Best Betting Apps for the Olympics

In the competitive landscape of sports betting, apps are vying for attention by offering enticing promotions. These betting promotions are typically divided into two categories: welcome offers and existing customer bonuses.

Welcome offers, also known as sign-up promotions, reward new users upon registration. Common incentives include second-chance bets, deposit bonuses, and bonus bets, which can provide a strong start for your Olympic betting journey.

To maintain engagement, apps also offer promotions for existing customers, such as referral bonuses, daily boosts, specials, and rewards programs. Leveraging these offers can enhance your betting experience and increase your chances of success.

Betting apps attract users with lucrative welcome bonuses, offering hundreds of dollars. Both seasoned bettors and newcomers can benefit from these competitive promotions, especially when betting on the Olympics.

Experienced bettors often engage in 'bonus hunting,' seeking the latest promotions to maximize their Olympic bets with minimal risk. Newbies can test out apps in a low-risk environment and learn the basics of Olympic betting.

The main types of sign-up promotions include:

• Deposit Bonus: Additional funds based on your initial deposit.
• Bonus Bet: Also called "bet and get," these provide bet credits after your first wager or deposit. These credits must be used before withdrawal.
• Second-Chance Bet: Also known as no-sweat bets, these refund your first real-money bet in bet credits if it loses, offering a safety net for your initial Olympic wager.

Bet365 has a great choice of welcome offers that will suit anyone looking to bet on the Olympics.

When betting on the Olympics, it's important to choose a sports betting app that offers value beyond just the initial sign-up bonuses. Look for apps that provide ongoing promotions for existing customers, ensuring a rewarding experience throughout the games.

Key promotions for existing users include:

• Referral Bonuses: Invite friends to join the app, and you both earn bonuses when they make their first deposit. This can be a great way to share the excitement of Olympic betting.
• Odds Boosts & Daily Specials: These enhance the payout of your bets, offering increased odds or special promotions on select wagers, including Olympic events. This can significantly boost your potential winnings.
• Rewards Programs: While usually modest, rewards programs offer points or credits for each bet, which can be redeemed for bonus bets or merchandise. Some apps, like Fanatics Sportsbook, offer generous returns, such as up to 5% back on bets, which can be used for further betting or purchasing fan gear.

Choosing an app with robust ongoing promotions ensures a more engaging and profitable experience for Olympic betting.

What sets the Winter Olympics apart is how different the sports feel compared to what most bettors see the rest of the year. You get a mix of familiar events and niche competitions that only show up every four years, and a lot of them are surprisingly fun to bet on once you understand the basics. Just like the Summer Games, most sports feature both men’s and women’s competitions, effectively doubling the number of betting opportunities.

While many winter sports include dozens of individual events, sportsbooks usually focus on the most high-profile competitions. That means you may not see odds for every single race or run, especially early on. Because markets can vary widely by app, bettors who are interested in specific winter sports may want access to more than one betting app to find the best coverage.

Popular Winter Events to Bet:

• Ice Hockey

Ice hockey is consistently one of the most bet-on Winter Olympic sports. Fans gravitate toward both men’s and women’s tournaments, and because it’s a bracket-style competition with group play and medal rounds, there are lots of individual game markets plus futures on overall medal placement. Live betting and game props are often available as the Games progress.

• Curling
  

Curling has become one of the most popular sports to bet on during the Winter Olympics thanks to its straightforward format and tournament-style structure. With men’s, women’s, and mixed doubles events, bettors get multiple chances to wager across the Games. Sportsbooks commonly offer markets on individual matches as well as outright gold medal winners, making curling one of the easier winter sports to follow and bet.

• Alpine Skiing

Alpine skiing is a staple of the Winter Olympics and includes marquee events like downhill, giant slalom, and slalom. While there are many races, sportsbooks typically focus on medal futures rather than head-to-head matchups. Gold medal-winning markets are the most common, especially for high-profile athletes who have dominated the World Cup circuit leading into the Games.

• Snowboarding

Snowboarding has grown into one of the most popular winter sports to watch and bet on. Events like halfpipe, slopestyle, and big air tend to draw the most betting interest due to their star power and clear medal favorites. Betting markets are usually limited to outright medal winners, but you can sometimes find apps that let you parlay events.

• Figure Skating

Figure skating is one of the most-watched Winter Olympic events and includes men’s, women’s, pairs, and ice dance competitions. Betting is typically focused on gold medal winners, though some sportsbooks may also offer podium finish markets. Because judging plays a major role, this is a sport where reputation and recent international results matter more than raw stats.

• Speed Skating / Short Track

Speed skating and short track offer fast-paced action and multiple medal events. Short track, in particular, is unpredictable due to crashes and penalties, which can make futures betting risky but exciting. Sportsbooks usually stick to gold medal winner markets for the most anticipated races.

Some less common, but still available Winter Olympic sports to bet on include:

• Biathlon
• Cross-country skiing
• Bobsled
• Luge
• Skeleton

What sets the Olympics apart from other competitive events is the variety of sports involved. We can watch and bet on both our favorite sports and sports we hardly knew existed, which are equally entertaining. There are also men's and women's categories for each sport, giving us double the betting opportunities.

While there are often dozens of competitions within each sport (such as track & field and swimming), there are usually only betting markets available for the biggest races. Since the same bets and markets differ, it may be smart for people looking to bet on specific Olympic sports to sign up for multiple apps to get the best variety.

Popular Summer Events to Bet:

• Basketball

The USA men's basketball is consistently one of the most eye-drawing squads for team events at the Olympics. They are heavy favorites as always, coming off 4 straight gold medals. More eyes than ever are sure to be on the women's basketball side after the sport's rise in popularity over recent years. Just like the men's, the USA are heavy favorite to take home the gold. A new addition to the Olympic Games is 3x3 basketball, which will be interesting to bet on and an exciting inclusion going forward. Team sports such as basketball and soccer allow you to bet on individual games as well as futures (gold medal winner). Some apps may even offer the same game parlays for basketball as it draws closer.

• Track & Field

Track & Field may be the first sport that people think of when it comes to the Summer Olympics. There are 48 different events for track & field at the Olympics, but most are not offered as of now. The most bet-worthy and exciting events are the 100m and 200m races. For all these events, the only betting market is gold medal winners.

• Golf

Individual gold medal winners for men's and women's golf are the only bets offered since it's an individual sport. As the best players of the PGA, LPGA, and LIV tours are from all over the world, as Americans, we are much more familiar with the athletes competing for other countries. It may be a rare opportunity to bet on our favorite non-American athletes!

• Soccer

This is one of the sports where the spotlight is on the women's team for the USA. They consistently outperform the men's team, but we can bet and root for both squads. Since it is a tournament rather than a single event, each match will be widely available. You can also bet on the future gold winner at good odds.

• Tennis / Table Tennis

While they are completely different sports, they are grouped because the betting on them works the same. You can bet on each match/round as well as the overall gold medal winner.Each sport has singles, doubles, and mixed doubles, where men and women team up, a unique concept to the Olympic Games.

Some less common, but still available sports to bet on are:

• Surfing
• Swimming
• Handball
• Field Hockey
• Cycling
• Water Polo