The rare and exciting arrival of several summer Olympic betting markets, which only happens once every four years, significantly enhances the betting experience at sites like bet365 Sport.
The quadrennial celebration of sports, a truly global event, will be hosted in Paris in 2024, Los Angeles in 2028, and Brisbane in 2032, offering a diverse range of betting opportunities.
In our post, we will examine some of the most popular betting markets you can find on the Olympics, including a mix of pre-event and future betting markets.
So, if you want to know more about the opportunities afforded by Olympics betting, check out this article!
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We aim to give readers a comprehensive breakdown of the most popular and diverse Olympics betting markets you can find on any summer Olympic Games. Encompassing the wide variety of sporting options afforded by this truly global sports event.
All events include both the men’s and women’s competitions (where applicable) and are not listed in any particular order of popularity.
Let’s begin our look at the ten best Olympic Betting markets by looking at what many people view as the top sporting event at any summer Olympic Games.
Most Appealing Olympics Betting Markets for Punters
Men’s & Women’s 100m Finals
The most prestigious event at any Olympic Games are the sprint finals and the 100m is the most exciting of all.
Male and female competitors come through several rounds of action to earn one of the eight spots in the final available. Then, what follows is around 10 seconds of fury as the eight finalists compete to become the latest 100m sprint gold medalist.
Unsurprisingly, this event has seen some of the most famous Olympians land the title including the likes of:
- Usain Bolt (3x)
- Harold Abrahams
- Fanny Blankers-Koen
- Wyomia Tyus (2x)
- Jesse Owens
- Carl Lewis (2x)
- Florence Griffiths-Joyner
- Gail Devers (2x)
- Shelly-Ann Fraser-Price (2x)
- Elaine Thompson-Herah (2x)
- Justin Gatlin
- Marcel Jacobs
- Maurice Greene
- Donovan Bailey
- Linford Christie
- Allan Wells
- Valeri Borzov
Number of Gold Medals Won by Country – Futures Bet
This popular Olympic betting market is a futures bet and the options available can vary from bookmaker to bookmaker. Bet365 Sport, for example, has a good choice of options for this market.
The market is a bet on how many gold medals a stated country will win. The best bookmakers will offer a choice of countries such as the United States, China, Great Britain, Germany, France, Canada, Australia etc.
Your betting options are stated as a simple Over/Under bet based on the number of possible golds that country would win.
Olympic Football Tournaments
Men’s football has been part of almost every Olympic games since 1896. Women’s football was first contested at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. Since then, both have been part of the Olympic schedule with a gold medal available for the best men’s and women’s teams.
The United States have won four of the seven Olympic Gold medals available for women’s teams thus far. Germany, Norway and Canada winning a single gold medal each.
In the men’s football tournament, Hungary and Great Britain have the most gold medals with three each, while Brazil, Argentina, the Soviet Union and Uruguay have won gold twice.
A total of 13 other teams have also won Olympic Gold in the men’s football tournament: – Yugoslavia, Spain, Poland, East Germany, Nigeria, Czechoslovakia, France, Italy, Sweden, Mexico, Belgium, Canada and Cameroon.
The men’s tournament sees 16 teams compete in the group stage, with 12 competing in the women’s group stage. The top eight teams qualify for the quarterfinals in both competitions.
From then, it is a straight knockout to the final with penalties and extra time deciding the winners if required.
Olympic Tennis Tournaments
There are a total of five gold medals available to be won in the Olympic Tennis tournament in the following tournaments:
- Men’s Singles
- Women’s Singles
- Men’s Doubles
- Women’s Doubles
- Mixed Doubles
After being in every Olympics from 1896 to 1924, there was a lengthy period before Tennis became an official Olympic sport once again in 1988. Ever since, it has remained a key part of the games and one of the most popular sports with Olympics betting fans.
Only one player has won the singles gold medal twice. Andy Murray of Great Britain. However other players, notably the Williams sisters, Andre Agassi, Rafael Nadal and Nicolas Massu have won multiple golds in the singles and doubles formats.
Olympic Track & Field Events
There’s no doubt that Track & Field is at the heart of the Olympics. With a wide selection of races ranging from the sprints up to the long distance, offer an outstanding selection of sporting events at every Olympics.
Men and women compete in many of the same events, with just a few differences. There are 48 events scheduled for the 2024 games, 23 each for male and female athletes, plus two events that feature both male and female athletes on the same team.
The United States has won by far the most amount of medals in track and field ahead of Russia, with Great Britain in third.
The full list of Track & Field events for men and women at the Olympics is as follows: –
- 100m
- 110m Hurdles (100m Hurdles for women)
- 200m
- 400m
- 400m Hurdles
- 800m
- 1500m
- 3000m Steeplechase
- 5000m
- 10,000m
- Marathon
- 4x 100m relay
- 4x 400m relay
- 4x 400m mixed relay
- Marathon Race Walking Mixed Relay (new event at 2024 Olympics)
- 20km Walk
- High Jump
- Pole Vault
- Long Jump
- Shot Put
- Discus
- Javelin
- Hammer
- Decathlon (Hepathlon for Women)
Country With Most Gold Medals or Most Total Medals Won – Futures Bet
A popular Futures wager is to bet on which country will win either the most gold medals, or the most total medals on any Olympic Games.
