Winter Olympics Betting Guide

So much to bet on, so little time to do it. Sports Betting fans are in for a real treat with the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics kicking off and offering us many days of intensive winter sports action! This guide will show you a few of the special bets you can bet on at bwin.com and there is loads of coverage of the games on live on TV and via the Live betting service.

The anticipation for the 2010 Olympics has been dampened by the tragic death of 21 year old Luge participant Nodar Kumaritashvili after an accident in the final warm-up run, but the Georgian team have pledged to participate in honour of their team-mate and the Luge event will be held. With the games being held in Canada the Ice Hockey tournament will feature prominently. Wayne Gretzky, the leading points scoring of all time in professional Ice Hockey lit the flame for the Olympics.

You can bet on both the men’s and women’s Ice Hockey at Vancouver. In the men’s event USA, Canada and Russia are the clear favourites for the medals but Germany, Slovakia and Sweden will hope to perform well and challenge the top teams. The ladies event features teams from China and Latvia showing that Ice Hockey continues to become more popular all around the world.

Alpine skiing offers sports bettors the chance to bet on the Slalom events, Giant Slalom and Downhill competitions for both men and women.

For those of you who prefer a more refined winter sport than the aggression of Ice Hockey the figure skating competition has always been popular in the UK since the days of Torvill and Dean winning Olympic gold in the early 1980′s. The current favourites for the couple’s figure skating are Shen X and Zhao H of China who have odds of 2/1 to win. The Canadian home pairing of J Dube and B Davison have odds of 23/1 and British hopefuls S Kemp and D King are rank outsiders at 100/1.

Other popular events include the Bobsleigh, a sport made famous in 1993 by the film “Cool Runnings” which documented the irony of a Jamaican Bobsleigh team that competed in the Winter Olympics and did surprisingly well in the 1980’s. The German four man team led by Andre Lange are 3/5 odds on favourites. Lange is also odds on to win the singles event and is known as the best Bobsleigh exponent in the world.

There is a selection of special bets on offer from bwin that include which betting on the country that will win the most bronze medals throughout the Olympics and the King of the Olympics which awards the athlete who wins the most Gold medals. Currently Germany are favourite to get the most bronze medals at 2/1 with second favourites Canada at 5/2 and USA at 5/1. The favourite to win the title of King of the Olympics is Petter Northug of Norway at 7/4. Northug is very strong in the cross country skiing events and also participates in the springs and relays and will expect a good haul of medals if all goes to plan.

Coming around once every four years the Winter Olympics gives you the chance to put bets on sports you only see on Television getting good coverage every so often and it is a fun and different way of engaging in sports betting. Can you beat the bookmaker at Vancouver?

By Malcolm Clarke