Hello everyone and welcome to all new-comers to our blog. Today I’ve picked an interesting topic. It was due to a pure accident, I was discussing some recent events with a friend and somehow the conversation ended up with mentioning the Olympic Truce. So I thought, this is something on topic and we have all been buried under tasks after the holiday season, so let’s call it a sign and write about that. Let’s go.

Now, everyone is I am sure familiar with the tradition. It originates from Ancient Greece in the 8th century and consists in the announcement of peace just before and during the Olympic games. Just think about the magnitude of that! Especially back in those days. Even death penalties were forbidden during the games. Sport was (and still is) able to stop wars. Why can’t we just stick to that long term, hey? I suppose it’s not that simple. But let’s not digress.
In modern time, the UN revived the tradition in 1993 with a declaration, work was continued over some years until the official establishment of the International Olympic Truce Foundation in 1999 and the International Olympic Truce Centre in cooperation with Greece. The idea was to protect the interests of everyone involved with sport, and to promote peaceful principles in our modern life. At present, every city is welcomed and encouraged to participate in their own way in that initiative. It is a beautiful (even if it is somewhat utopian) idea – where all the countries in the world work towards resolving international disagreements by peaceful means and sport is used as a common way to reach out to each other and forget our differences.
We can also see another trend taking a new shape online. With the internet and rise of online gaming, it is even easier to unite people from all over the world around sport events. One activity that has emerged from people joining in their interests from all over the world is betting. With the speed of travel of information now it is rapidly growing.
Betting, particularly in Europe, goes way back in history. Take horse races for example – widely popular in the UK in the early 50s. This is where the first sport sponsorship deals were struck as well – a beginning of a whole new era for sports across the board since the more the activities have invested in them, logically, the more, better and quicker they can develop. With the regulation of gambling and sports betting in particular over the past two decades, different sport disciplines have continually benefitted from the attention (measured in cash investments but subsequently – fame and popularity worldwide as well). As we speak, some of the best paid professions around the globe are sport related with football being in the leading position with 80% of the over €100 million invested in the all-favourite sport by the betting sector in UK (data provided by EGBA).
Interesting development right? I found it quite intriguing and certainly worth a thought. I hope you have enjoyed this read and it will spark some thoughts and conversations over a drink or two with friends, surely was the case with me! In any case – be back soon for more thoughts, events and news from our old beloved continent!