Best Way to Bet on Sports during the Olympics

The Paris 2024 Olympics have officially been closed and now we can count all of the winners and all of the losers. This doesn’t only refer to the podium and gold medal counts, but to the sports betting as well. Because the Olympics are an international more than an interpersonal competition, the energies are higher.

This reflects in a weird way for sports betting, as betting houses know many viewers will bet on their country as a show of support more than a rational deduction that they will win. In turn, this makes the odds skewed and a bit more profitable for those who wish to bet rationally.

Betting here is very similar to a roulette table layout. Mathematically, we know exactly what the odds are. But, what we know and what we wish to happen are two different things.

Overall, any Olympics are the chief event for both players and bettors. For players, they are a crown achievement for a lifetime of dedication. For bettors, they are a great way to play on the heightened emotions of others and get a chance to win big.

For everyone, it is also immensely fun to watch, so there is little you can lose provided you bet responsibly.

Playing the Favorites

If you only wish to bet on individuals and teams who are likely to win your options will be slightly restricted, but not as much as you think. Some nations simply dominate some sports and you can know they will be a favorite.

Some of the favorites included:

• Simone Biles 🇺🇸 – Gymnastics
• Leon Marchand 🇫🇷 – Swimming
• Manyu Wang 🇨🇳 – Table Tennis
• Noah Lyles 🇺🇸 – Athletics
• Novak Djokovic 🇷🇸 – Tennis

The main downside for many here is the same reason why the odds are so good. If you are rooting for the host nation of France, you might wish for the young Felix Leburn to be the best table tennis player in the world, but a reasonable person will know to look to China for Gold in this sport.

Similarly, in regular tennis, while Carlos Alcaraz is most probably the best tennis player of the next generation, it was to be expected that Novak Djokovic to be too big of an obstacle for this year.

Djokovic, the last of the triumvirate with Nadal and Federer, has been on top of tennis for almost two decades, with many calling him the greatest tennis player of all time.

Finally, there are the Avengers, the USA basketball team. The team comprised of LeBron, Embid, and Curry came to avenge the USA’s #4 spot in the World Cup and win the gold. While this was placed under a question mark in the semi-finals up until the 4th quarter, they won in the end.

For Basketball, in particular, the betting odds severely favored Canada, which came in 5th in the end:

For those betting, the odds on the USA were much larger than they were even for the World Cup. This is because fans from France, Germany, and Serbia all believed that their team would come out on top regardless.

Finding Emerging Talent

This is the opposite approach where you will have to find players who are not seen as favorites but have a good chance regardless. Odds on these players are impressive and anyone betting on sports will know you rarely see such generous odds.

One example from the 2024 Olympics is the Greek long jumper Miltiadis Tentoglou, who stunned the world by repeating his success in Tokyo four years ago. The Greeks, while the inventors of the Olympics in total, have not had a lot of luck in track and field events during the renewed Olympics and the ten-million-strong Hellenic Republic must be really happy for this turn of events.

There are other examples of either returning or emerging athletes, as well as less-known sports. The most adorable one for the 2024 Paris Olympics was probably the skateboarding gold medalist, Koko Yoshizawa, who will be celebrating her 15th birthday with an Olympic Gold over her neck.

Covering the Spread

National teams know to upset the current rankings more than any commercial team ever would. Because Olympians are celebrated as heroes in their countries, they will try to give their best all the time.

The most entertaining example, although from the prelude to the Olympics, was the USA-South Sudan basketball match. South Sudan, the youngest country at the Olympics, has reached an amazing score by losing to the USA by just one point, or half a basket.

In most betting houses, betting on South Sudan beating the spread of 10 points against what is probably the best team in the world was unfathomable, so it won the bettors quite a pretty penny.

Road to Los Angeles Olympics 2028

Although these Olympics are finished, there is always “4 years from now”, and this time it will be in Los Angeles, California. From young players that have excelled this year we can expect at least similar results, but you never actually know.

We should be following the leagues, cups, and championships over the next four years and see which talent emerges and where we can catch good bets for the next Olympic Games.