Olympics Betting Guide For 2024

Yes, and it can be done at state-regulated and offshore sportsbooks. Any sports betting site should offer Olympics betting odds regardless if they are for the Winter or Summer Games.

Yes, there are many sportsbook banking options available at online Olympics sports betting sites like the ones we recommend, and Bitcoin (BTC) is the most popular cryptocurrency accepted.

The 2020 Summer Olympics, aka the Games of the XXXII Olympiad, were originally scheduled to be held from July through August 2020. However, the coronavirus lockdowns necessitated a delay. Thus, the 2021 Summer Olympics is actually the 2020 Summer Olympics.

However, you will still see the 2021 Olympics referred to online variously as the 2020 Olympics, Tokyo 2020, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the 2020 Tokyo Games, the 2020 Summer Games, and so on.

It is unclear if the official name of this iteration will remain tagged with the 2020 date or if the IOC will adopt the 2021 designation.

In most cases, yes. Several states now have legal domestic sportsbooks operating within their borders, but their services – whether online or off – are strictly limited to those physically inside the states in question.

If you live somewhere in America that doesn’t have conveniently accessible sports betting, you should use a legal offshore sportsbook to wager on the Olympic Games.

Actually, even if you do have local betting options, overseas books tend to have more valuable lines and far less overhead to worry about, with the savings – or, rather, the winnings – passed on to you!

There is no record of anyone ever getting into legal trouble just for betting on the Olympics online. Remember, US federal laws are designed to go after unregulated domestic operators and US-based financial institutions, not individual bettors.

As long as you use a reputable, legally operating offshore betting site, you should feel completely safe placing wagers on Olympics odds over the Internet.

Unless, of course, it's a very risky wager. You might feel a little uneasy about that, which is understandable. We get the betting butterflies from time to time, too.

At this time, there are no DFS options for Olympic events.

While this could change, major operators like FanDuel, DraftKings, and Yahoo are unlikely to have daily fantasy tournaments for the Olympics.

The nature of DFS play does not lend itself particularly well to one-off events like most of those in the Olympics, but a fantasy platform is not completely out of the question in the future.

The Olympics will be broadcast on a host of different networks globally, but in the US, NBC and its subsidiaries will cover the tournament. NBCUniversal paid $1.45 billion for the exclusive rights to carry coverage of the next Olympics.

NBCUniversal has also acquired the US broadcast rights for the 2022 Summer Olympics in Beijing, though the terms of that deal are currently undisclosed.

Unfortunately not.

There are many Olympic events that will be carried on a tape delay thanks to the dramatic time zone difference between the US and Japan. Additionally, some events – and event primaries or qualifiers – are not covered at all.

The major events will all be presented live (or as nearly live as possible), but some sports – like Olympic weightlifting, for example – are typically not available outside of Internet-streamed replays.

As a bettor, you need to stay on top of the Olympic schedule, because while the games themselves might be broadcast on a delay, the betting lines close in real time.

While the Special Olympics are held at many of the same venues that host the Olympic Games and take place directly after the conclusion of the latter, most online sportsbooks do not yet offer Special Olympics betting.

If the event increases in popularity, it is possible – but still unlikely – that you will find any Special Olympics betting options online.

The most popular variety of Olympic betting is futures betting, as most gamblers place wagers on event winners.

In team sports, spread betting and totals bets are also popular, but generally, bettors favor putting their money on a given Olympic event’s overall gold medal winner.

Olympic wagering features a host of different bet types that run the traditional gamut.

You can wager on event champions and runners up, final scores, race times, and more. Olympic prop bets are particularly sought after, though they usually have lower betting limits than Olympics futures betting and various other markets.

Additionally, in the Winter Games, Olympic hockey betting odds are very popular, though the Summer Games’ field hockey odds attract less action from American bettors.

Generally, US bettors tend to wager on sports that are more familiar to them, so more mainstream American athletic events get top billing at the Olympic Games.

Most offshore sportsbooks will offer odds on every Olympic event, even those not popular among US-based bettors (as many of these books serve an international clientele).

Thus, you can expect to find Olympic betting odds on all 330+ events scheduled to be contested.    

The most popular sports to bet on at the Summer Olympics are baseball, basketball, soccer, cycling, boxing, golf, tennis, and volleyball.

For the Winter Olympics, ice hockey, alpine skiing, speed skating, bobsleigh, snowboarding, and (surprisingly) curling are popular among US sports gamblers.

That said, there promises to be betting action on every Olympic sport, as the Games are as diverse as the interests of their fans and bettors.

The only thing that gamblers really need to worry about when it comes to a given event’s popularity is that the betting limits will usually be higher for more wagered-on disciplines than more niche ones.