In modern times, it has been the likes of the United States, China and Russia that have dominated the medals tables at the Olympics and often this market will only have one or two clear favourites to back, with other countries such as Australia, Great Britain, Germany and France as much longer odds selections.
However, if you like futures market Olympics betting, this is arguably the most popular of all Futures bets you can make on the Olympic Games itself.
Olympic Cycling
A total of 22 gold medals are up for grabs in cycling disciplines at the Olympic Games.
Men and women compete in the same eleven events, although the distances raced by women may be slightly different in some races.
Cycling is split into a number of different disciplines as follows:
Velodrome
- Keirin
- Madison
- Omnium
- Team Pursuit
- Individual Sprint
- Team Sprint
Road Racing
- Individual Road Race
- Individual Time Trial
Mountain Biking
BMX Racing
Great Britain has been the best performing country in the Velodrome at the past four Olympic Games and has won the most gold medals in Olympic history in Velodrome cycling.
Recent gold medalists for Great Britain include Sir Chris Hoy, Sir Bradley Wiggins, Jason Kenny, Laura Kenny (formerly Trott), Victoria Pendleton and Ed Clancy.
Olympic Golf Tournaments
Golf was first contested in the 1900 and 1904 Olympics, but then was not part of the summer games until it was reinstated for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
There is a tournament for men and women, which is played over four rounds of stroke play. There are calls to offer other tournaments including matchplay and team events, although so far these have been resisted by the IOC.
Recent Olympic Gold medal winners include Justin Rose (2016) and Xander Schauffele (2020) in the mens event and Inbee Park (2016) and Nelly Korda (2020) in the women’s.
Participation is based generally on World Golf Rankings, with around 120 golfers competing in both the men’s and women’s tournaments.
Olympic Boxing Tournaments
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Men’s boxing has been a part of every Olympics since 1904 (bar 1912), with a women’s tournament started in the 2012 edition of the games.
Currently, there are a total of 13 gold medals available in boxing tournaments at the Olympics. Seven for male competitors, six for women.
The weight classes contested at the Olympics (as of the 2024 games in Paris) are: –
Men’s Olympic Boxing Classes: –
- 51kg – Flyweight
- 57kg – Featherweight
- 63.5kg – Lightweight
- 71kg – Welterweight
- 80kg – Middleweight/Super Middleweight
- 92kg – Heavyweight
- 92kg+ – Super Heavyweight
Women’s Olympic Boxing Classes: –
- 50kg – Flyweight
- 54kg – Bantamweight
- 57kg – Featherweight
- 60kg – Lightweight
- 66kg – Welterweight
- 75kg – Middleweight
Each boxing bout is contested over three rounds, with judges scoring a point when a boxer connects with a scoring punch. At the end of the bout, the boxer with the most scoring points wins.
Boxing has seen a number of controversies at past Olympic Games, with the scoring of some bouts highly dubious and widespread corruption claimed with some judges and in some bouts. It is claimed that this is why famous pro boxers Floyd Mayweather and Roy Jones Jr. were amongst those denied gold medals.
This is why a new, more transparent scoring method for bouts was devised.
No country has won more Olympic boxing medals than the United States 117 boxing medals (50 of which were gold), Cuba is second to the U.S. with 78 medals (41 golds) and Great Britain lies third with 62 total medals, 20 of which were gold.
Olympic Swimming
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Like cycling, swimming has been a huge part of the Olympic programme every year since the first modern games in 1896. It is a popular Olympics betting market for many fans.
It is one of the sports with the most medals available to be won in any Olympic Games, with a total of 37 golds available to be won, 18 for men, 18 for women and one gold available for a mixed relay team of both sexes.
For a long time the United States have been the dominant force in the pool, winning the most swimming medals at every Olympics bar two (1980 and 1988) since 1960.
Events competed for include:
- Freestyle – 50m, 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m and 1,500m
- Backstroke – 100m, 200m
- Breaststroke – 100m, 200m
- Butterfly – 100m, 200m
- Individual Medley – 200m, 400m
- Freestyle Relay – 4x100m, 4x200m
- Medley Relay – 4x100m
- Medley Relay (Mixed – 2 male, 2 female teams) – 4x100m
Some of the greatest Olympians to have shone in the pool include Johnny Weismuller, David Wilkie, Iain Thorpe, Michael Phelps, Caeleb Dressel, Adam Peaty, Duncan Goodhew, Sun Yang, Ryan Lochte, Katie Ledecky, Missy Franklin, Emma McKeon, Katinka Hosszu, Adrian Moorhouse and Rebecca Adlington.
As you can see there’s a massive choice of Olympics betting available for punters! So tune in and enjoy all the action!
