Beijing Olympics Betting and Odds
8th August, 2008
The ‘Greatest Show on Earth’, the Beijing Olympic Games get underway today, with an expected global audience of over one billion people.
Relatively speaking, betting on the Olympics is quite small-scale, but events like football, tennis and baseball attract punters from around the globe.
Before the games started, home nation China are favourites to come out on top of the medal table, with the usual suspects USA and Russia the second and third favourites.
China are odds of 3/5 to get the most medals, with USA 6/5, and Russia a longer shot at 25/1. You can bet on any other country to top the table at as long as 100/1.
The betting for gold, silver and bronze medals individually is more evenly spread out, with any other country 20/1 to get the most bronze medals at the Olympic Games.
Betting on the medal table without the big three nations, Australia (5/4), Germany (7/4), Great Britain (10/1) and Japan (10/1) are the leading contenders.
If you prefer to bet on individual events, football is one of the more popular disciplines to look at. With some big names involved in the tournaments, including Argentina (favourites at 7/4), Brazil (5/2), Italy (7/1) and Netherlands (11/1), there is plenty for the average punter to get excited about.
You have to remember that a lot of the big names from each squad will not be playing, withdrawn by their respective clubs to protect them before the season gets underway, so do not expect the winner to be immediately obvious. Smart betting would be done match-by-match.
Our free live Olympics odds comparison service provides the best odds on all the major events at this the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
By Chris M
