The 2024 Paris Olympics officially got underway on Friday (July 26), and the two week festival of sports will see over 10,500 athletes compete for gold across 40 different sports.
Ahead of the “greatest show on earth”, GamblingTV has trawled the internet to put together a comprehensive guide to betting on the Olympics.
Given the size of the event, the Olympics offers a unique chance for sports bettors to gain an edge due to the difficulty for oddsmakers in keeping track of all the events and the athletes competing in them.
Certain sports only rise to prominence once every four years during the Olympics. As a result, bookmakers can lack knowledge in these sports – and bettors can take advantage of this.
Professional sports bettor Rob Pizzola, appearing on Pinnacle’s YouTube channel, explained that Olympic sports’ irregularity is a unique opportunity that “knowledgeable and diligent bettors” can exploit.
This is a great opportunity for sports bettors! 🙌
Professional bettor @robpizzola explains how to find an edge when betting on the Olympics. 💰@CirclesOffHQ | #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/Ptbhp49fNK
— Pinnacle (@Pinnacle) July 24, 2024
He added: “It’s nearly impossible for [sportsbooks] to be as informed as they are for more prominent leagues. By dedicating time to research and staying informed about less popular sports and athletes, you can find value bets that the sportsbook may have overlooked or mispriced.
“Start by focusing on specific sports where you can gather detailed information. Follow the latest news, performances in recent competitions and any injuries or recent changes in form. Look for niche sources and local news outlets that might have insights that are not covered by the mainstream media. The key is to dig deeper than the average bettor and uncover information that others might not be privy to.”
Because the Olympics are held in four-year cycles, results from previous events are often irrelevant due to changes in athletes’ form, which can also lead to mispriced betting markets.
Speaking about betting on basketball, Jason Weingarten, known as Spreadapedia online, told the Unabated podcast: “You have to take everything in the context of the now rather than what has happened already. And then you are saying, what’s likely to happen in a one-time meetup in this situation?
Maybe don't tempt fate with Team USA hoops, but when it comes to betting the Olympics, @Spreadapedia says in these lightly booked sports it's not uncommon to find underdogs that are undervalued. pic.twitter.com/GX3XAP1APx
— Unabated (@UnabatedSports) July 16, 2024
“Crazy things happen when you get the national team matchups. There are certainly cross-border rivalries that will always interest me and I’ll keep an eye on them. There are so many different angles with the Olympics and so many different things to look at. It’s nonstop and a fun couple of weeks.”
Now that we know there is an opportunity to find value in Olympic bets, it’s time to delve deeper and look at who the experts have picked, starting with swimming.
Swimming
The swimming events are always one of the highlights of any Olympic programme and this year was no different.
Looking at the women’s events, the key battle was between the US’s Katie Ledecky, widely touted as the greatest female swimmer of all time, and the Australian Ariarne Titmus, who beat Ledeky to gold in the 400m freestyle at Tokyo 2020.
Appearing on the Pat Mayo Experience, Rob from Beatinthebookie.com, correctly predicted that Titmus will have “big games” as she defended 400m freestyle titles won in Tokyo by claiming gold in Paris on Saturday.
Titmus is a heavy favourite to win these events at sportsbooks, therefore the value bet for Titmus is in the 800m freestyle which Rob backs her to win over Ledecky.
He said: “When you look at Katie Ledecky, she hasn’t done a best time in any of her signature events since 2016. Whereas Titmus, she’s done best times leading up to the games this year. Ledecky is older and it’s tough to keep going after four Olympics. I think we’ll see youth prevail.”
Titmus is currently +300 with DraftKings to win the 800m freestyle and has already picked up gold in the 200m freestyle at Paris.
Shifting to the male side of the draw, Rob’s tip for the star of the games is home favourite Leon Marchand who he says will be the “swimmer of the meet”.
The 22-year-old, who trains with Michael Phelps, is currently World Champion in the 200m breaststroke and 400m individual medley (IM).
