Olympic Games Volleyball Betting Guide

Volleyball at the Olympic Games

Volleyball has been present in the Summer Olympics for both men and women since 1964. When it was first introduced, the Olympic Games volleyball tournament was played in the same format as the World Cup. All of the teams played in a robin round format against each other and earnt points that were used to determine rankings and the overall winner.

The problem with this initial format was that often the tournament winner was determined before the final games were played. As a result, there were very low audience numbers for the final games in the competition.

In 1972, a new system was adopted. The competition was split into two phases. The first is a qualification round where the 12 Olympic teams are put into 4 pools and they play against all the other teams in their pool. The second is the final round, where the winners of each of the pools proceed into the semi-finals and then finals knockout games.

In the Olympic Games volleyball tournament, there are 12 teams. This number is fixed, and the 12 teams include the host nation, the 2 teams that qualify through the Men's or Women's World Cup, the 5 teams that qualify by winning the continental qualification tournaments, and the remaining 4 teams are decided in the world qualification tournaments.

How to bet on Volleyball at the Olympic Games

Outright Winner

Everyone enjoys seeing their country win gold medals at the Olympic Games, and punters can use outright bets to put money on their favourite teams to win the entire tournament. These bets can be found before the Olympic Games volleyball tournaments start, and there will be odds available for each of the 12 nations that participate in the men’s and women’s tournaments.

Full Time Result

These are the most straightforward bets that can be placed on individual games. They are simply bets on which team will win.

Handicaps

Volleyball games are played to the best of five sets. When betting on a team to win, punters can set handicaps that require the team either to win by a certain number of sets or not to lose by more than a certain number.

When applying a negative handicap of -1.5, -2, or -2.5, it will require a team to win the match by at least 2 or 3 sets. The larger the handicap, the longer the odds will be. When betting on a team and giving a handicap of +1.5, +2, or +2.5, this will require the team to win the game or not lose by more than 2 or 3 sets. These handicaps will reduce the odds but also increase the likelihood that the team will win.

Total Points

These bets relate to how many points will be scored in the game as a whole, or in one of the individual sets. These markets use the over/under format. It is necessary to choose a betting line and then bet on whether there will be over or under that number of points scored. For each set, there may be lines such as 89.5, 90.5, 91.5, and so on, and for the game as a whole, there may be lines in the area of 175.5, 177.5, 179.5, and more.

Set Betting

These bets are the same as full time result bets, only they will relate to a single set, or to the first two sets. These include bets such as which team will win the first set, which team will win the second set, and results for the first and second set.

Game Props

Game props include a range of markets that range from general game bets such as how many sets will be played to extremely detailed bets such as the exact correct score in points for the first set.

There are some fantastic betting options such as the score after the first two sets, correct set score at the end of the game, will a team make a comeback after going down 2 sets, what will the winning margin in points be for the first set, and many more.

Live Bets

Using the live betting markets makes watching Olympic Games volleyball even more exciting. There will be many different types of bets offered. For instance, the bets explained above will all be available but with odds that are changed to reflect the live action. There will also be bets available on the next thing to happen, such as which team will reach X points first in the set, which team will win the set, will a team win two sets in a row, and many more.