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How To Bet On Skateboarding At the Olympics

Skateboarding At the Olympics

In 2020, skateboarding was added to the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. This addition allowed all of the top skateboarders to finally compete in an event with worldwide television coverage and have the chance to win Olympics Gold, Silver and Bronze medals. Skateboarders from around the world can now enter the Olympics every four years for the chance to be recognised as the top athletes in the world of skateboarding.

The decision to introduce skateboarding into the Olympics was a controversial one for both skateboarders and the Olympics committee. On the one hand, some of the more purist skateboarders believed that the move would make skateboarding mainstream and skaters would lose their identity as a counterculture movement or way of life. The officials in the Olympics committee also faced the big question of whether introducing skateboarding would have any backlash from the public. For a long time skateboarding was considered a form of vandalism as skaters would damage curbs, stonework, steps, benches and other fittings in parks and plazas. Skateboarding is still illegal in some areas, although there are specially designed skater parks where skateboarders can practise their skills and develop their own skating tricks.

In the Olympics, there are four different tournaments for skateboarders. The men’s park, men’s street, women's park and women’s street.

In the park competitions, twenty skateboarders are seeded into four heats of five. Each skateboarder gets three runs to try and set a score, and the best of the runs counts as their final score in the heat. Once all of the heats are finished, the eight highest scoring skateboarders across all heats advance to the finals. The finals work in the same way, with a best of three runs format, and at the end, the skateboarder with the most points wins the gold medal, the runner up receives the silver medal and the skateboarder that comes in third place is awarded a bronze medal.

The street tournament also features twenty skateboarders, who have to make 2 runs and a total of 5 tricks. The accumulated points of each of the runs and tricks is their final score, and the top eight finishers in the first round advance to the finals. Here, the skateboarders have to do another 2 runs and 5 tricks. The points are awarded at the end of each skateboarder's performance, and the top three scoring skateboarders receive the gold, silver and bronze medals.

How to Bet on Skateboarding At the Olympics

Skateboarding a highly entertaining sport to watch, and relies heavily on the contestants' consistency and sometimes luck when it comes to pulling off tricks or landing correctly. Even at the top level of skateboarding, contestants may struggle or may make mistakes that may lose them precious points that can hugely affect their chances of winning the competition.

When it comes to betting on skateboarding at the Olympics, there are some great odds offered. Fans who have a good knowledge of the sport and have seen the contestants perform before will be able to take advantage of the long odds and hopefully win big as they back any of these athletes.

To Win

Bets can be made on any of the skateboarders to win in their tournament. There will be bets available for the men’s park, women’s park, men’s street and women’s street tournaments. As there are 20 contestants in each tournament, the odds on each of the individuals will be high. Even when there is a clear favourite going into the competition, they will come with generous odds.

To Finish In the Top Three

Betting on one of the athletes to win may be a difficult bet to make, especially when there are two or more skateboarders who show enough ability to win the competition. Punters who want to place a safer bet may choose to bet on one of the skateboarders to finish in the top three. This means that they will have to pass the first round and get into the finals, but here if they have any difficulties or drop any points, the bet may still win.

What To Research

When it comes to betting on skateboarding, the best research that can be done is to watch a lot of skateboarding events. A punter needs a strong idea on how individual skateboarders perform, and though stats may show plenty of information, sometimes it is better to see how the skateboarders perform. Video playbacks can be found on many skateboarding events, so these will not be difficult to find, and when watching it is worth considering factors such as how consistent a skateboarder is, are they prone to injury, what level of difficulty are the tricks that they choose and so on. Ultimately the more information gathered, the better the chance of placing a winning bet.