One hundred years ago the Olympic Games were held in Paris, France. Next week, the games return to that city with a much larger event and thousands of betting opportunities. But how do you set a strategy that isn’t scattershot and will have a good chance of turning a profit. Here’s some tips.
Medal Might
One of the most popular bets in the Olympics is a futures bet on what country wins the most medals, gold or otherwise. It’s not really much of a contest, actually. Using the BetRivers odds, the USA has a commanding advantage of more athletes, a very serious program and not much completion now that Russia is banned from participating (although its athletes can compete without a flag).
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Here are the top 5 countries for the total medal count:
USA -670
China +450
France +3300
Great Britain +15000
Netherlands +15000
Or how about the Over/Under for each country’s gold medal count?
USA O 39.5 -134 U 39.5 -106
China O 34.5 -134 U 34.5 -106
There are lines for every participating country, so if you can research one of the outliers, you may get an edge.
Focus on Few
There are more than 20 different sports that are contested at the Summer Olympics. You can’t be an expert at all of them, so narrow your focus on two or three that you can research, learn and most of all enjoy. Specialize on that and become very knowledgeable. That will pay off.
The USA basketball team is heavily favored to win the gold medal at -500. Hard to make money on that bet, but check out the feature in this week’s iGamingPlayer on how to get an edge.
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Swimming is another sport where you stand to make some change if you understand the swimmers and the competition. Check out the iGamingPlayer Podcast attached to this week’s blast with Zane Grothe, a former member of Team USA. He mentions swimmers that he believes will stand out at the Olympics.
Soccer is another sport that can be researched rather easily. But bear in mind that the men’s soccer tournament is limited to players under 23, but with three exceptions per team. There is no restriction on members of the women’s soccer teams. Only 16 teams qualify for the Olympics on the men’s bracket, with 12 teams for the women.
The rules are generally the same as the World Cup rules and it uses VAR (video assistant refereeing) to ensure that when a goal is scored that it is legitimate.
Tennis and golf are also part of the Olympics. Most of the top tennis players are involved. The Spanish have a dream team of recent Wimbledon winner Carlos Alcaraz (+140) and Rafael Nadal (+800). On the women’s side, Iga Swietek (-175) is the heavy favorite over Coco Gauff (+800).
Same goes for golf. Scottie Scheffler (+300), Xander Schauffele (+550) and Rory McElroy (+650) are the favorites.
Understanding Olympic Betting
Most bettors located in the United States are going to bet on Team USA or any U.S.-born player. So when you’re betting with a U.S. legal sports book like BetRivers, BetMGM, BetESPN, Caesars Sports Book or any of a dozen others, you’re going to see odds on those selections be higher than if you were betting from another country. Like all sports books, oddsmakers balance the amount of money they get on one side, with the amount they get on the other side. So a big infusion of money on U.S. teams and players will mean they’ll change the odds to favor the house so they won’t be hurt as bad if those bets pay off.
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And consider hedging your future bets if your team or players make it past the opening rounds. Depending upon how much you have at stake, it might make sense to bet the other side so you’re protected in any result.
Betting the Olympics can be fun and fulfilling. You get the advantage of a two week or less tournament rather than waiting for a full season of basketball or soccer or whatever sport you enjoy. So have fun and hopefully, you’ll make some money too!
