It’s time for Olympics Betting! On Sunday, the relay carrying the Olympic torch from Greece reached Paris for the first time, appearing during the Bastille Day military parade before leaving the Champs-Elysees to make its sojourn around the French capital.
Thierry Henry, the French soccer legend, received the honor of the first relay leg on the most famous boulevard in Paris.
Afterward, the torch traveled to such landmarks as Notre-Dame cathedral and the French Parliament building.
On Monday, the flame appeared with some can-can dancers near the famous Moulin Rouge cabaret show and then went up to the Montmartre cathedral.
The opening ceremony is set for July 26, although some events will start a few days sooner.
If you’re curious about how to handle your Olympic betting by sport, we have some thoughts about five events where you can look to make some solid money.
Unlocking Gold: Expert Analyzes Top 5 Olympics Betting Events for Paris 2024
Olympic Men’s Basketball (5-on-5) Paris 2024
There is also a 3-on-3 version of both men’s and women’s basketball, but the history on that is a lot less helpful as far as betting is concerned.
In the five-on-five version, the United States is taking such a packed roster that the team has a -500 money line to win the gold medal.
There are some flaws on this team, though. First is the fact that these players have been taken from around the NBA instead of being part of a cohesive team for a long period of time, which separates them from some other national teams.
Asking stars to take on different roles often leads to a period of adjustment, and the international basketball game has improved, which means that there is NBA talent on just about every team that Team USA will see in group play and in the bracket.
Warm up games against Canada and Australia have shown that Team USA has solid shooting from the outside but, once again, is a bit soft in the interior, particularly on defense.
Finding ways to keep opponents off the offensive glass and to alter shots in the paint will be necessary for the Americans to carry home gold.
How can you leverage this in your wagering? Look at props about rebounding margins, points in the paint, and the point spread.
There will be quite a few matchups where the point spread is larger than what it should be because Team USA will give up so much inside.
^Olympic Men’s Soccer Paris 2024
In women’s soccer, nations send their top teams to the Olympics.
For men’s soccer, though, the tournament is a U-23 event. That means that all players have to be born on or after January 1, 2001. Each team can bring three older players, though.
For fans of the United States, the good news is that a men’s team has qualified for the first time since 2008 and just the second time in the last six Summer Games.
Some of the favorites are, as you might expect, among the usual suspects: France, Spain and Argentina all have strong sides.
France open against Team USA, who feature two terrific young centers backs in Walker Zimmerman and Miles Robinson.
However, France feature players contributing all over European first divisions, with players on the rosters of Lyon, Gladbach, and Sevilla.
Along with the United States, two other teams hopeful for medals are Japan (a true U-23 team) and Morocco.
Japan has a fairly manageable Group D, but if they win that group they get the runner-up of Group C (Spain, Egypt, the Dominican Republic or Uzbekistan).
Morocco has goalie Munir Mohamedi and elite defender Achraf Haikimi as two of its older players, and they should steady a side that has plenty of young talent up front.
A sleeper would be Paraguay, in the Olympics for the first time in 20 years. They have Fabian Balbuena, formerly of West Ham, on the back line, and the other older players are midfielders Enso Gonzalez and Diego Gomez.
Those three could carry this team to a bronze.
^Olympics Betting Paris 2024
Olympics Betting Field Hockey
This is a sport that generally follows form, but sports betting lines can end up following popularity instead of actual team quality because of the casual wagering action. Doing some homework in this sport can bring you some quick profits.
^Olympics Betting Water Polo
Like field hockey, this is a team about which you can educate yourself fairly quickly to find the contenders, the dark horses and the teams just happy to be there.
It’s a predictable sport, which means that it can deliver value. Because a lot of North American bettors won’t do their homework before wagering, you can also pull some profits out here.
^Olympic Men’s and Women’s Tennis
Olympic tennis will take place on clay for the first time in more than 30 years, so look to the players who did well at the French Open when making your picks.
Iga Swiatek and Carlos Alcaraz won the women’s and men’s singles titles, respectively, but also look at the doubles entries, because you can wager on those too, and with a little more digging you can get leverage on some uninformed money lines.
^We’re down to single digits! Just 9️⃣ days remain until the Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony! 🔥#Paris2024 @Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/6sthxBx8N0
— The Olympic Games (@Olympics) July 17, 2024
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