Every four years, sports enthusiasts worldwide focus on the biggest sports competition in the world, which gathers top athletes from each discipline vying for gold, silver, and bronze medals. With an enormous variety of sports, the festival also brings many sports betting options, and the 2024 edition, held in France, is expected to stir up the market starting on July 26.
For operators, it is an opportunity to attract users who might not be interested in the more traditional sports betting markets, like soccer. For fans of the competition and/or experts in a specific sport, it is a chance to add even more excitement to cheering for their favorite athlete and to test their knowledge.
Betting Options
Winning a medal in the competition is the highest honor for most sports. Therefore, one of the focuses of sports betting sites is the competition’s medal tally. One available market is which country will win the most gold medals, even though this option has a clear favorite.
On a popular betting platform, the United States has odds of 1.20 to finish with the most gold medals, followed by China, with 4 to 1. In the last edition in 2020, the Americans won 39 medals, and the Chinese won 38. To give an idea of the dominance of these two countries, France, Great Britain, and Japan are the third most likely scenario, each with odds of 75.
Regarding the medal tally, a popular site offers a more balanced betting alternative with an over/under on gold medals for each country. For Brazil, for example, the line is set at 7.5 gold medals, with the over paying 2.25 and the under 1.57. In the last edition, Brazilian athletes won exactly 7 gold medals.
Additionally, on one of the most well-known sites, there is a similar market but dealing with the total number of medals for selected countries, not just gold ones. For instance, China’s line is set at 86.5 medals, with odds of 1.83 for both sides, which is below the 89 medals won by the country in 2020.
Besides the medal tally, it is possible to bet on the winner of specific events or categories. In athletics, for example, there are markets for the 100m, 200m, 100m hurdles, discus throw, pole vault, among many other options. In these alternatives, the bet is on the athlete who will win, not just the country. Swimming also offers alternatives for different swimming categories, while weight-category sports like judo and weightlifting have specific options for each competition.
