Another season of sport awaits, and while there’s no big events like an Olympics with semi-nude Smurf-like gentlemen or a Football World Cup but there’s still so much to follow, watch, and try and pick the winners of. As is traditional, we offer up our sports on this year’s sporting events with the Bold 2025 Sporting Predictions with the added bonus of our annual Tipping Contest hosted by Tipstradamus.
Our resident sports-sayer Tipstradamus aka Gregstradamus is wheeled out only once a year, from a subterranean abode somewhere in the Queensland outback that has a TV room with a 360 degree array of televisions showing only sporting content. But what he lacks in quantity he makes up for with quality, and we’re lucky enough that he found time in between the Snooker, Big Bash and NFL to provide his Bold 2025 Sporting Predictions.
Tipstradamus’ Bold 2025 Sporting Predictions
OSCAR PIASTRI WINS THE 2025 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
McLaren were the 2024 Constructor’s Champions and 2025 will see them go one better and win the Driver’s Championship.
But sadly for Sky F1 it won’t be the British driver Lando Norris but the rising Australian star Oscar Piastri who takes the title.
Whilst no one doubts Norris’ speed, he was prone to the occasional mistake in 2024 at crucial times, and that curse will follow him into 2025. Meanwhile Piastri has another year under his belt, and his calm, almost who-gives-a-f–k demeanour has him primed to win early races and get ahead of the papaya rules.
MAX VERSTAPPEN WILL SENSATIONALLY QUIT FORMULA 1
Not just because he didn’t win the World Championship as above, but the four-time World Champion will tire of his boss Christian Horner, as will Verstappen’s father, as will Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko, and all will leave the Red Bull team at the end of the season.
Where will he go? Aston Martin? Mercedes? Nope.
NASCAR and Le Mans, with a side of the Indy 500. Max Verstappen will try it all and do well. Winning the Indy 500 and two NASCAR races, with a DNF at Le Mans costing a win.
The following year he’ll return to F1 in the car that did the best job with the new regulations. Probably Adrian Newey.
BAD YEAR FOR QLD RUGBY LEAGUE
Moving on to rugby league and our bold prediction is a bad one for Queensland rugby league, with our crystal ball showing none of the Queensland based NRL teams making the finals, and both the men and women State of Origin teams losing the series.
That includes the Broncos who despite blaming their coach and getting a new one go even further backwards as the unresolved player issues see a full implosion. This will see Adam Reynolds quit the club at the end of the season, not before Reece Walsh is suspended for doing something stupid off field.
NRL TO GET THE SCNDALS UNDERWAY EARLY – IN LAS VEGAS
The NRL’s venture into Las Vegas in 2024 was quite the success, and 2025 should be no different.
And similar to 2024 there will be a controversy coming from the big weekend.
While last year’s big news out of Las Vegas was the Spencer Leniu – Ezra Mam racial taunt, 2025 will see a return to a good old fashioned too-drunk rugby league player doing too-drunk stuff at one of the casinos.
Given how unlucky the club is with recruitment, it’ll probably be a Canberra player in trouble and banned.
NRL GRAND FINAL ENDS UP A GUS-FEST BETWEEN BULLDOGS AND PANTHERS
It’s hard to see anyone other than Penrith making the Grand Final in 2025, except for a team that looks like Penrith, and has an ex Penrith coach, and the mastermind behind Penrith’s success.
The Bulldogs improved rapidly in 2024 moving from busted arse to finals. With that rapid progress in mind, and another year together as a squad, we can see a Grand Final berth. Where they will probably lose to Penrith by 8-4.
INTEREST IN AFL IN BRISBANE WILL MYSTERIOUSLY INCREASE AROUND LATE AUGUST
Since Queensland rugby league won’t go very well in 2025, according to use, there will be mysterious spike in interest for AFL in Brisbane and Queensland.
Much similar to 2025, this will rely on the Brisbane Lions doing well at the right time of the year. Which they will.
EUROPEAN CRICKET WILL FINALLY TAKE THE WORLD BY STORM THIS YEAR
Last year and every year we rave on about how great European Cricket is.
Not only will 2025 be no different, but somehow the September European Cricket Championship will catch on via social media (probably not Twitter as they tend to hate everything) and spread around the world.
