Paris 2024 Summer Olympics

The Paris 2024 Summer Olympics opens on 26 July 2024, bringing together the world’s greatest athletes for two weeks of intense competition across more than 30 sports. For punters, the Olympics are unlike any other event: a mix of established powerhouses, emerging talents, niche sports, and a flood of public money. Pre-tournament, the opportunities are wide-ranging, but success requires strategy, discipline, and an eye for overlooked value.

Why the Olympics Are Unique for Punters

• Sheer Diversity of Sports: From athletics and swimming to BMX and breakdancing, betting markets span hundreds of events. The variety creates both opportunity and complexity.
• National Pride Factor: Public bettors generally their own nations heavily, often distorting odds in popular sports like athletics, gymnastics, and football.
• Short-Form Events: Many competitions are decided in seconds or minutes (e.g., 100m sprint, swimming finals), amplifying variance but rewarding researched preparation.
• Niche Market Potential: Bookmakers focus on headline sports; lesser-followed events often have softer odds ripe for exploitation.

Main Pre-Tournament Betting Markets

• Outright Medal Winner (per event): Classic win-only market across sports.
• Medal Totals by Country: Punters can back nations to exceed or fall short of medal counts.
• Head-to-Head Markets: Offered in swimming, athletics, cycling, where you can back one athlete to finish ahead of another.
• Prop Bets: Including world records, fastest qualifiers, or whether a specific nation will win gold in a discipline.
• Accumulators Across Events: Combining strong favourites across multiple sports for short odds but high turnover. Not our preferred strategy, however, every now and then, there is cause to place an Acca bet.

Key thought before Paris 2024

1. Athlete Form and Qualification Results: Olympic build-up events (e.g., Diamond League for athletics, World Championships in swimming) were the clearest indicators of performance.
2. Youth vs Experience: Younger stars often peak at the Games, while veterans bring composure and experience. Markets sometimes undervalued one or the other.
3. National Investment: Nations like China, USA, and host France pour resources into targeted sports, which often translated into surprise medal wins. Being aware of their targeted sports is essential, research provides this info, which is not always general knowledge.
4. Home Advantage: Host nations usually see a medal boost. France is projected to outperform historical averages.
5. Event-Specific Trends: For example, Jamaica in sprinting, Kenya in long-distance running, Australia in swimming—historical dominance matters.

Value Opportunities Pre-Tournament

• Emerging Talents in Niche Events: Bookmakers sometimes price markets with limited data, undervaluing newcomers.
• Medal Totals: Overs on host nation France and unders on overstretched nations offered excellent value.
• Women’s Events: Historically, women’s markets received less pro action, creating exploitable inefficiencies in bookmakers prices.
• World Record Props: Fast tracks in athletics or high-tech swimsuits often sparked record-breaking value, understanding how the track in performing is key prior to placing any such bet.
• Underdog Teams in Football & Basketball: International youth or experimental squads often disrupt favourites and value is found. Know who the squads are prior to placing bets.

Betting Tips for the Olympics

• Don’t Bet Everything: With hundreds of events, pick your battles—specialise in 2–3 sports you know best.
• Factor Scheduling: Athletes competing in multiple events may suffer fatigue, particularly in swimming or athletics.
• Shop Around: Odds vary massively across bookmakers, especially in niche markets.
• Avoid Home Bias: French athletes will be heavily backed by casual punters, often pushing their odds shorter than warranted, seek value where French athletes are heavily backed.
• Leverage Data: World Championship results, world rankings, and qualification times will be essential for spotting value. Ensure you do your research.

Conclusion

The Paris 2024 Olympics promises two weeks of sporting drama and betting opportunity. The sheer scale of events meant punters will have to be selective, disciplined, and data driven. Pre-tournament, the shrewdest bets will be in medal totals, niche events with little bookmaker expertise, and value created by national bias.

For those willing to put in the work, the Olympics can be more than just a celebration of sport—if you want further insightful perspective, subscribe to our VIP or Educational services or our one-off Olympic Event special analysis.