Tipico Tips: Betting on the Olympics

The Summer Olympics come along once every four years. The best athletes from around the globe come together in one place to see who the best in the world is at various sporting events. People from every country on every continent will tune in to root for their fellow countrymen trying to achieve greatness and immortality. Gamblers from around the world will also be watching closely as betting on the Olympics is big business on an international scale. 

If you are someone who normally makes a few sports wagers throughout the year, betting on the Olympics is not much different from what you are already doing on a daily basis. The summer games offer many sports that are already popular with gamblers, including basketball, baseball and soccer. Tipico Sportsbook will have lines available for each of these major events. Sure, the team names might be countries instead of major North American cities, but there’s really no difference in the type of wagers you can make on an NBA or MLB game. Each game will have the typical spread, moneyline and total we have become accustomed to seeing daily when we open the Tipico Sportsbook app. These are likely to be the markets with the most money wagered on them and also the sharpest lines as bookmakers have a lot of experience making lines for these sports already. They also are very familiar with the players involved. If you are a fan of the NBA, you will notice many names you recognize on most of the major teams. The same can be said of soccer if you follow the beautiful game internationally. You will still be able to find some value early in the tournament, but as we get deeper into the competition your chances of finding a mispriced number to take advantage of becomes smaller and smaller. 

How to bet on alternate sports on Tipico

If you want to find the best wagering opportunities, they tend to come in what Tipico lists as “Olympics alternate sports.” This is where you will find popular Olympic sports like gymnastics, swimming, track and field and beach volleyball. Those are not typically sports that take a lot of wagering action or draw the attention of gamblers. However, they are sports that are popular with viewers and draw ratings on television during the games. While many viewers and gamblers only care about them once every four years, they do have many competitions, meets and tournaments between Olympic cycles. Someone who is willing to dig into the performances of these athletes in those competitions leading up to the Olympics is more likely to uncover a longshot with a better chance to win than they are being given as opposed to some of the more established sports where gamblers and sportsbooks are familiar with the key players from watching them more closely throughout the year. If you happen to be someone that has an intimate knowledge of one of these “alternate sports,” you are in a unique position to be able to find some of those overlooked contenders. 

One final point worth noting is that wagering options may be different depending on the event. In a sport like basketball, you will have the option to wager on individual games by taking a spread, moneyline or total bet. You will also have the option to wager on futures markets, such as who will win the gold medal. It is easier to cash single-game wagers as you only have two options in those cases. The final score is either over or under the spread or total. In a futures market about who will win a gold medal, you may have 5, 10 or 20 potential winners and the rest would be losers. The payout for being right in this type of market is normally much higher, but it is also harder to pick a winner. You get rewarded for taking risks, but if you just want the thrill of a winning ticket, betting on single-game outcomes is more likely to cash than betting into a larger pool of outcomes in a futures market. 

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