The Best Athletics Betting Sites for 2024

Track and Field

Track and field events take place inside a stadium, with a running track and a grass field used for running, jumping and throwing contests. A total of 44 track and field events are contested during an Olympic Games.

Track events include sprints, distance running and hurdling. Jumping events like the long jump and pole vault are always popular in the field, as are throwing events like the discus and hammer.

Road Running

World Athletics recognises 5K runs, 10K runs, half marathons and marathons as the four most common distances for road running events. Athletes showcase their speed and stamina by running between 5 km and 42.2 km on the road as opposed to around the track.

Elite marathon runners like Eliud Kipchoge and Kenenisa Bekele usually lead from the front in popular road races like the London Marathon and New York Marathon.

Cross Country Running

You won’t see any smooth tracks or roads when you bet on cross country running. These gruelling races are run over surfaces like grass, earth and gravel, with courses typically including a mix of flat ground and hills to push athletes to their limits. Courses are usually 4-12 km in distance.

Individuals are judged on how long it takes them to cross the finish line, while teams are judged on a point-based scoring system.

Race Walking

It may not sound like the most exciting event to bet on at athletics betting sites, but race walking is a true test of stamina. Athletes must always keep one foot in contact with the ground when competing in this long-distance discipline.

Distances of 20 km and 50 km are contested at the Olympic Games as road events. Think those races are long? The annual Paris-Colmar requires athletes to compete across 450-500 km.

Mountain Running

From 15-minute sprints to treks that last for several hours, mountain running is a combination of running, jogging and walking, depending on how steep the trail is. Courses include lots of incline and decline sections to test runners.

Jonathan Wyatt, Marco De Gasperi and Isabelle Guillot are mountain running legends who have won a staggering 16 gold medals between them at the World Athletics Championships.

Trail Running

Recognised by World Athletics as a discipline of athletics since 2015, trail running is a combination of running and hiking. Events are usually held in warm climates, with the discipline enjoying a particularly large following in the Mountain States, Western US and sunny California.

Distances vary from 5 km to 161 km. Aid stations are located every 5 to 10 km to provide competitors with more energy in the form of food and drink.

Olympic Games

Held every four years, the Olympic Games attracts the world’s elite athletes from more than 200 countries. The sports festival can be traced back to 776 BC, when events like running and the long jump were contested in the Greek city-state of Elis. Since 1896, both summer and winter games have been held in staggered even years.

Athletics betting sites are already looking ahead to Tokyo 2020, which has been postponed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Superstars like Usain Bolt may have hung up his spikes, but sprinters like Akani Simbine and Christian Coleman will hope to run close to his world record time of 9.58 seconds in the 100m.

World Athletics Championships

Organised by World Athletics, the World Athletics Championships was inaugurated in 1983 as a quadrennial event. The frequency of the championships was changed to a two-year cycle in 1991, with the next staging of the competition set to take place in Eugene, a city in the state of Oregon, in 2022.

The United States has dominated the championships, boasting a total medal haul of 381 at the time of writing. This is more than double the number of medals won by the next two countries on the all-time medal table, Kenya (151) and Russia (143), combined. We’re expecting USA to add to their huge medal haul on home soil.

Diamond League

The Diamond League, which superseded the IAAF Golden League, is an annual series of one-day meetings that have occurred since 2010. The aim of the circuit is to enhance the worldwide appeal of athletics by venturing outside Europe, which was the focal point of its predecessor that run for 12 years.

There is a pecking order within the Diamond League ranks. In terms of prestige, it is hard to look past the meetings in Oslo and Zurich. The Bislett Games in Oslo, which features the Dream Mile, is a favourite of middle- and long-distance runners, while the Weltklasse in Zurich lives up to its world-class name.

Only Bet on Major Competitions

Not all athletics events were created equal. It should go without saying that the Olympic Games and the World Athletics Championships are prestigious competitions that command the total attention of athletes. Many of these elite competitors would withdraw from a small competition if they incurred a minor injury, but there is little chance of that happening when gold is on the line in a major competition.

Consider External Conditions

You must take the weather into account before betting on athletics. Soaring temperatures will significantly impact the performance of many athletes in the field if they aren’t accustomed to hot conditions. Likewise, athletes who are used to performing in the sun may find it difficult to compete in the pouring rain. Always check the weather before betting, especially if it’s a track and field event.

Bet on Form, Not Reputation

Are you betting blind by backing the biggest name in the field? Even the greatest athletes of all time don’t always win. You can check their form on websites like WorldAthletics.com, which contains a database of all athletes and current world rankings. Likewise, you can check the recent results of other competitors in the event. Perhaps you’ll find a value bet and back an outsider to win instead.