Digest

VOLLEYBALL

Women's team quits Asian championship

The Chinese women's volleyball team has decided to quit the Asian Women's Volleyball Championship, a source from the Chinese Volleyball Association said on Tuesday.

The Asian championship is due to be staged from Aug 29 to Sept 4 in the Philippines, closely followed by China's 14th National Games in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, from Sept 15-27.

The National Games women's volleyball tournament will begin on Sept 16. Given the extensive quarantine times before and after competing overseas, it would be impossible for the national team players to attend both events.

Instead, Chinese national team players will represent their own provincial clubs in the National Games.

Due to the absence of China and Japan, only eight teams will compete at the Asian championship. The top two finishers will qualify for the 2022 Volleyball Women's World Championship.

BASKETBALL

Unseen Kobe photos to be released as NFTs

A blockchain company converted eight never-before-seen photographs of the late Kobe Bryant into non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and will auction them off to benefit a charitable foundation in his honor.

The company, called Cryptograph, plans to honor Bryant's memory with the NFTs of eight unreleased photos taken of the Los Angeles Lakers star during a 1999 magazine photo shoot.

Proceeds from the auctions will go to the Mamba& Mambacita Sports Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to Bryant and his late daughter, Gianna "Gigi" Bryant, that aims to help young underprivileged athletes, particularly women.

The enterprise is not officially aligned with Bryant's family or estate, Cryptograph co-founder Tommy Alastra told ESPN.

The NFTs are up for auction for 72 hours starting Tuesday, which the Los Angeles area celebrates as "Kobe Bryant Day" because Bryant's jersey Nos 8 and 24 align with the date Aug 24.

Bryant, who would have been 43 years old Monday, died in a helicopter crash in January 2020 along with 13-year-old Gianna and seven other victims.

NFTs are stored on a blockchain as a unique digital file, making them valuable to collectors.

BASEBALL

Molina agrees to 2022 contract with Cards

All-Star catcher Yadier Molina will return for his 19th and likely final season with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2022.

St. Louis announced Tuesday afternoon that its longtime catcher has agreed to a one-year contract. Molina, 39, broke into the majors with the Cardinals in 2004 and never left after taking over the catching chores from Mike Matheny. He has played 2,119 games, including 2,080 behind the plate－the most of any catcher for one team. Only Stan Musial (22) has played more seasons solely for the Cardinals.

The 10-time All-Star helped St. Louis win the World Series in 2006 and 2011.

Financial terms for the contract were not disclosed. The Puerto Rico native is a.280 hitter with 168 homers and 983 RBIs heading into Tuesday's game against the Detroit Tigers. He has 2,089 hits and 397 doubles.

Molina entered Tuesday batting.250 with a .304 on-base percentage, a .376 slugging percentage, eight homers and 51 RBIs in 94 games this season, spending just under 750 innings behind the plate.

AMERICAN FOOTBALL

Game to generate $20b in legal bets

The NFL and college football could generate more than $20 billion in legal sports betting during the upcoming season, according to projections released Tuesday by PlayUSA.

It would result in as much as $1.5 billion in revenue for sportsbooks, per PlayUSA.

"The US sports betting market looks entirely different from it did just one year ago. There is no question that it will be a historic football season unlike any we've seen before," said Dustin Gouker, lead analyst for the PlayUSA.com network.

The projections are at least $12 billion wagered on NFL games and roughly $8 billion on college football, per the report.

The total football-related handle was about $7.5 billion for the 2020 season.

Since the end of the 2020 football seasons, Michigan and Virginia have launched sports betting to emerge as the fifth- and seventh-largest markets in the US, respectively, per PlayUSA.

Xinhua - Agencies