If you’re watching tv there’s a fair chance you will see adverts for betting on sports, especially football. You’ll also see plenty of bookies’ promotions, offering special offers to back teams. But what if ‘regular sports’ are not your thing? What if Shaun White rather than Cristiano Ronaldo is your idea of a hero? For fans of snowboarding and winter sports, it may sometimes seem like slim pickings if they wish to have a flutter, but the options are there if you look hard enough. Below is a brief guide to betting on all things covered in snow…
Time of year is crucial
While punters can bet on football and horse racing all year round, markets are not always readily available for winter sports, certainly when it comes to snowboarding. You may often have to wait until the late-autumn to get snowboarding odds for the upcoming season, unless the Winter X Games or Winter Olympics are held in the Southern Hemisphere such as New Zealand.
Do your homework
You might think you’re an expert on how the top snowboarding stars will perform on the slopes, but do you know enough to confidently wager money on it? The flipside, of course, is that your area of expertise might give you an advantage over the bookmakers, perhaps allowing you to pinpoint where they have erred in the betting odds.
Grab the promotions
Contrary to some opinion, the top promotions are not always reserved for mainstream sports. Bookies are always keen to expand the markets that people are betting on, so will often offer promotions and sports trading for big events like the Winter X Games and Winter Olympics.
Don’t get blind-sided by the odds
One of the biggest mistakes that punters make in all sports is to be go along with bookmakers’ odds and bet with the favourite. Yes, Shaun White delivered as 2/1 favourite for the men’s Half Pipe at PyeongChang 2018. But 17-year-old phenomenon Red Gerard was seen as a big value win at 7/1 in the Slopestyle ahead of Max Parrot, Mark McMorris and Marcus Kleveland. The point is: the bookies don’t always get it right, and that’s where your fans’ knowledge should come into play.
Stay Responsible
We usually associate problem gambling with horse racing and other ubiquitous sports, issues could arise just as easily when betting on winter sports. The key is to keep it fun, you should not be betting on the Winter X Games or whatever else if you need to make money. Nor should the betting element supersede your love of snowboarding. Have a bet to add an extra element of fun to the sport, but don’t let it take over the sport.
