Betting Bonanza: Paris Olympics 2024 - The Ultimate Playground for Bettors

As the 2024 Paris Olympics approach, North America’s best sportsbooks are readying their playbooks. But will the timing of the multi-sport extravaganza, scheduled during daytime hours for most of the US, attract the nation's bettors? So, grab your buffalo frogs legs, cheese and baguettes, and get ready to find out.

Tokyo 2021: The Perfect Betting Storm

The 2021 Tokyo Olympics were a betting bonanza for America's sports betting sites. Held during a pandemic-fueled betting boom, the games saw a surge in turnover, new customers, and unprecedented interest from American bettors - despite the ungodly broadcast hours. Tokyo set benchmarks for key online metrics like turnover and active users, being the first Olympics after the 2018 repeal of PASPA (the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act).

Team USA's impressive haul of 113 medals, including 39 golds, fueled patriotic betting fervor, with an estimated 20 million Americans wagering on the games. But let’s not kid ourselves; betting on the Olympics is as old as the games themselves. The ancient Greeks were placing bets and dealing with corruption long before we had mobile apps for it.

Down Under's Betting Milestone

Consider this.

In Australia, where sports betting has been legal for 25 years, the 2000 Sydney Olympics were a watershed moment. Public interest was at an all-time high, and although online wagering was just getting started, the local brick-and-mortar betting shops enjoyed virtual monopolies, with an estimated $42 million wagered on the games. That year, total turnover on sports betting in Australia was $880 million, with the two-week event contributing nearly five percent.

Fast forward to Tokyo 2021, Olympic betting had reached record levels, though the percentage of turnover from Olympic sports dropped to around 1.7 percent due to the explosion of betting options across the sports landscape. One sportsbook even compared the 16 days of Olympic activity in 2021 to the turnover they would typically generate from MLB or NHL betting in an average week.

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The Paris Olympics 2024: Betting Outlook

Looking ahead to the Paris Olympics, the time zone difference (six hours ahead) will make engagement significantly easier for American bettors compared to Tokyo 2021. BetMGM has earmarked the Olympics as a prime opportunity for acquisition, targeting those who might not usually be interested in betting.

The range of betting markets is staggering, from predicting the number of gold medals each country will win to wagering on individual sports like breakdancing – yes, breakdancing. Keep an eye on B Boy Victor and B Girl 671; they're the current favorites and likely to become household names (or at least trivia answers).

B Boy Victor is going for gold in the time honored men's breakdancing event

Betting on the Familiar

While sportsbooks have trained their trading teams on these more obscure events, much of the Olympic betting turnover is expected to come from traditional sports. Basketball is a big draw, driven by the NBA's massive betting popularity in the US. During the last Olympics, over a third of all bets on match outcomes were on basketball, followed by tennis and soccer.

Swimming and track and field, America’s golden disciplines, also attract patriotic bettors. FanDuel, for example, introduced the same-game-parlay concept during the Tokyo games, combining medal outcomes, and it was a hit. They're banking on its popularity again in Paris, particularly with the involvement of NBA players in Olympic basketball.

MORE: 2024 Paris Olympics Tennis Betting: Can Gauff win Gold?

The Big and Small of Olympic Betting

Olympic betting is a scale game. For the big operators like DraftKings, Bet365 and FanDuel, the effort of compiling markets pays off with the acquisition of new customers and substantial turnover. However, for smaller operators like Hard Rock Bet and Bet Rivers, the cost of compiling markets and the risk posed by sharp bettors can outweigh the potential gains.

So, whether you're a seasoned bettor or just someone who enjoys a good underdog story, the Paris 2024 Olympics promise a betting landscape as diverse and thrilling as the events themselves. Place your bets, and may the odds be ever in your favor!

This article was repurposed for a US audience. The original version was published on The Straight.