Cycling
Pedal Power Meets the Pulse of Cycling
Introduction to Cycling Betting
Cycling is one of the older sports still popular today as cycling began back in 1868 as an official event with a race held on May 31, 1868, at the Park of Saint-Cloud, Paris. Since then, the sport has just grown into a global phenomenon where there are three races to combine for The Grand Tours (the Giro d’Italia, the Tour de France, and the Vuelta a Espana). Besides those major ones, there are thousands of races around the world annually.
There are different types of racing events: single-day races, time trials, stage races, and ultra-distance cycling events. There are a lot of winners as you can classify winning as the fastest to complete the races or the number of stages won. There are different leagues and countries that have different ways of making the sport their own with different terrain and trying to make the Olympics for the upper echelon of cyclists.
The real beauty of cycling is the fact that there are different approaches for different events as the overall leader wears the yellow jersey, the green jersey is worn by the rider who has achieved the most points throughout the race, the white jersey is given to the best young rider (under 25 years of age), and the polka dot jersey, who is awarded to the best climber.
There are teams that feature nine different cyclists that work as a unit, similar to Nascar, where they typically are assisting in attempting to get a certain individual the victory. These events are usually a marathon and not a sprint, so you are going to see a rider’s strengths and weaknesses at the forefront. Cycling has grown into a huge event where over 175 riders are competing in some of the world’s biggest races.
Cycling Betting Picks
There are typically just a handful of different bets that one can make during a race, as the most popular is to bet on a winner. These typically include around the top 40 or so names that are going to be competing in the event, as well as an option for the field or anyone that the sportsbook does not list odds for. But that is just the beginning of what bettors are able to dive into when betting on cycling.
Another area someone could tackle in the betting world would be the ability to wager on how a rider will do at a specific stage of the event, as different terrains mean that each stage will have a different challenge for each rider to overcome. This seems to be popular as instead of committing yourself to an entire event that can take weeks in some cases, and you are fragmenting the race to the point where you are only dealing with a portion of the track.
Betting on who will win the green jersey by accumulating the most points throughout the event based on their performances in each stage is also a popular wager that we see in the sport. This bet is more focused on using trends and identifying which rider has a specific skill set that makes them more equipped to place highly in most of the stages throughout the event.
Most of these bets are going to be giving you plus odds because of the varying levels of chances to have a successful bet and the mere number of participants. Wagering on cycling typically means sprinkling around a few riders, similar to betting on golf.
Cycling Betting Odds
There are typically just a handful of different bets that one can make during a race, as the most popular is to bet on a winner. These typically include around the top 40 or so names that are going to be competing in the event, as well as an option for the field or anyone that the sportsbook does not list odds for. But that is just the beginning of what bettors are able to dive into when betting on cycling.
Another area someone could tackle in the betting world would be the ability to wager on how a rider will do at a specific stage of the event, as different terrains mean that each stage will have a different challenge for each rider to overcome. This seems to be popular as instead of committing yourself to an entire event that can take weeks in some cases, and you are fragmenting the race to the point where you are only dealing with a portion of the track.
Betting on who will win the green jersey by accumulating the most points throughout the event based on their performances in each stage is also a popular wager that we see in the sport. This bet is more focused on using trends and identifying which rider has a specific skill set that makes them more equipped to place highly in most of the stages throughout the event.
Cycling Betting Stats
Just like when you are wagering on any other sport, stats are going to help you out and help you make informed decisions on where a cyclist’s strengths and weaknesses lie. There are a few ways to incorporate statistics into your wagering on cycling in order to make a well-informed decision on where you should be leaning.
One statistic that people should be attentive to would be how an individual cyclist performs at each stage previously. The course is slightly changed every single year and can even begin in an entirely different country, so having an understanding of how the terrain will be during each individual stage and how some of the riders have performed on similar terrains could be an important statistic to have in your back pocket.
