In terms of definition and the understanding of exactly what a grand final is, the correct definition is that a grand final is a game that decides a sports league’s championship. This might be the deciding match for a premiership winning team, by way of being the conclusive game of a finals build-up, or a play-off series between two or more leagues.
The terms Grand Final has been utilised with championship games in a number of North American sports, partly to indicate that the final match is an amalgamation of play-offs between one or more leagues and partly used rather loosely to provide a marketing edge in terms of allocating importance to the final game. However, the terms Grand Final is better known as the terminology used in Australian culture to name the Australian rules football final event of the season.
The Grand Finals in Sport Today
The first competitions to feature a formally declared grand final were Australia’s AFL, Australian Football League final of the sport of Australian rules football) and the Australian NRL, the National Rugby League. The popularity and enthusiasm generated by this nomenclature quickly influenced other competitions such as soccer’s A-League, the National Basketball League, netball’s ANZ Championship and European rugby league’s Super League. These sporting codes went on to adopt grand finals as their season-ending matches too. Like all season-ending final events, grand finals involve a significant trophies and awards for influential players and coaches, including the most valuable player in the Grand Final. Besides online slots, currently the AFL grand final betting is the most lucrative for Australian punters and bookies alike.
Whilst the naming of sporting events might appear somewhat random to the lesser informed spectator, in fact the Anglo-Norman term of ‘grand’, when used to describe a sporting event was first used in England in the early 1800’s and almost immediately after in Australia. The term has often been applied to major horse racing events as well as Australian slots online games for players.
Using the term Grand Final to describe the final of the Australian rules football league dates all the way back to a widely publicised match that took place in 1858 between Melbourne Grammar School and Scotch College. Initially described as a grand football match, the concept of a Grand Final took hold and has manifested itself as a highly important conclusion to a number of leagues today.
The Link to Sports Betting
When it comes to wagering on any of the Grand Finals available to punters in the various sports that use the term, it really should be appreciated that betting on sports has been around for as long as sport itself. Quite clearly an integral part of human nature, a sporting match is always a bit more interesting with a personal investment riding on the outcome. The betting market is thriving with the universal access granted by the internet and therefore looks set to do so well into the future.
Nowadays, with sports competitions becoming ever more publicised, and punters able to use mobile access to wager effectively, terminology is becoming quite an important aspect. The calling of a final event a Grand Final is obviously going to attract many punters and enable popular leagues like the Australian rules football league to create a huge sense of anticipation and thus an even greater urge for all the fans to place a wager on the event.