How to bet on the Olympics

The Olympics is one of the biggest sporting events in the world. People from all over the globe will be tuning in to watch at least one or two events. It makes sense that folks would want to bet on it. However, the Summer Olympics only shows up once every four years, so you would be forgiven for needing a quick refresher on the subject.

As the world rapidly liberalises their gambling and online sports betting legislations. This year’s event is set to be the most bet on yet.

How to bet on the Olympics

There are plenty of options open to anyone who wants to place some Olympic bets. As with every sporting event that you can bet on, the most basic option available to you is the outright winner of an event. I’m sure I don’t need to explain that in much detail. Any sportsbook that offers Olympic bets will have the option to bet on the winner of an event, be it a single portion or the eventual gold medallist.

There are plenty of other interesting options for fans of Olympic bets. The structure of the Olympics means that sportsbooks can get creative about the odds and options they can provide to their customers.

Olympic Games betting sites

Most major online sportsbooks offer odds on Olympic events. Here is a list of sportsbooks and an update as to whether they offer Olympic betting

You can also find Olympic bets in other sportsbooks like DraftKings and gg.bet.

Other Olympic bets and the games you can bet on

Totals Betting

This is my favourite bet to place on the Olympics. Many sportsbooks offer you the chance to bet on the total number of gold medals each country might win. You could make a head-to-head bet between two countries with the winner determined by the highest amount of gold medals. You could also make an Over/Under bet on whether a specific country will win more or less gold medals than the total set by the sportsbook.

Olympic Prop bets

Prop bets or proposition bets are bets on the performances of individual athletes. This is particularly important when it comes to team-based events. For example, there are plenty of NBA All-Stars in the USA basketball team and you could place a bet on any one of them.

You could also make prop bets on non-sporting outcomes like activities on the podium or which athlete may be the country’s flag bearer.

Futures Bets

These are betting options provided by betting sites before the event. They offer a wide variety of betting options and are usually offered weeks before the event begins.

Parlay

This betting option combines multiple wagers together on a single bet. This offers better pay-outs than single bets with the trade off that the odds are heavily stacked against you. It is a great option if you want to wager on different events.

Live bets

Live betting or in-play betting is an exciting option for sports betting fans. It allows you to make wagers while the event is taking place. You will have plenty of information that wouldn’t be available to you before the event and it can make it all the more interesting.

Basic Olympic Games betting tips

• Build a betting bank:

In any form of betting or gambling you should know how to manage your money in a safe way. It is tempting to wager a lot on odds that seem too good to be true. Make sure you set an amount that you are willing to lose if you are betting on multiple events during the Olympics. Make sure not to exceed that amount.

• Choose the right amount to bet:

If you are new to betting, don’t jump into the deep end and start betting with crazy amounts of money. It’s important to start small and build up.

• Money management:

Once you have built a betting bank. Say you are willing to lose $150 dollars during the Olympics. If you are ok with that, we recommend placing a set percentage of that bank on a single bet. We recommend 5% of your bank per bet. So, 5% of $150 dollars would be $7.50.

• Understand the odds:

This isn’t too difficult. High odds mean a larger pay-out, but also a larger risk of losing. Low odds give you small pay-outs, but a higher chance of winning.

• What not to do:

The most obvious bad betting strategy is the Martingale System. This might be one of the most dangerous betting strategies out there. It is often called the “loss recovery system” and it entails betting a fixed amount at first and if that initial bet loses, you double your next stake amount.

By doing this, they say that you will recover the losses you made on any previous bets. In principle, this would allow bettors to make small amounts of money over a long period of time. In practice, this will not happen.

In order for this to work, you will need to have some pretty deep pockets. If you start with an initial bet of $15 and you lost 9 times in a row, by the 10th bet you would have to be placing a bet of $7680.

Make sure not to bet on emotion or pop culture. This means that you should avoid being swayed by popular opinion. Finally, make sure not to follow your emotions. Many of us have a favourite team or player. But just because they are your favourite, it doesn’t mean that they are the best. You could throw good money after bad by betting on an underdog that you have been following for years in the hope that they pull off the impossible.

Final Thoughts

Betting on the Olympic Games is still relatively new, but it is a great option for any amateur bettor looking to try out some new sports to bet on. The variety of sports on offer will be attractive to old pros as well as green new bettors.