises to be a pivotal tournament ahead of a busy series of matches later in the year, including games against the top team in the world New Zealand. Once again, Eddie Jones men will take on Wales, France, Italy, Ireland and Scotland to claim what would be their 29^th win in the tournament.

The action begins on the 3^rd February, but there are matches on the weekends of the 10^th/11^th and the 23^rd/24^th too, with over half the games in the tournament contested in February.

The list of fixtures is as follows:

• 3^rd Feb – Wales v Scotland
• 3^rd Feb – France v Ireland
• 4^th Feb – Italy v England
• 10^th Feb – Ireland v Italy
• 10^th Feb – England v Wales
• 11^th Feb – Scotland v France
• 23^rd Feb – France v Italy
• 24^th Feb – Ireland v Wales
• 24^th Feb – Scotland v England

As usual, there will be plenty of outright betting, individual match betting and In Play betting on all Six Nations game throughout February with Coral Sport.

4^th February – Superbowl LII

We will discover whether it will be the New England Patriots of the Jacksonville Jaguars from the AFC, together with either the Minnesota Vikings or the Philadelphia Eagles from the NFC that will contest Superbowl LII in Minnesota on the 4^th February (early hours of Monday morning for those of us in the UK).

With both the AFC and NFC Conference title games set to be played on Sunday 21^st January, it gives the two teams competing a two-week period to get themselves ready for what will be one of the biggest sporting events of the year, with an audience of billions expected to tune in around the world.

Last year saw one of the most dramatic Superbowl’s in history when the New England Patriots came back from a 28-3 scoreline to record an incredible win over the Atlanta Falcons. Can Bill Belichick’s team cement what would be a third Superbowl win in four years? Or will Jacksonville, Philadelphia or Minnesota win their first ever title?

9^th February – 25^th February – Winter Olympics, Pyeongchang, South Korea

There’s also plenty to look forward to for Winter Sports fans this month as the Winter Olympics gets underway in Pyeongchang, South Korea, with the prospect of a united Korean team competing in the event for the first time in many years.

Although not a traditionally strong event for Great British and Northern Ireland athletes, Team GB has targeted five medals in the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang and our main hopes seem to centre on Curling, Short Track Speed Skating, Snowboarding, Freestyle Skiing and Skiathlon. Lizzy Yarnold will be defending her gold medal from 2014 in the Speed Skeleton event too.

With over two-weeks of the best winter sporting action to enjoy across a number of events including skiing, ski-jump, ice hockey and many more, Coral will be offering a wide choice of bets from a wide range of sports at the Olympics this year.

13^th, 14^th, 20^th & 21^st February – Champions League Round of 16 – First Leg Games

Both of European Football’s top international competitions get back underway following the Christmas break in February and the Champions League is first up with its Round of 16 first leg games. These games are split in a slightly different manner to usual game weeks, due to the fact that the Europa League needs to play one extra Round of games while the Champions League Round of 16 is finalised.

This means that there are just two fixtures on each of the dates shown above and the fixtures are outlined below:

• 13^th Feb – Juventus v Tottenham, FC Basel v Manchester City
• 14^th Feb – FC Porto v Liverpool, Real Madrid v Paris St Germain
• 20^th Feb – Bayern Munich v Besiktas, Chelsea v Barcelona
• 21^st Feb – Sevilla v Man Utd, Shakhtar Donetsk v AS Roma

Of course, there is going to be masses of great betting to enjoy with Coral across all these First Leg games, plus the second legs of these matches all of which take place in March.

13^th, 15^th, 21^st & 22^nd February – Europa League Round of 32 – First and Second Legs

The Round of 32 will be contested over the following dates with one match taking place on the 13^th & 21^st February, and all the other 15 games taking place on the 15^th and 22^nd February. The Round of 16 in the Europa League will then be played in the same weeks in March that the Champions League Round of 16 second leg matches are played. This ensures that from then on, both tournaments will be at the same stage.

Highlights of the games taking place at this stage of the tournament (which is also when the eight third placed teams from the Group Stage of the Champions League join in) include Ostersund v Arsenal, Dortmund v Atalata, Marseille v Braga, Lyon v Villarreal, Celtic v Zenit St Petersburg and Napoli v Red Bull Leipzig.

19^th February – 25^th February – World Grand Prix Snooker

After the conclusion of the Masters event in January, the next big Snooker tournament of the season gets underway at the Guild Hall in Preston with the top 32 ranked players in the world competing in the World Grand Prix.

Ronnie O’Sullivan will be one of the hot favourites to win the event, which was won last year by Barry Hawkins who defeared Ryan Day 10-7 in the final. However the likes of Judd Trump, Mark Selby, Shaun Murphy, Luca Brecel, John Higgins, Mark Williams and Ding Junhui will all feel they have a chance of landing the win.

The winner takes home £100,000 in prize money and the draw is such that the top ranked player will face the 32^nd ranked player in the first round and so on.

25^th February – Carabao Cup Final

February ends with the first major cup final of the year at Wembley Stadium as either Bristol City or Manchester City will face either Arsenal or Chelsea in the Carabao Cup Final. With the second legs of both semi-finals still delicately poised, it could be any of the four teams above that make the final and whatever the outcome of the semis, it promises to be a cracking match up.

Can Bristol City cause a huge upset? Will Manchester City claim the first trophy in what their fans are hoping will be an unprecedented quadruple? Or will one of London’s representatives clinch the win to claim some much-needed silverware?