The Olympic Games of the XXXII Olympiad will get underway on Friday in Tokyo against a backdrop of one of the strangest preparations in the history of the games. There won’t be any fans at the venues due to the status of the coronavirus pandemic in Japan, and the Olympic village is apparently all sorts of nuts, but it is going to be a fascinating tournament after a year’s delay.
There will be 204 countries represented in amateur sports’ biggest tournament, with 11,238 competitors taking to the field of play in 339 total events in Tokyo with the opening ceremony taking place tomorrow night and the events truly getting underway the following afternoon.
This year’s tournament will see a number of high profile athletes competing, including Naomi Osaka in tennis, Simone Biles in five separate gymnastics competitions; Team competition, Individual all-around, Vault, Floor exercise and Balance beam and even a former Love Island winner in Greg O’Shea, who will represent Ireland in Rugby as part of the sevens team.
How to watch this year’s Olympics
This year’s delayed Olympics will be available to watch live on the two UK rights holders; BBC and EuroSport. The events on the BBC will be free-to-air, while EuroSport is a subscription service.
When is the Olympics 2021 opening ceremony?
The Olympics 2020 opening ceremony will officially kick off the games at the Japan National Stadium on Friday July 23rd, and will kick off at 12pm UK time.
The event will be shown on BBC One, with the build-up starting at 11:20am and the coverage ending at 4pm.
Olympics 2021 Betting Preview
There are a number of particularly interesting events at this year’s Olympics. After a controversial year in Rio back in 2016, all eyes will be on the boxing tournaments, and particularly the European athletes involved. Michael Conlan missed out on a medal position due to an horrific judging call when he fought Valdimir Nikitin at the 2016 games, and we would imagine that there won’t be as many egregious calls this time around.
From a bettors perspective, you’ll never have a better chance than this delayed tournament to beat the bookies. With the bizarre practices in the Olympic village that are in place to stop the spread of coronavirus including ridiculous cardboard beds that will cause discomfort, particularly for larger athletes in weight-lifting sports and the likes of rugby, expect to see some upsets.
Of course, all eyes will be on the incredible gymnast Simone Biles. The 24-year-old could become the most decorated gymnast of all time at the incredibly young age should she win the tournaments she has entered, and even if she doesn’t, her ‘greatest of all time’ status will be almost certainly cemented this time around with a few good performances.
And as for basketball, what an interesting few weeks it has been. There was pretty much no chance given to any other side in the tournament until Kevin Durant and the crew lost to Nigeria and Australia in pre-tournament warm-up matches to blow the discussion around this year’s tournament wide open. Prior to this year, Team USA had lost two matches in the last three decades, and then they did the same in a couple of weeks, so perhaps we could see new champions crowned in one of the most popular sports at the games.
As for football, the US Women’s team suffered a similar fate against Sweden recently, bringing their 44-game unbeaten run to a close right before the tournament begun. Superstars like Carli Lloyd and Megan Rapinoe are involved, and they will want to avenge their unbelievable 2016 tournament where they didn’t medal for the first time in their history. They’re undoubtedly the most successful team ever in the women’s sport, and we expect them to impress again, despite the rocky start.
In tennis, fans will be excited to know that Naomi Osaka is back, and claims to be on top form ahead of the games. She has promised to even participate in post-event press conferences after pulling out of a number of tournaments due to her mental health struggles. She missed the French Open and Wimbledon, citing issues with anxiety and depression, but she has confirmed that she is excited to play in her home country while representing Japan at these most strange of games.
We’ve got a number of new sports debuting at the games as well, with skateboarding, karate, sport climbing and surfing all making their bow at the tournament. Mixed Martial Arts missed the cut for Tokyo, but could be a factor in the future with almost all other combat sports represented on this massive stage. Baseball is also back, although don’t expect to see many stars of the sport involved due to Major League Baseball’s season continuing over in America.
In the men’s track, expect to hear a lot about youngster Erriyon Knighton, who has broken Usain Bolt’s incredible 200m record by doing a 19.84 second run as an under-20-year-old.
There is certainly never going to be a better chance to make some money than the 2021 Olympics, but make sure to look at the outsiders as we expect a number of big upsets.
Olympics Men’s 100m Odds
Trayvon Bromell [USA] 11/10
Ronnie Baker [USA] 7/2
Akani Simbine [RSA] 7/1
Andre De Graase [CAN] 10/1
Fred Kerley [USA] 14/1
Zharnel Hughes [GBR] 20/1
Marcell Jacobs [ITA] 25/1
Yohan Blake [JAM] 25/1
Su Bingtian [CHN] 33/1
Chijindu Ujah [GBR] 40/1
Reece Prescod [GBR] 50/1
Tlotliso Leotelela [RSA] 50/1
Divine Oduduru [NGR] 50/1
Alex Wilson [SUI] 50/1
Ryota Yamagata [JPN] 66/1
Jimmy Vicaut [FRA] 66/1
Oblique Seville [JAM] 66/1
Tyquendo Tracey [JAM] 100/1
Ferdinand Omurwa [KEN] 100/1
Shaun Maswanganyi [RSA] 150/1
Arthur Cisse [CIV] 150/1
Zhenye Xie [CHN] 200/1
Rohan Browning [AUS] 250/1
Emmanuel Matadi [LBR] 250/1
Filippo Tortu [ITA] 250/1
How to bet on the Olympics
NetBet Sport has a wide selection of Olympics markets available ahead of the start of the action. During the tournament you will be able to bet in-play on all live action throughout the tournament, in our betting sections for each individual sport.