Olympics Canoe Slalom Betting

Canoeing and kayaking have been competition sports in the Summer Olympic Games since the 1936 Berlin Olympics. There are two distinct disciplines in Olympic canoeing: slalom and sprint. We’ve chosen to focus on canoe slalom because of the huge value that bets on this very obscure event offer to gamblers willing to do a little bit of research.

If you’re the type of gambler who sticks to safe bets and familiar sports, canoe slalom isn’t even on your radar. But if you’re looking for Olympics wagers that can bring you big money returns, the 2012 Summer Games canoe slalom event is the place to be. Of all the Olympics sports on offer this Olympiad, canoe slalom is probably the least-understood. Even events like handball and table tennis have professional leagues and people who follow them, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a bookie smart enough about the world canoeing scene to offer a smart line. That’s why we recommend you jump on canoe slalom wagers as soon as you can.

How to Bet on Olympic Canoe Slalom in 2012

You may not know a canoe from a kayak, but you can learn enough about the 2012 slalom field in canoeing in an hour or so of reading to place smart-money bets that could bring you big returns. We can’t even call our picks for the 2012 canoe events “upset alerts,” because frankly there is no clear favorite. Naturally, sportsbooks offering bets on kayak and canoe sports at the London Games in 2012 have to select a favorite, but odds are they’re going with conventional wisdom: who won in 2008 and 2004, etc.

The first thing you need to understand is that there are two canoe slalom events at the 2012 Olympiad: men’s C1 and men’s C2. The number refers to the number of competitors in the canoe. Think of C2 as team canoeing and C1 as individual. Looking around at the online sportsbooks participating in 2012 Olympics betting, every single book has current world champions the Hochshorner brothers, Peter and Pavol, as 11/10 or 2/1 favorites to win the C2 event. Each of these books also lists three C2 teams at 50/1 odds. Gamble just $100 on each of these three long shots, and should even one of them upset the Hochshorners, you’re looking at more than $4,500 in profit. Since only eight teams are competing for gold, your odds (not withstanding the athletic abilities of the teams involved) are just a little under 50% to pull off an upset wager. Just don’t be surprised if your book moves the line after you multi-bet on those three longshots. Get your wagers in now while the odds are still long.

As for the individual event, the same theory applies, except that the bottom three individual C1 competitors are sitting at 15/1, so you have a slightly less than 50% chance of earning a profit of $1,200 for a $300 investment.

Book makers understand these strategies, and if they see you pulling them on multiple sports, they may start moving lines on you or limiting your bets. If you plan on placing lots of long shot wagers during the 2012 Olympiad, you might consider placing them through multiple betting shops. Otherwise your ability to place these high-value long shot Olympics bets may be extremely limited.

http://www.bettingtheolympics.com