Three Links Between Card Games and Sports That May Surprise You

These days, there’s a clear link between sport and gambling. You only need to watch a game of top-level football to see playing shirts covered in betting firm logos, while pitch side advertising hoardings are also dominated by the marketing messages of bookmakers and online casinos.

However, the link goes deeper than that, with some card games – the likes of which are played in many casinos – enjoying an obvious kinship with competitive sports.

Players can sample poker, blackjack, baccarat and more at licensed online casinos. You can view more sites that offer these games on Legalbet, where gambling experts compare licensed operators and their game selections.

However, not all card games with sporting roots are commonly found on online platforms. So, as your cards are dealt to you, consider the links between these classic games and sport as described below.

Bridge: Competitive Card Gaming

Still enjoyed in many countries around the world, bridge is a card game that also happens to be recognised as an official sport.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) recognised the World Bridge Federation as a ‘Recognised Sport Organisation’ in 1995, granting bridge official status as a mind sport.

Strategic thinking is at the core of the game, which has its own annual world championship – the World Bridge Federation Championships – as well as the World Team Championships and the World Bridge Games.

Bridge even has its own world rankings system, so it would be fair to say that this is one card game that can well and truly be described as a sport.

Poker: Survival of the Fittest

Poker has never been recognised as a sport by the International Olympic Committee, yet it was acknowledged as a mind sport in 2024 by the International Mind Sports Association (IMSA). And when you consider the many organisations that govern the game, you can see why that recognition makes sense.

There’s the International Federation of Poker and the World Poker Federation, which both organise competitive tournaments in which pride and prize money are on the line.

And then there’s the money spinning events held by the likes of the World Series of Poker, where the players are competing for genuinely life changing prize cheques.

Don’t write off the physicality required to win poker tournaments, too. Some playing days at the World Series of Poker last for up to 12 hours, in which the players have to remain focused and energised to minimise the risk of making bad decisions and low expectancy plays.

This requires a certain level of stamina. And while it’s not akin to an endurance-based sporting event like the Tour de France, it is the players who can make good calls over a long period of time that get the best results from tournament poker, confirming its credentials as a ‘sport’.

Blackjack: Preparation and Hand Analysis

Increasingly these days, elite sport is becoming data driven.

You only need to look at the examples of football, the NBA and the NFL to see how team officials are using advanced stats and proprietary analysis to make better decisions when it comes to signing new players or creating tactics for gameday.

That is something that more and more blackjack players are learning as they look to up their game.

Before they even take to the felt, there’s a recommendation to learn the principles of basic blackjack strategy. That way, the player can make the right decision by applying probability theory to the cards they’ve been dealt and the dealer’s upturned card.

This is pre-game research that can lead to better results, similar, in a sense, to the playbook of an offence coach in American football.

Once the game is underway, there are still ways in which blackjack players can improve. Many online blackjack games offer a history of hands played, so the individual can examine those that they won, those that they lost and learn from mistakes they have made, or, perhaps, reinforce their strategies from hands won.

In sport, post-match analysis is key. Coaches will watch the same footage of games over and over again, analysing the successes and failings in front of them. Building on the strengths, while limiting the weaknesses, is a sure-fire way to instigate improvements in performance.

So, as you can see, there are many ways in which sport and card games intersect. In fact, the two form a fascinating Venn diagram, and card players and sports stars could learn plenty from one another.