When looking for the points classification, one statistic that seems to be helpful is understanding how a cyclist performs under each finish as there is a huge difference in points depending on which finish each stage is classified as. On a “flat” stage finish, the first place cyclist is awarded 50 points, while in the “hilly finish/medium mountain” stage finishes, the first cyclist gets 30 points, and in the “high mountain” stage finish, the first place cyclist is awarded 20 points. Understanding where a cyclist’s strengths and weaknesses are is crucial for the success of your wager, and seeing statistics of how they performed in terms of similar stage finishes is only going to make you a more successful bettor in the long run than choosing willy nilly.
Cycling Betting Trends
Finding trends for cycling seems to be a bit more extensive than what you would for the typical Big Four American sports, as you would need to dive a bit deeper to find them for riders. This, however, can help you make an informed decision on a potential wager as you look back at some events in the past to predict future success. There are definitely good and bad ways to incorporate trends into your wagers.
An example of how to use a trend is to look at how a specific rider performed on the same stage that they would need to perform on for their upcoming race. A bettor could see a trend that one rider has finished in the top 10 in a “flat” stage finish, but it is important to also analyze the sample size as well since that can span from a year to over a decade of time.
The most important thing to keep in mind is that races typically do not have the same map, so there will be a variable in each race that happens, and that can make trends a little bit difficult to use compared to other sports where they are playing on the same field for every event. Another thing to keep in mind is how a team as a whole is performing because it’s more than just an individual that can be the reason why something is successful for a rider or something causes a struggle.
It’s important to keep in mind that the sample size involved with some trends can be a little deceiving, so make sure you take a fair sample size before taking the specific trend as gospel.
How to Bet Cycling
To bet on cycling, the goal of bettors is to predict what exactly is going to happen throughout the race. The objective is to find value on the betting lines from each sportsbook in the country and then find the biggest difference between your projections and the betting lines listed. One important aspect of betting on cycling is to not be afraid of the underdog as there are a lot of individual racers that can theoretically have a chance.
Betting lines can get shifted as the event draws nearer, as some sportsbooks allow you to bet on the event more than six months before the actual race. Betting on cycling is similar to betting on golf, as the main wager is to essentially pick who you believe is going to win the race. The sportsbooks will give you a list of names that you can choose as well as the remainder of the field.
Just like any other sport, cycling is not immune from delving deeper than just that. Instead, there are other things to bet on. One of the more popular sides would be the points classification, in which you would be wagering on which person would be wearing the green jersey to signify they have the most points. There are also specials that are incorporated as the event draws nearer, where sportsbooks will offer wagers like the winning margin and how many individual stages a specific cyclist would win.
It is critical to understand that you are not going to win many wagers in this sport. In most cases, you are attempting to predict a winner in a race with a large number of cyclists, and there is a reason why everyone has plus odds to win. Therefore, bettors should be okay with losing individual losses throughout the year but focus on making a profit throughout time.
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It depends on which state you are in as sports betting of any kind in America is decided by each state. Make sure to check the legal status of betting on cycling in your state before attempting to place any wager on cycling.
Typically, there are odds for the Grand Tour that you can bet on throughout the calendar year at any sportsbooks legal in your area. They can have winners as well as props and specials to wager on as the event gets closer to the start date.
This is more of a personal preference for each bettor. Make sure to dive into which sportsbooks will give you the best odds, bonuses, and value for each rider you are betting on.
Each race can differ in its distance and how long an event would last, but most of the top events last a few weeks.
The Tour de France is a race that is over 2,000 miles and takes 23 days to complete the entirety of the event.
This is more of a personal preference but make sure to put it in the work in order to figure out who you should place wagers on.
Yes, most sportsbooks will take wagers on the Grand Tour events, but other events can vary depending on which sportsbook you use.
Understanding strengths and weaknesses of specific riders and utilizing stats and trends to make an informed decision.
This is another personal preference depending on what specifically is most important to you with factors like user interface, speed, the value of wagers, and bonuses.