Mr Maximo and the European Cricket Championship will become household names, and the 10 over competition one of sport’s hottest properties.
The cry of Maximooooooo will replace all other utterances when a ball clears the rope, and the European Cricket Championship will rate higher than the Australian Big Bash by the end of the series.
A FULL MELEE WIL BREAK OUT IN THE ASHES SERIES
We have to wait a long time for Cricket’s big event for 2025, but it will be worth the wait.
The Ashes will be a tense battle with every game full on and emotions riding high.
Which is why our crystal ball sees this boiling over and ending up in a full melee on pitch with an occasional punch thrown.
Sure it will be tutt-tutted by media and cucumber eating sandwich types, but deep down the real Australian and English fans will love it.
DONALD TRUMP WILL ATTEMPT TO GET HIS WAY INTO THE US OPEN GOLF TOURNAMENT
With Donald Trump reinstated as President of the USA and having spent a lot of time recently talking about buying Greenland among, and his well known love for golf, we can see him overstepping into the world of sport in 2025.
Trump will attempt to use his presidential powers to influence the US Open Golf qualifying, by declaring the 63 and 61 scores on his home course on the two Sundays leading up to the US Open as enough to be granted an entry into the major.
The attempt doesn’t fully pay off after half of the golfers protest and threaten boycott.
As a response, Trump announces a rival major, being the Greenland Open in August.
FIFA WILL WIN THE FIFA CLUB WORLD CUP
With FIFA dangerously low on ways to make money out of football, they figure more is more with an expanded Club World Club over the break in European football this season.
With fans complaining about the expense of following football, the players concerned about burn out, and clubs pretending to care about player burn out whilst keeping an eye on bank balances, there’s on one really into the FIFA Club World Cup. Except FIFA.
So no matter the result, how the tournament plays out, and/or fan reaction to it (except on Twitter as they hate everything), FIFA will claim victory and look onwards and upwards of ensuring financial stability.
GOUT GOUT TO WIN WORLD ATHELTICS CHAMPIONSHIP MEDAL
Australian sprint sensation Gout Gout has captured a lot of attention, and in 2025 he will lay down a significant marker, by winning a medal in either the 100 metres or 200 metres at the World Athletics Championship in Japan in September.
It will be one of the great feelgood Australian sports stories for everyone except the most hateful commenters online who will try and pretend they aren’t racists by saying they aren’t.
Gout Gout will be cheered the world over, and so he should be.
THE GREGSTRADAMUS 2025 SPORTS TIPPING CHALLENGE
Think you can beat Sport’s greatest soothsayer? Then here is the Tipstradamus aka Gregstradamus 2025 Sports Tipping Challenge.
Ten random sporting events from the year ahead are here
Leave your tips in the Comments section if you want to take on Gregstradamus.
1 – FORMULA 1 – NUMBER OF DNFs FOR LANCE STROLL IN 2025
2 – FORMULA 1 – WINNER OF MONACO GRAND PRIX
3 – FOOTBALL – WINNER OF LEAGUE ONE IN UK
4 – FOOTBALL – WINNER OF EUROPA LEAGUE
5 – FOOTBALL – FINAL PREMIER LEAGUE FINISHING POSITION OF MAN UTD
6 – RUGBY LEAGUE – TEAM WITH BIGGEST LOSS IN NRL’S MAGIC ROUND
7 – CRICKET – WINNER OF EUROPEAN CRICKET CHAMPIONSHIP – CHALLENGER DIV
8 – AFL – LOSING GRAND FINALIST
9 – MOTOR SPORT – NUMBER OF SAFETY CARS AT BATHURST 1000
10 – GOLF – WINNER OF THE SENIOR BRITISH OPEN
GREGSTRADAMUS 2025 SPORTS TIPPING SELECTIONS
Of course we’ll always put our money where our mouth is, so here are the selections to beat for the 2025 Sports Tipping Contest.
1 – Six
2 – Oscar Piastri
3 – Birmingham City
4 – Athletic Bilbao
5 – 11th
6 – St George Illawarra
7 – Isle of Man
8 – Port Adelaide
9 – Eight
10 – Bernard Langer
Submit your selections via the Comments, and beat the master. If you can.
