Sporting Life's team, ambassadors and managing editor Gareth Jones wish everyone a very Merry Christmas.
Season's greetings to you all. While Christmas Day will be different to how we all hoped and planned, all at Sporting Life hope you have a wonderful day and may the below video provide some festive cheer.
We are all united by our love of sport and in a difficult 2020 it is that passion that has helped many battle through a challenging time, to find reasons to smile and cheer.
One constant this Christmas will be that sport continues and whether it is the King George VI Chase, Boxing Day football or World Championship darts that gets you going, the galloping of hooves, clacking of studs and thud of the dartboard will give us all some comforting familiarity.
We want to thank you for being with Sporting Life in 2020 - you have played an indispensable role in keep us going, especially by sharing your fantastic opinions and memories during the absence of live action.
Despite obvious challenges we have continued to move forward at pace to offer you an even better service, introducing our first native Apple and Android Apps - both of which now provide full access to free race replays, My Stable tracker, Fast Results and all of our editorial. We have signed up Willie Mullins and Oisin Murphy to deliver unrivalled racing insight; introduced new daily tipping packages; and launched a dedicated racing Facebook page to give you all the platform you deserve to share opinions, stories and tips.
We are also set to deliver a year of significant profit for our punters! This includes big Value Bet winners for Matt Brocklebank, including Coole Cody at 20/1 in the Paddy Power Gold Cup.
Our golf expert Ben Coley's highlights include victories for 250/1 Sami Valimaki and 150/1 Marc Warren. Our football team have really hit their stride with three big ACCA successes in the last month, while Tom Carnduff called both the Champions League and Europa League winners - each were 14/1 ante-post shouts.
And remember, we provide all of this totally for FREE! While others charge for stable tours, trainer and jockey interviews, daily tipping, and opinion, Sporting Life is proud to provide our readers with all of this for no charge.
We all hope 2021 will be a much better year, and let's face it, can it really get much worse? Here at Sporting Life we aim to make it a year of winning, and have some big plans.
I am sure you will all know by now that we are the new sponsors for The Arkle Chase at the Cheltenham Festival (I think we may just have mentioned it a few times) and will once again be the home of The Festival.
We are also excited to launch a new-look website early in the year. We understand that change can be frustrating, but ask for your patience, and promise that once bedded in, it will be easier, faster and better for you to access the content you love.
Our apps will improve with regularly updated features and our new partnership with Timeform means we will provide you with even more in-depth facts, figures and stats to give you an edge.
We will also be partnering with a new podcast to provide unique insight into the psychology of professional athletes as we speak with some of the biggest names in sport.
While one of our main USP's is betting previews, 2020 has reminded us all that our love of sport comes from stories, moments and memories. It is those that we missed most when everything suddenly stopped; even now, the reminiscing about wonderful races, matches, contests and personalities from times gone by remains one of the greatest antidotes.
In 2021 we will be truly getting to the heart of the sports you love. Going behind the scenes, getting under the fingernails of our sporting protagonists to discover what makes them tick. Whether it is a Gordon Elliott stable tour, spending the day with Oisin Murphy, or an extensive career interview with a football manager, we will find new angles to bring you content worth getting excited about.
Talking of which, we will be offering more debate and analysis on the key topics of 2021. Whether it is a sudden and dramatic change of running plans, racing industry developments or explaining how Chelsea have suddenly learned how to defend, you will get unrivalled insight from Sporting Life's team of passionate, informed experts.
We look forward to you being with Sporting Life in 2021 and together we can make it a year to remember - for the right reasons.
Merry Christmas,
Gareth Jones
Managing Editor