Olympics betting: Rio carnival on the cards with record medals for Team GB
Shares in coffee companies will likely nudge upwards over the next three weeks as the late night drama from the Olympic Games in Rio De Janeiro keeps the country awake.
Pollsters Opinium teamed up with Sporting Index this week and found that the UK will lose up to 302m hours of sleep watching Team GB cycle, swim, row and run their way to glory. If they were taking bets on that, I’d be a big buyer.
The four-hour time difference to Rio means that those wishing to see if Brazil can top Danny Boyle’s masterful London 2012 opening ceremony will need to hang on until midnight on Friday.
What followed Boyle’s opening salvo four years ago was a scarcely believable 29 golds, 65 medals overall, and Team GB sitting third in the table behind only USA and China.
The 2016 British team is in no danger of overtaking either of those medal hogging nations in Rio but, with Russia’s delegation severely depleted, another third place is on the cards.
Team GB’s best performance at an Olympics away from home was in Beijing, where 19 golds and 47 overall medals vaulted the British squad from a par-score 10th in Athens up to the lofty heights of fourth in the table.
Funding body UK Sport have set their sights on going one better than Beijing and are targeting 48 medals, but that was announced before the Russian doping crisis hit its nadir.
That number looks short to me now and the 17/20 with Betway for Team GB to win more than 53 medals looks like a steal.
British gold medal performances will surely be fewer on the ground than the 29 we witnessed in London, but Team GB could well do better than the 19 in 2008.
Betway go 3/4 for more than 18 British golds, which I will be backing.
Yet the key to besting Beijing’s medal haul won’t be at the top of the podium, but two steps down.
At away Games, Team GB have yet to improve upon the 21 bronze medals won at Los Angeles 1984 and I think that record will fall.
I advise buying Great Britain bronze medals at 19 with Sporting Index and stocking up on coffee – the swimming finals start at 2am.
Pointers
Team GB over 53 medals 17/20 (Betway)
Buy Team GB Bronze medals 19 (Sporting Index)