The Best Sports Films of All Time

Sportsbettingonline.net is all about sports, so what finer way to celebrate the incredible diversity of different recreational activities out there than to provide our devoted punters to an infographic about the biggest sports films ever made. Motion pictures about the world’s sporting heroes are thoroughly entertaining and keep all sports fans on the edge of their seats with the riveting action scenes and compelling storylines. Here are just a couple of the most powerful sports movies that made it onto our shortlist – trust us, it was super hard to make the cut! We scoured IMDB, Roger Ebert and Rotten Tomatoes to find out which are the best sports films of all time!

The summer months bring with them some huge fights between world-class boxers like Pacquiao v Horn, Maywether v McGregor, Bercehelt v Miura and Golovkin v Alvarez. So, why not put some money down on the strongest competitor? When you think boxing films, there’s only one classic which should come to mind; that is, the 1976 Rocky film written by and starring the world-famous Sylvester Stallone. Having received nineteen awards, including an Academy Award for best picture, do you think it took the number one spot in this sports category? One of our favourite boxing movies has to be Jake Gyllenhaal’s rendition of Billy ‘The Great’ Hope in Antoine Fuqua’s Southpaw. In the film, after tragedy strikes and he loses his wife due to his aggressive and violent nature, the boxer soon loses everything else, including the rest of his family and his lavish lifestyle. After hitting rock bottom, he does his best to get himself back on his feet and fights to regain the trust he’s lost of those who were once close to him. What about Stallone’s return to the cinema in Creed, Clint Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby and Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale’s performance in The Fighter? Do they come close to the top? What does our infographic say?

At the beginning of his career, Leonardo di Caprio took on as many roles as he could to get his name out in the movie industry. You may or may not know that he got a part in the 1995 coming of age drama film, The Basketball Diaries. Di Caprio plays a young man aspiring to be a basketball star whose appetite for heroin crushes his dreams. How do Samuel L. Jackson’s performance in Coach Carter and the William Gates’ documentary Hoop Dreams compare to the young Di Caprio’s movie? And what about the 1996 film featuring the dynamic duo, Bugs Bunny and Michael Jordan? If basketball is your sport of choice, you might enjoy some fantasy basketball to keep you occupied when you’re off the court.

Remember when Keira Knightley starred as a lesbian footballer in the British comedy-drama sports film, Bend It Like Beckham, which took the world by storm in 2002. Tough guys, Danny Meehan and Jason Statham also make the top ten in this category with their movie Mean Machine which is about a soccer star who is locked up for assault and leads a pack of inmates in a match against the correctional officers. We also were fans of Goal when it was released in 2005 which features cameo appearances by some our favourite football players straight of the Premier League. The film features legends like Alan Shearer, Martin Tyler, Sven-Goran Eriksson, David Beckham, Zinedine Zidane and Raul Gonzalez. If you’re a football fan, you’ll love these football movies! But which one grossed the most money at the box office?

The Fast and the Furious franchise is one of the most successful series of action movies of all time. It became even more of a sensation with the passing of the young, handsome and talented, Paul Walker, part way through the filming of Fast and Furious 7. With every movie, the illegal motor-racing scenes get more thrilling and the heists even more outrageously daring! In fact, the first of the series was released in 2001, and seven more have followed, with the ninth instalment announced only last month; Dwayne Johnson will reportedly return to join Vin Diesel and his team. In the motor-racing category, other popular titles are competing for the number one position, like Need for Speed, Jason Statham’s Death Race, funnyman Will Ferrell’s Talladega Nights, Chris Hemsworth’s Rush and the documentary on the Brazilian F1 driver who died an early death, called, Senna.

Being summer time, several large tennis tournaments are underway; ‘tis the season for a bout of tennis! The Wimbledon Grand Slam will take place in July, and the US Open is set for August, with plenty of smaller competitions in between. We can definitely help you with your betting strategy and show you different ways to bet on this sport. Speaking of Wimbledon, the romantic comedy featuring Paul Bettany and Kirsten Dunst is an inspiring love story between a washed up pro tennis player and a rising American star in women’s tennis. Critics so praised the Woody Allen film, Match Point, featuring Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Scarlett Johansson that it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. It also features on our list along with When Billie Beat Bobby and Balls Out: Gary the Tennis Coach.

Take a look at our infographic for the full set of rankings of the most excellent sports film ever made.

About the author

Eric Roberts

Sports Journalist

Eric has been a sports journalist for over 20 years and has travelled the world covering top sporting events for a number of publications. He also has a passion for betting and uses his in-depth knowledge of the sports world to pinpoint outstanding odds and value betting opportunities.