Olympic Medals Betting
The Olympic Games are all about winning medals, specifically gold medals. How many medals a nation wins, whether that is gold, silver or bronze will all be put on to a medals table. Back in Beijing 2008 China came out on top as the highest gold medals winners. They won 51 gold medals, giving them a total of 100 medals overall. However, the USA came out with a total of 110 medals as they achieved more silver and bronze medals than China. In Third place came Russia, with 72 medals then in fourth place came Great Britain. In Beijing, team GB won a total of 47 medals, the highest total they have ever reached since 1908.
The Olympics is also good news for the bookmaking industry and with huge turnover generated, the bookmakers are quick to cash in by offering a lot of different markets related to the medals awarded both prior to the event and in-play.
When betting on the medals table you may wonder what Olympic medal betting markets are available for you to take advantage of. The obvious and most popular betting market is who will get the most gold medals and after looking back through the archives of previous years, it’s the Big 3 Olympic nations, USA, Russia and China that have dominate the betting.
Medals Match Bets
Another market that is popular across the betting industry is the medals match bets. The bookmakers use previous medals tables and events that have taken place in the lead up to the event to make sure the two nations are pretty evenly matched. An example of this is USA v China and Russia v Great Britain. The odds are usually 5/6 each or 10/11 each depending on what percentage the bookmakers have priced the book to but these odds can be increased slightly if your bookmaker includes the tie as a selection. With the Olympic match betting odds being generally on the short side some people may select to place an accumulator of different match bets rather than placing a big single bet.
With the majority of the Olympic betting coming from the UK, the performance of Team GB is another area that is also widely bet on. How many gold, silver and bronze medals will Great Britain win, where Great Britain will finish in the medals table and will Great Britain surpass their previous results.
It’s not all about Team GB at the Olympics and with over 200 countries taking part, the bookmakers will be desperate to make the most of the opportunity by betting on the different nations. It’s hard to expect to see the same number of betting markets that are available for Great Britain but with a number of minor countries taking part, the bookmakers are offering a vast spread of fun and entertaining betting markets - a country to win a single medal, over and under total medals won by an individual country and best performing minor team.
All the above Olympic betting markets are available prior to the start of the event so once the event gets underway the bookmakers turn their attentions to the in-play betting opportunities, which also includes the medals table.
If you are looking at betting on the medal table you have to be careful when selecting when to place your bet. If the team you are wishing to back hasn’t got that many opportunities to win a medal in the opening few days of the Olympics, it may pay to wait before placing your bet as the olympic betting odds could drift and be more attractive to you. But, there is a major factor that you’ll have to be aware of and that is, how popular will your selection be? If you are wishing to back one of the big nations it may be advisable to place your bets early as the bookmakers have to manage their liability so if a lot of people chose to bet on the same select as you, the price will definitely shorten as the money goes down.
Whatever happens at the Olympics, the medals table is a hotly discussed topic so you’ll be able to keep a close eye out on all your bets as the action unfolds.
