As the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris nears ever closer, global interest in betting continues to expand. With sports betting now legal in Canada, the majority of the United States, and many other countries throughout the world, this summer could generate record-breaking numbers in terms of lawful betting action at the Olympics.
However, new bettors must first understand how to bet before simply unloading money on their favorite Olympic sports. How do you read lines and odds? What are the moneyline, point spread, and over/under totals? What's a futures bet? If you don't know how to answer any of those questions, you have come to the right place.
Here's the Sporting News' guide to betting on the Olympics, including key terms and different ways to bet.
Olympic betting: How to read Olympic betting lines and odds
Moneyline
The moneyline is the most simple and basic method of betting. Betting the moneyline is betting one side or the other to win a game, match, or contest. The moneyline favorite to win typically has minus odds (-), while the underdog usually has plus odds (+).
When you bet the moneyline favorite with minus odds, the number listed represents the amount of money you will need to put at stake to have a chance to win $100. When you bet a moneyline underdog with plus odds, the number listed represents the amount of money you would win on a successful $100 bet.
Moneyline examples: With -150 odds, you would need to risk $150 to make a profit of $100. With +150 odds, you would net a profit of $150 on a winning $100 bet.
If you bet a straight $100 wager on -150 and +150, these would be the winning profits and total payouts:
| Odds | Bet | Win | Total |
| -150 | $100 | $66.67 | $166.67 |
| +150 | $100 | $150 | $250 |
Point Spread
Point spreads revolutionized betting in many ways, allowing sportsbooks to better price favorites and underdogs and letting bettors get action in on even the more lopsided games and matches. Unlike the moneyline, point-spread betting assigns a number that the favorite must win by. That number is typically the same amount for the underdog, which cannot lose by more than that amount.
For instance, if Team USA basketball is favored to beat Team Canada by 6.5 points, USA would be -6.5 and Canada would be +6.5. The U.S. team would need to win by seven or more to "cover the spread" and cash out wins for its bettors. The Canadian team would cover if it won or if it lost by six points or fewer.
The point spread typically yields standard "pick'em odds" for the favorite and underdog, as the oddsmakers have evened the playing field by assigning a handicap. Pick'em odds means it's a coin flip, usually priced between -105 and -125.
Sometimes when one side or the other of a point spread is seeing less action from the betting public, the odds will turn to +100 or +105 to intrigue bettors into betting that side. When one side sees a bunch of action, oddsmakers will often increase or decrease the spread to reduce the sportsbooks' liability with that specific betting outcome.
Totals
Another wildly popular form of sports betting, totals involve betting on games or matches to go OVER or UNDER the oddsmakers' projected total. Similar to spread betting, totals typically involve pick'em odds for the OVER and UNDER.
When both teams or clubs in a contest have strong defenses, the set total might be priced lower as the UNDER will be a popular pick for bettors. When both teams or clubs in a contest have more good offenses but questionable defenses, the total would be priced higher as the OVER will be a more popular wager.
When games feel too close to bet on the spread or moneyline, betting the over/under offers bettors a chance to still get in on the action without having to pick a winner.
Olympic pro bets
Futures
Futures betting is just like it sounds: it's betting on the eventual result of a league, tournament, or in the case of the Olympics, a gold-medal contest that will take place in the future. If you want to back your native country to win a certain sport or gold-medal contest this summer but don't want to bet on the individual stages leading up to the medal games, you can just bet on your team to win it all.
Betting a team or athlete on the futures market involves picking that team or player to beat every other competitor in the field, thus the odds are typically longer than individual games and therefore the potential payouts are higher. For instance, Canada's odds of beating France in the individual group stages of Olympic basketball will be significantly shorter (-345 as of July 24) than Canada's odds of winning the gold medal (+1100).
Sportsbooks often offer futures bettors the chance to bet a winner without the odds-on favorite, especially when it's a heavy favorite like Team USA in men's hoops. Since the USA has been between -500 and -650 all summer, you might want to bet on which team will win the silver medal so you can get better value. Canada's odds on the "Winner Without USA" have been hovering around the +150 to +200 range on most sportsbooks this summer, and allows you to get a win on Team Canada even if the USA indeed wins gold.
Medal count
Much like futures betting, betting on the total medal count can be a fun method of betting on the Olympics. You can either bet on which country will finish with the most medals, or you can bet the OVER or UNDER on a specific country winning a set amount of medals.
With medal count bets, you can bet on total combined medals, total gold medals, total silver medals, and total bronze medals. You can also bet on which continent will finish with the most medals. One popular wager in Canada will be on Team Canada's basketball team to win a medal (-115), as those odds are pretty attractive for arguably the second-best team in the field to simply win the third-place game.
Most popular Olympic sports to bet
The most popular Olympic sports to bet on are typically the most popular sports to watch in general, but some sports are easier to bet on than others. Many viewers enjoy watching aquatic sports like swimming and water polo or equestrian sports like team jumping and dressage — however, few viewers know the ins and outs of betting on those individual events.
Here's a list of what should be some of the more heavily bet sports at the 2024 Olympics in Paris:
Basketball (3x3 and 5x5)
Soccer (or international football)
Handball
Swimming
Water polo
Field hockey
Track and field
Road races
Surfing
MORE: Full Olympics coverage at the Sporting News
Where to bet on the 2024 Paris Olympics
Sports Interaction, one of Canada's leading sportsbooks, has a vast array of Olympic betting available ahead of the 2024 Summer Games. New SIA users can enjoy up to a 125 percent match on first-time deposits of between $10 and $250! Be sure to check out SIA by following this link!
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