Traditional sports in the US, such as basketball, football and tennis, have always been on the top of the list regarding people placing bets, and are also those that attract the biggest audiences. These are sports that people are familiar with and might even have played in their lives.
However, another type of sport has become part of the sporting world, including the most unusual sporting events, from fictional sports such as Quidditch to combining various games to create a new one. The more unusual it is, the more fun people have.
In this article, we will discuss all the different types of unusual sports there is to watch, play and bet in the US.
Trampoline Dodgeball
Trampoline combined with dodgeball makes up our first unusual sports event. The game has the traditional dodgeball rules, just played on a trampoline surface. This makes it fun and exciting to jump and dodge balls while in mid-air and also jump to attempt to hit your target with a dodgeball.
This game is highly energetic and also very fast-paced, with balls and people flying around and avoiding each other!
Harness Racing
This is similar to horse racing but with a big twist: It also has a two-wheeled wagon attached that the jockey sits in instead of on the horse’s back. The jockey controls the horse while seated in the back, which is very similar to chariot racing, dating back to the Greco-Roman era.
This unusual sport is most popular in Finland and Sweden and relies on betting to continue running financially. However, it’s also big in the US and even has its own Triple Crown of prestigious races. The biggest race in the calendar is The Hambletonian Stakes, which is held in New Jersey and has a prize purse of a million dollars for the winners. Florida was previously big on harness racing, with sports betting apps in Florida offering odds on races at the state’s famous Pompano Park. It closed its doors last year, but there’s hope of a revival soon now that betting is becoming more widespread in the state.
Hambone Altitude Release Society
Also known as HARS, this High-Flying Pigeon Race started in Pennsylvania and has become an unusual competitive sport. Participants raise pigeons and compete against others to fly at impressive altitudes for this event.
The game’s goal is to release the pigeons and allow them to fly to the highest possible elevation, and the winner is the person whose bird has reached the greatest height.
For people who enjoy bird watching, this unusual sport is great to pass the time watching these pigeons fly fast and high, and a bonus is that people place bets on who the fastest and highest-flying birds will be, although it’s not available at conventional bookmakers!
Quidditch
This unusual sport gained popularity in the Harry Potter book series when author J.K. Rowling invented it as a fictional sport played between wizards and witches while riding broomsticks.
However, it has become a sport in the real world as well. The game needs seven players on each side, and they all hold brooms between their legs right throughout. This makes it a challenging experience.
Players then have to try to score goals by throwing a ball through three hoops while their opponents tackle them, block shots and even dodge “blunders” (real-world dodge balls), which are thrown by beaters.
This game has become a fun experience for all involved, even the spectators.
Competitive Cup Stacking
Cup stacking is another odd game that people are competing in. The game is fairly simple. All you have to do is stack and unstack specially designed cups in a predefined sequence, doing it at the highest speed you possibly can.
This sport is great for building hand-eye coordination, precision and agility among those competing. Competitors also have to beat others by achieving the fastest time.
Rock, Paper, Scissors
Rock, paper, scissors is not just a game to see who gets the biggest slice of pie. This game has tournaments and leagues hosted worldwide, including the UK, Canada, and the USA. The championship sets out various rules and regulations, and the tournament winner will be named the rock, paper, scissors champion.
Spectators can place bets on who they think will become the champion. Depending on where you grew up, you might recall rock, paper, scissors as Ro-sham-bo.
Cow Chip Tossing
This game started in Beaver Town, Oklahoma, in 1970. Each year, there is an official world championship cow chip throwing contest where hundreds of people gather to watch who can throw a dried-out piece of cow dung furthest.
There are some rules involved with this game. Each participant gets two throws and has to use a chip that is a minimum of 6 inches in diameter. The champion is the person who throws their chip the furthest.
Cornhole
The game originated in Europe, and you may remember playing it for fun. However, it has become a tournament.
The game involves players in pairs throwing bags filled with corn kernels or beanbags into a board with holes. The team who has the most bags in the hole wins.
Although people play this game at small events such as tailgates or county fairs, there is also a much bigger cornhole tournament that allows for larger wagers to be placed.
It’s not just big in the US: In Hong Kong, cornhole tournaments are a big deal, while the cornhole tournaments in Asia are said to be the largest and wagers get huge payouts.
Curling
Added to the 2018 Olympics, this sport is not the most exciting to watch; however, it can be a lot of fun.
Played on ice, this game consists of four teams competing against each other by sweeping or sliding as many stones in the circle on the other end of their lanes as possible. Sometimes, they will knock other team’s stones out of the way, which can be exciting.
These stones are made of polished granite, and each team has eight stones. Points are awarded to the stones that land closest to the centre of the house, a targeted area containing four circles in the middle of the ice. Team USA will soon be competing in the world championships in Scotland.
eSports
The opposite of traditional sports, these eSports have become popular among a younger audience and have allowed traditional sports to be played virtually alongside other gaming genres such as adventure, action and even horror.
People can place bets on the winners of these games, as there are live tournaments and professional players they can follow throughout the gaming journey. Although you might not have heard of them, the market is massive – it’s currently worth more than $1 billion.
Final Thoughts
Flying on broomsticks, stacking cups at lightning speed, and tossing cow dung are all unusual events that have become a part of the sporting world with annual tournaments and, in some cases, leagues. These sports take the world by storm and incorporate themselves into the real world.
Suppose you are interested in keeping up to date with these odd events. You can use various platforms to brush up on what’s happening in the ‘other’ sporting news.