He has already ended his nation’s 12-year gold medal drought in the pool and with victory in the 400 IM and Rob has him also winning both the 200m IM and 200m butterfly at the games.
He is currently 10/11 to win the 200m IM and 5/6 to win the 200m butterfly at Paddy Power which could offer value as a double bet.
Athletics
Moving away from the pool and onto the track, tipster RicoKnows broke down his best picks for the track and field.
FREE OLYMPIC GAMES BETS!!!
RicoKnows breaking down the Olympic Games in Paris 2024…Follow the link for the breakdown on all track and field events. pic.twitter.com/oMsQHUBGyS
— Rico Rico (@Ricoknowstiktok) July 21, 2024
During his whistlestop tour of the events, he picked out overwhelming favourites in Ryan Crousser (men’s shot put), Valarie Allman (women’s discus) and Leyanis Perez (women’s triple jump). Although these bets don’t offer value individually, they can all be used as part of accumulator bets.
Looking at the Blue Ribbon sprinting events, Rico described Noah Lyles as having the “best top-end speed in the world” and backed him to win the 200m gold. However, he is not as confident in the 100m.
Instead, he suggests that outsiders Kenneth Bednarek and Fred Kerley may be better options if looking for value.
In the women’s 200m race, he picks Gabby Thomas, currently 6/5 at bet365, who ran a world-leading time at the recent London Diamond League meeting.
In the longer running distances, he expects a duo of British athletes in Keely Hodgkinson and Matthew Hudson-Smith to win the women’s 800m and men’s 400m respectively.
On Hudson-Smith’s chances, he said, “Right now Hudson-Smith is the best 400m runner in the world. He just ran the world-leading time last week. I think [he] is in the best shape of his life and going to really beat him.”
Hudson-Smith is currently 5/4 with bet365 to win the 400m’s and Hodgkinson is an overwhelming favourite with the same operator.
Two athletes at the games are hoping to score the 1500m and 5000m double.
Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen is competing in both of the men’s races while Kenyan Faith Kipyegon is doing the same in the women’s events. Although this will be tough for either athlete, it may be worth a double of your own to back either of them to achieve the feat as they have a strong chance of winning at each distance.
Picks for the last three sports on the list have all come from the Action Sports Network Podcast. Host Mike Calabrese was joined by a variety of Action Network contributors to preview the Olympics.
Basketball
Basketball in the Olympic games comes in two formats. There is the traditional form of five-on-five version of basketball, which most people will be familiar with, and three-on-three basketball.
The latter is played on a half-court setup using one basket which teams attack and defend in turn.
The US women’s team are favourites to take home gold in the event. However, Calvin Wetzel, host of the Bet She Wins podcast, says that he is favouring the Canadian team due to their greater experience playing this specific form of basketball.
He added: “It is so vastly different to 5-on-5, it’s all about movement and spacing. Although Canada does not have WNBA talent on their roster, the Canada roster almost exclusively plays 3-on-3. They’ve been developing chemistry with each other and familiarity with each other. They beat the USA in a preliminary event in April.”
Canada are currently 12/5 with bet365 to win the event.
Later on in the podcast, Joe Dellera and Bryan Fonseca take over to preview both the men’s and women’s regular basketball tournaments.
Understandably, the US is the overwhelming favourite to win both gold medals and as such there is little value in these bets.
As a result, Fonseca suggests an alternate long-shot bet for the men’s event would be to bet on a team from within the European confederation to win gold, which is available at some sportsbooks at +500.
The pair also recommend focusing bets on player performance rather than the tournament winners for the women’s event given the dominance of the US team.
They explain that their best bets are for A’ja Wilson or Brianna Stewart to lead the US in scoring during the tournament. Wilson is currently at +275 and Stewart at +325 to do this.
On Wilson’s merits, Fonseca said: “A’ja Wilson is the best player on the best team who is going to be relied on in crunch time. She’s continuing to add to her game. The toolbox is getting a little bit deeper, the range is getting a little bit longer. [She] is a monster and she should lead this team in scoring.”
