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SportsFree GamesHeld every four years, the Winter Olympics pays tribute to the greatest sports practiced on snow and ice, from alpine skiing to ice hockey. Canada has been the proud host of the Winter Olympics twice now, but this year the torch has been handed over to China, who will host the 19-day competition from February 4.
For sports betting fans, there are a whole host of exciting online betting options to choose from. In our guide, we’ll take you through how to bet on the Winter Olympics, from how odds work to best bets.
To get you started with Winter Olympics betting in Canada, we’ve put together some of the key facts about the globally popular event:
After the success of re-establishing the Summer Olympics, a winter version was thought up and first held in 1924
Only sports that are played on snow or ice can be part of the Winter Olympics
Canada, as noted above, has twice hosted the Winter Olympics. Calgary in Alberta was chosen in 1988 and Vancouver in British Columbia for the 2010 Games
Until 1992, the Summer and Winter Olympics were held in the same year at four-year intervals
In order to space out Olympic events more, the Winter Games were moved to two years through a Summer cycle starting in 1994
The United States is the only nation to have hosted four different Winter Olympics
Sports can be added or removed from the Winter Olympics calendar as per the International Olympic Committee (IOC) selection policy
Before placing a bet on Olympic skiing or bobsledding, it’s crucial that you’re fully up to speed with how Winter Olympics odds work. The first thing you should know is that the most popular sports (more on those below) will be priced up on betting sites.
Let’s work through a typical example:
In this instance, Canada are playing the US at ice hockey – hardly surprisingly given both countries have representation in the NHL.
You can see that Canada are the clear favourites to win as their price is smaller. If you were to wager C$10 on them, you would win C$11, with the total payout being C$21. Meanwhile, the US are the betting underdogs. For every C$4 you stake, the return is C$11 – C$7 of which is profit.
Ties can also occur, but at the Winter Olympics, an ice hockey match may need to have a winner say if it’s for a gold medal.
In this example, we have shown the odds in the decimal format, as this is the most common and easiest format to compare prices. Of course, you may also see odds displayed in the American moneyline system, while some bookmakers may prefer to use fractions.
Have a go using our odds calculator to see the different odds types and to calculate potential winnings.
There are many different ways you can bet on the Winter Olympics. If you’re not new to sports betting, you should already be familiar with many (if not all) of these bet types.
Like in sports betting, the moneyline bet simple involves you picking a winner – in the case of the Winter Olympics, the winner of an individual sport or team event. To know which team or sport is the favourite and which is the underdog, simply look for the symbol – if there’s a plus sign (+), it’s the underdog, whereas a minus sign (-) denotes the favourite.
Also known as handicap betting, you’ll find examples of this kind of bet in team sports such as ice hockey at the Winter Olympics. In a point spread bet, you’re wagering on the point margin, set by sportsbooks, between two teams. The favourite must win by a certain number of points, while the underdog can lose by fewer than that same number of points, or win outright.
In the Olympics, a totals bet looks at the total number of gold medals each country will win. The sportsbook will set the number and then you have to determine whether the nation in question will win ‘over’ or ‘under’ the set number given. There are also head-to-head bets, whereby two nations are pitted against each other, and you have to decide which one you think will win more gold medals.
In the run up to the Olympics, sportsbooks will begin releasing a whole host of futures betting options for excited punters. One of the most popular is betting on which country will win the most gold medals. Small tip, it’s worth betting on this market sooner rather than later as the odds will only get smaller as the event draws nearer!
Rather than placing just one bet, parlay bets allow you to make multiple bets in the same wager. You can use different bet types, including moneyline, point spread and totals, as well as place bets on teams across different sports. The more picks you have, the bigger the payout will be, but be warned – the risk is far greater, as if just one pick loses, then the whole bet is lost.
When it comes to Olympics prop bets, or proposition bets, sportsbooks tend to go all out. You can bet on events happening during the competition as well as away from it, such as how many medals a country or individual will win, or even something as obscure as whether a certain athlete will wave at the podium.
You can now place bets on major sporting events like the Winter Olympics while the sport is actually happening. What’s great about this market is that it allows you to take advantage of changing odds while you’re watching. Lookout for ice hockey live betting odds among others during the Winter Games to enhance your experience of seeing the action unfold.
Now that you’ve got an understanding of how odds work and the different bet types, the next step is choosing which sport to bet on. If you’re new to Olympics betting, or even sports betting in general, we’d recommend betting on the sports that you know rather than those that you don’t – knowledge is king in sports betting, after all!
As noted above, Olympic ice hockey is a very popular sport for Winter Olympics betting in Canada.
You can bet on individual match winners or who will win the gold medal.
Points spread and total goals markets are also available on ice hockey as standard.
Remember, futures betting sits side by side with wagers like these.
Futures betting should be available on which individual or couple will win gold in their respective disciplines.
Curling is a team sport where stones are slid across a sheet of ice. Brooms are
used to sweep the ice in front of a stone into a target made of concentric circles.
Although
a somewhat niche sport, curling is curiously exciting and futures betting should be available on
the competing countries.
The Winter Olympics doesn’t get more traditional than this. There are many different types of skiing discipline and betting exists on alpine, cross-country and Nordic combined events.
As with skiing, there are several different events you can bet on at the Winter Olympics when it comes to snowboarding, including parallel, half-pipe, cross and slopestyle events. Take your pick.
Combining cross-country skiing and rifle shooting sounds like something out of an
old James Bond film. The biathlon is a very popular Winter Olympics event, though, and there are many
different versions of it.
Sprints, pursuits, relays and mass starts are all held alongside
individual disciplines. Biathlon betting is surprisingly lively during the Winter Games.
When it comes to ski jumping, there’s the normal hill and the large hill. The
further you jump, the more points you get. Jumpers compete as individuals and as a team for their
country.
Wind assistance can have a huge hand in this sport, and that’s always something to
think about when betting on it.
Like the luge, hurtling downhill in a bobsleigh or skeleton can give the sportsmen
and women who do it a real adrenaline rush. Crews can be up to and including four people. The aim is
to make yourself or collectively as streamline as possible.
Whichever individual or crew makes
it down the course fastest wins. You should find plenty of skeleton and bobsleigh betting during the
Winter Olympics.
One thing you should definitely getting when engaging with Winter Olympics betting are bonuses. Broadly speaking, there are three different types available to you:
Welcome bonus
Enhanced odds
VIP club
One of the major developments in gambling of recent times is the advent of mobile betting. The huge benefit of mobile gambling is that it enables gamblers to place their bets on the go, with the majority of sportsbooks now offering dedicated apps which can be downloaded for both Android and iOS devices.
These apps are similar to the mobile version of the sportsbook, but give you an even more streamlined gambling experience, making it as easy and convenient as possible to place a bet.
You can find a full breakdown of the latest news, info and schedule on the Olympics site, but here are the essential facts:
Dates of event: February 4-20, 2022
Location: Beijing, China (at various venues)
No. of events: 109
No. of sports disciplines: 15 across seven sports (biathlon, bobsleigh, curling, ice hockey, luge, skating and skiing)
How to watch: CBS Sports site & app, Radio-Canada Sports site & app, CBS Gem, ICI TOU.TV
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The Winter Olympics 2022 will take place from February 4-20, 2022, in Beijing. It is the first city to host both the Summer and Winter editions of the Olympics. The Winter Paralympics will take place from March 4-13.
