HomeGalera BlogSurfing NewsISA World Surfing Games Betting Guide

ISA World Surfing Games Betting Guide

ISA World Surfing Games

The ISA World Surfing Games is organised by the International Surfing Association and features a series of tournaments that are contested by the best surfers from around the world. The competition is held every two years and each edition is hosted by a different country. The first World Surfing Games were held in Australia in 1964, and originally they were called the ISF World Surfing Championships. The surfers have a lot to compete for, as they enter the competitions with their national teams and can win berths to the Olympic Games.

There are two tournaments, the Open Men's Championship and the Open Women's Championship, which both contribute to the Overall World Team Championship results, and the winning team will be awarded gold medals, the second place silver, the third placed bronze and the fourth place copper.

Each national team consists of three men and three women, who compete for individual medals and if they win, they are awarded the Fernando Aguerre World Team Trophy, which is named after the ISA President.

The competitions are held in different phases: there are 7 main rounds and a final. In each round, the surfers are pooled into heats of two to four surfers. They will have between 20 and 30 minutes, depending on the stage of the competition, in which they have to try to catch the best waves they can. Each wave caught is then scored by a panel of judges who can award surfers up to 20 points for a wave. The best two waves ridden by the surfers are counted into the final score of each heat, meaning a surfer can achieve a maximum score of 20/20 for a single heat.

The waves are judged using the following criteria:

The surfer's commitment to the wave and the level of difficulty it takes to ride the wave
How creatively a surfer takes on a wave
How many dynamic manoeuvres a surfer performs on a wave
How varied these manoeuvres are
The speed, power and degree of fluency a rider shows on a wave.

This means that surfers will be careful when choosing which wave to ride, because any failure can result in low points or even injury. In the heats, the surfers all make their attempts at the same time, so if one surfer cuts into the inside of another surfer after a wave, they will be given a penalty where half their points on their second best wave are taken away. This means that surfers must be respectful of each other in the water and must try to distance themselves so that all contestants have a fair chance and there is no interference.

ISA World Surfing Games Bets

Outright Winner

These are bets that relate to the ISA World Surfing Games as a whole. Punters will be able to place bets on who will win the competition outright. There will be bets for which surfer will win the men’s gold medal, which surfer will win the women’s gold medal, and which team will win the competition outright. These bets will be available both before the ISA World Surfing Games start and during the competition.

Heat Winner

There may be bets for individual heats. These will offer punters the chance to bet on individual surfers to win in heats. Depending on whether a heat has two, three or four places, the odds of betting on individual surfers can vary, though the favourite to win in a heat will have the shortest odds.

Nations To Reach the Final Round

Punters may also find bets on nations to reach the final round. This may come in the form of a bet on a single nation to make the finals, or it may be a bet on multiple nations to reach the finals. The odds on the teams that are considered the favourites in this category will be long, as there are many different possible outcomes.

Head to Head

Head to head bets may be easier to predict, as they only require bettors to predict which contestant will score higher between two individuals or teams. The top surfers from the different teams will be matched against each other.

There may be head to head bets such as Joan Duru (FR) vs Kanoa Igarashi (JPN), or Italo Ferreira (BR) vs Joan Duru (FR), or Kolohe Andino (US) vs Italo Ferreira (BR), and many more combinations, depending on who enters the competition. There may also be head to head bets between team members, such as Italo Ferreira (BR) vs Gabriel Medina (BR), Joan Duru (FR) vs Jeremy Flores (FR), or Kanoa Igarashi (JPN) vs Hiroto Ohhara (JPN). These may be a bit trickier to predict, as the surfers usually aim to win points together to help their nation qualify for the Olympic Games.

Live Bets

There may also be live betting available, where punters can find most of the bets listed above. Live betting on surfing is not only a lot of fun but it has the added benefit of allowing you to assess factors such as the wind and waves before placing bets. Therefore, many people may wait for the competition to begin before placing any bets. The bets have live odds, meaning that if the weather conditions favour certain surfers or other surfers are having difficulty in the initial heats, the odds on them will be adjusted to reflect this.