Football
The men’s football tournament in the Olympics is an under-23 tournament with two over-age players permitted. As a result, the event is usually not a focus of the stronger football nations.
Action Network contributor, Michael Leboff, explains that as this is the case it is worth taking a long shot at some of the smaller nations competing who may be taking the games more seriously.
He said: “There are a couple of teams I do find interesting. I think Japan is a worthy long shot at 33/1 given their group. If they can get through the group stage, you are sitting with a 33/1 ticket and you’ll feel pretty good about that.
“The other team is Iraq. The floors and ceilings for these teams are anyone’s guess. Nobody really understands how these teams will play. When I said that these tournaments won’t matter to a lot of teams, for the smaller countries like Iraq it will. You are going to have to take at least one long shot in this field and I think Iraq is worth it.”
Japan has closed to 8/1 to win the tournament with bet365 while Iraq sit at 20/1.
Shifting attention to the women’s draw, Leboff picks out Australia as his team to watch outside of the traditional favourites of the US.
He said: “I like Australia, they are a really good program. They’ve been around some big trophies for a while and just finished third in their home World Cup in 2023.
“Their draw is tough, but the thing with the women’s side of the tournament is there’s three group of four and some third place teams get through. So the fact they are in a tough group with the US and Germany isn’t a huge [problem]. They could find their way through the group as a third place team or they could upset on of the US or Germany.”
Australia won their first round game 6-5 against Zambia and now sit at 20/1 with bet365 to win outright.
FULL TIME | Our first win of #Paris2024 and what a way to do it! 🍿#Matildas #TilitsDone #AllezAUS #Olympics pic.twitter.com/eOcT3EcNjT
— Matildas (@TheMatildas) July 28, 2024
Golf
The final sport we will look at is golf. A relatively new addition to the games, after being reintroduced in 2016, the reigning champion is the US’ Xander Schauffele.
This year’s tournament is being held at the Le Golf National course, home to the French Open on the DP World Tour and also hosted the 2018 Ryder Cup.
Spencer Aguilar, host of the Links and Locks podcast, and Josh Perry joined the Action Network podcast to preview the event and Aguilar talked about the unique nature of Olympic golf.
Unlike regular golf events, where players who make the cut after the first two rounds get paid, there are only three medals up for grabs which he says means that the players will be more aggressive throughout.
Le Golf National is a notoriously tough course that requires a high level of accuracy, which is why Aguilar has chosen Viktor Hovland as his pick for the win.
Hovland has struggled this year, missing the cut at the recently played Open Championship, however he is very accurate driving off the tee and also with his irons which suits the strongest parts of his game.
He is currently 25/1 to win the tournament at bet365.
Perry, on the other hand, picked out two players who have had previous success at the French Open.
South Korean Tom Kim (25/1) finished fourth in last year’s French Open, and the Swede Alex Noren (28/1) won the event in 2018, as well as played in the winning European Ryder Cup team at Le Golf National in the same year.
Play it back 🔁
An iconic putt from Alex Norén in Paris. pic.twitter.com/2Xjf4kAn5P
— Ryder Cup Europe (@RyderCupEurope) July 12, 2024
On his picks, Perry said: “What we saw in the Ryder Cup especially was that if you hadn’t played this course and you hadn’t been out there a lot, you ran into a lot of trouble because you don’t know where to miss and there’s danger everywhere.
“Tom Kim came over to Europe, played it last year and finished fourth. It’s a course that fits him perfectly. You plop the driver into the play, hit the irons and hope your putter gets hot. Alex Noren has won here, he knows his way around this course and it’s going to be a happy spot for him.”
Alex Noren is coming off back-to-back top 15 finishes at the Scottish Open and the Open Championship. These tournaments were played at similarly tough courses, so could potentially be a real dark horse to take the title and is excellent value at 28/1.
These are just some of the bets on offer across a small sample of the sports at the games. Given the amount of action taking place over the next two weeks there is certainly value to be had if bettors can find it.
With just a little bit of research and prior knowledge may be the key to punters winning a gold medal of their own in the sports betting arena.
