Top Olympics Pick: Kishane Thompson ML (+120) at BetOnline (visit our BetOnline Review)
Top-rated sportsbooks have released their odds for the upcoming Olympics, which will begin on July 26.
For the Olympics, you can bet on how different countries will perform overall – for example, how many medals they will earn. For instance, you can see the odds below for which country will win the most medals.
| Team | Current Odds | BetOnline |
|---|---|---|
 USA | -600 | |
 China | +400 | |
 France | +5000 | |
 Great Britain | +10000 | |
 Japan | +10000 | |
 Netherlands | +15000 | |
 Australia | +25000 | |
 Germany | +25000 | |
 Italy | +50000 | |
 Canada | +100000 | |
 South Korea | +100000 | |
 Brazil | +200000 | |
 Cuba | +200000 | |
 Hungary | +200000 | |
 New Zealand | +200000 | |
 Poland | +200000 | |
 Spain | +200000 | |
 Belgium | +500000 | |
 Czech Republic | +500000 | |
 South Africa | +500000 |
You can also bet on individual events. For this year’s edition, 32 different sports are on the Olympic program. However, nobody can bet on every one of them, so which are the best ones to bet on? To be fair, there is one key point that suggests that there is no completely satisfying answer to this question.
Still, you can’t ignore the unique opportunity you’ll have to bet on sports that you don’t usually invest in. You might find, for example, that you have a knack for betting on archery competitions. Experimenting with different sports will, at least because of the variety, be fun.
This point aside, we should go over the sports you should most want to bet on. These will be the sports that you are already familiar with, that you already have an understanding of, and whose competitors you already know.
After discussing the different sports so that you can bet on them more easily, I will offer betting picks of my own.
I like track and field and will recommend two wagers on the men’s 100m. I will suggest investing your standard unit on the favorite Kishane Thompson, and, because there are many good competitors receiving attractive odds, I will also contend that you should sprinkle a bit on a long-shot candidate, Fred Kerley.
You Should Bet on Basketball
The most obvious betting opportunities will come from basketball, a sport that Americans are easily familiar with because the NBA is regularly available to watch on television.
When you bet on Olympic sports, you’ll want to be familiar with the competitors. By having already watched the NBA on television, you will have already done the work of gaining knowledge of the competing athletes. All of the members of Team USA play in the NBA.
You’ll merely have to gain some familiarity with Team USA’s opponents so that you can make the most informed wagers on Team USA’s games.
It will, furthermore, be easily possible to bet on other country’s games because you’ll likely already know some of the players competing in those matches: Germany, Canada, and Slovenia are just three countries that will feature at least one NBA player.
Basketball Format
For the Olympics, basketball will operate much like the recent Euros in soccer. The teams are organized into groups, with each group consisting of four teams.
In the group phase, which will begin on July 27, each team in the group will play every other team in the group. For every group game, the winning team gets two points while the losing squad gets one point.
The top two teams in the group will advance from the group phase to the knockout stage. Moreover, the two best third-place squads will also advance.
The knockout stage will last from August 6 to August 11. This stage will feature single-elimination games until the gold medal winner is determined.
Olympics Men’s Basketball Odds
| Team | Current Odds | |
|---|---|---|
USA | -700 | |
Canada | +850 | |
France | +1400 | |
Spain | +1500 | |
Germany | +1800 | |
 Serbia | +2000 | |
Australia | +2200 | |
 Greece | +4500 | |
South Sudan | +20000 | |
Brazil | +50000 | |
Japan | +50000 | |
Puerto Rico | +50000 |
Athletics
One sport that I’m interested in is athletics, which is more commonly called track and field, although you’ll likely find the events listed under “athletics” in sportsbooks’ menus, such as the one used on BetOnline.
If you want a quick event, where you’ll find out in little time if you’ve won your wager or not, the 100m is emphatically that event. The winner will finish with a time of around 9.7 seconds.
There are other events as well, 24 different ones for men.
Though not true for every track event, most will typically have three rounds: a first round, a semifinal, and a final. Field events, on the other hand, will have a first round and a final.
My Two Picks
For the 100m, I recommend resisting the temptation to bet on the most heavily favored American. That would be Noah Lyles.
My issue with Lyles is that he hasn’t proven himself to really be capable of winning the gold in this event. He is a sure thing in the 200m, but that is a different race.
His PR in the 100m is 9.83, which simply isn’t good enough. This is a race that will finish under 9.80.
Lyles’ history does not justify investing in him at his current price. Evidence for this claim lies in the fact that he is way more heavily favored than Oblique Seville, even though both share the same PR.
I like the idea of sprinkling some money on Fred Kerley, who has proven that he can finish under 9.80. His PR is 9.76. His recent form is good, as evident in his progression to a 9.88 in the Olympic Trials. Given the tremendous payout potential, it is worth investing a bit of him in the anticipation that he continues to improve.
Olympics Pick: Fred Kerley ML (+2200) at BetOnline
However, I recommend investing your full standard unit in the favorite, Kishane Thompson. He is clearly the best sprinter in the field, yet you can find him at plus money. He owns a 9.77 PR that was earned this year. His form is great, and he looks like the best sprinter right now by a clear margin.
Olympics Pick: Kishane Thompson ML (+120) at BetOnline
*The line and/or odds on picks in this article might have moved since the content was commissioned. For updated line movements, visit BMR’s free betting odds product.
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