Sport in the United Kingdom Sport in the United Kingdom Sport in the United Kingdom plays an important role in British culture. The United Kingdom has given birth to a range of major international sports including: football, rugby, both (union and league), cricket, netball, darts, golf, tennis, table tennis, badminton, squash, croquet, fives, bowls, modern rowing, hockey, boxing, water polo, snooker, billiards, and curling. This has meant that in the infancy of many sports, England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland formed among the earliest separate governing bodies, national teams and domestic league competitions. After 1922 some sports formed separate bodies for Northern Ireland though some continued
Sport in the United Kingdom modern pentathlon, figure skating and sailing. Thoroughbred racing, which originated under Charles II of England as the "sport of kings", occupies a key place in British sport, probably ranking in the top four or five sports in terms of media coverage. There are sixty racecourses in Great Britain with annual racecourse attendance exceeding six million and roughly 13,500 races being held across Britain and Ireland each year. The sport in Great Britain is governed by the British Horseracing Authority. The two racecourses in Northern Ireland are governed by Horse Racing Ireland, which runs the sport on an All-Ireland basis. The