The Olympics is the most international sporting competition in the world. There are athletes from almost every country represented across all the Olympic events, and this means that here are more eyeballs on it than almost any other sporting event on the planet. The Olympic Games have been for the most part a celebration of amateur sport, and while there have been some notable exceptions over the years, the athletes are competing for national pride, which brings with it a far different level of competition.
While the International Olympic Committee likely hates it, there is a significant amount of betting that takes place on both the Summer and Winter Olympic games, and now that the events are staggered, there is a betting option every two years for potential gamblers. Not every betting site treats the Olympics the same, so finding the right site is critical to being able to get your money down on your favorite event.
Features of a Good Olympics Betting Site
We will start with the obvious here – not every betting site offers the Olympics as an option. For the purposes of this page, we are focusing on the sites that do accept Olympic bets. From this group, our reviewers have provided a list of a few top pieces of information we research to find the best sites for our readers.
Mobile compatibility
Depending on where you live, the majority of the Olympic events may be happening at odd hours, which means you may not be sitting in front of your PC. Mobile betting has become very popular over the last few years, but that doesn’t mean that every site offers a great experience. We look at sites that can and do offer downloadable apps, as well as those who have best converted their PC platform to fit the screens of phones and tablets.
Live Streaming
Again, depending on where you live and what you like to bet on, you may find it challenging to locate a place to watch some of the Olympic sports. Most countries focus on sports in which they have athletes competing, so if you are looking to bet on Skiing and live in, say, the Caribbean, you may be out of luck. The best Olympic betting sites are those that offer multiple Live Streams of the sports, so there is a far better chance you will find the event you are betting on available for viewing.
Qualifying Events
Many sports have qualifying events leading up to the Olympics. These events are designed to help countries build out there teams without being subjective, and present another excellent opportunity for gambling. We look for sites that extend the betting on traditional Olympic sports a step further, giving you the chance to bet on these Trials.
Prop Betting
With so many events in the Olympics and so many countries participating, we love the sites that give you a chance to make prop bets. These are different than betting on the winner of each event (in some cases this is a foregone conclusion). A great example of an Olympic prop bet would be betting on the winning time of the showcase 100m sprint. Other bets could include predicting the medal count for a particular country, or how many World Records will be broken during the event. The sites that offer the most of these types of bets rise to the top of our list as these are great sites for the casual gambler.
International Customer Service
This may be the most important factor of all in determining which sites are best for you. OF course, with so many athletes competing from around the world, there will be more of an international group of bettors on Olympic events than almost any other sport. As a result, finding a site that offers customer service in your local language is crucial. Some sites may offer it by email only, which is a good start, but the sites that are either translated into many languages or offer international live agent support are the ones that get the highest marks from us.
The Best Olympics Betting Sites
Of course, we mentioned that not every site offers Olympic betting, so we had a smaller group to choose from when coming up with a list of our most recommended sites. This doesn’t matter in the long run – these sites you see below all offer the best mix of betting, service, and marketing all with an eye to catering to someone who likes to bet on these sports every couple of years. Don’t worry if you don’t recognize some of the names – all these sites come with the highest rating from our staff, and that should put your minds at ease about the quality of your time with them.
Conclusion
As sports continue to be added to the Olympics, there are more reasons than ever to give one of the betting sites a try. We love the idea of putting a little action on a cross-country ski race – how could that not make it more exciting! Hopefully, you will find a great site from our Recommended list. Otherwise, we encourage you to read even more of our reviews on this site.