Generally, athletics shy away from the world’s gaze for the most part until either the World Championships or the Olympics come along. Regardless, athletics are a very exciting sport that showcase some of the most talented individuals in the world, but betting on athletics has not yet become popularised. In this guide, we will look at some of the best tips for getting the most from athletics betting whether you bet in person or use a site like Findbettingsites for online betting.
Straight bets
For every athletics event, there will be some contenders who are more favoured to win by the bookmakers and there will be some underdogs who are judged to be less likely to win. A straight bet is very simple: you pick the athlete you think will win or that you judge to have the best odds, and if they win the event, you win your bet. For example, if you had bet on Usain Bolt in 2008 in Beijing then you would have won the bet, but the odds would not have been great.
Over/under bets
Another type of betting in athletics is the over under betting market. Depending on the event, you can bet on an athlete winning by over one second for example. These can be very useful if you think one athlete is almost guaranteed to win, as you can boost the odds for something that you think is likely to happen.
Special bets
When there are big events on, betting companies will also offer you special bets that would not usually be available. An example of this would be for someone to beat the Olympic or World record, which is obviously unlikely but does happen regularly. If you are shrewd enough to predict these events happening, then these bets will almost always be very profitable.
Research
Even more important than other sports, research is imperative for athletics. While athletes are directly competing against other athletes for events, they are actually competing against time or the rating system, in the sense that how other athletes do does not have a direct impact.
This means that statistics play a larger role because there are far fewer exterior influences than for a sport like football to how an athlete performs. Therefore, you must put the time in to know how each athlete has been performing recently, how they perform at certain locations and more. This will improve your bets hugely for obvious reasons: you are taking advantage of things that are at your disposition in order to place a more informed bet. The more informed you are, the more likely you are to win
Mentality
Another very important factor for athletics is mentality, or mental fortitude. You should try and avoid betting on athletes that you judge to be mentally weak, even if they are favourites, because anything can throw them off their game and you need to bare this in mind. When it comes to solo competitors as well, mental fortitude is even more important, and any setbacks can cause big problems.
