The next Olympics to bet on are the Los Angeles 2028 Summer Games, from July 14 to 30, 2028. The last Games were the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, held from February 6 to 22, 2026, where Norway topped the medal table with 18 golds and 41 medals in all.

Can you bet on the Olympics?

Yes, and the markets come in two kinds: single events, such as a gold-medal race or a basketball game, and futures on the Games as a whole, such as which country wins the most medals. Futures go up months before the Games; single-event markets fill out as the schedule and entry lists are set.

Olympic markets are thinner than a regular NFL or NBA week. Most Olympic sports get mainstream attention for about two and a half weeks every four years (Milan Cortina ran 17 days), while their world championships and tour results between Games are public. Our view: that gap is where research pays. If you would rather lean on someone else’s work, you can lock in your winning strategy with our pro picks before the Games start.

Los Angeles 2028: what is new

LA28 is Los Angeles’ third Summer Olympics, after 1932 and 1984, and its first Paralympic Games, which run from August 15 to 27, 2028. The organizers list more than 3,000 hours of live sport across 800 events at the Olympic and Paralympic Games combined.

Two sports make their Olympic debut in Los Angeles: flag football and squash. LA28 says more than 40 nations compete at the IFAF flag football world championships, and it points to the chance for NFL players to compete at the Games. For a US bettor, flag football is the new market to watch.

Tickets are already moving. LA28 reports that flag football and squash sold out the first round of tickets it released, and first-come, first-served sales for Olympic tickets open in 2027.

Summer events to bet on

• Athletics (track and field): gold-medal winners by event, from the 100 meters to the marathon, plus country medal totals in the sport.
• Swimming: winners by race, head-to-heads between two swimmers, and whether a world record falls.
• Basketball: moneylines, spreads and totals, priced like an NBA game.
• Gymnastics: the individual all-around, the team gold, and apparatus finals.
• Tennis: singles winners and match prices; our tennis betting guide covers those markets.

Golf, rugby sevens, soccer and cycling get markets too. Our view: the deeper a sport’s tour outside the Olympics, the sharper the price, because the books have a full season of results to work from, so the softer lines tend to be in sports with less top-level competition between Games.

What Milan Cortina 2026 showed

The 2026 Winter Games had 116 medal events across 8 sports and 16 disciplines. Norway won the medal table:

Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
Norway	18	12	11	41
United States	12	12	9	33
Netherlands	10	7	3	20
Italy (host)	10	6	14	30
Germany	8	10	8	26

The table ranks by golds first. Italy won 10 more medals than the Netherlands and still finished behind them, and in total medals Italy was third. Read which ranking a futures market uses before you bet it: most golds and most total medals are different bets with different winners.

The winter markets work the same way as the summer ones. Ice hockey is priced like the NHL, with moneylines, puck lines and totals. Alpine skiing, speed skating and snowboarding are priced as a field, like a golf tournament, with outrights and head-to-heads.

Futures on the Olympics

Most-medal and most-gold markets are the big futures, along with over/under lines on one country’s gold count. We have no current LA 2028 price to quote. When one is posted, the most useful number beside it is 2026’s.

The host result is worth a look when those markets open. Italy won 30 medals at home in Milan Cortina, fourth in the gold count and third in the total. The United States, second in both counts in 2026, hosts in 2028. For event-level bets, our prop betting guide explains how those lines are built.

Tips for betting on the Olympics

• Pick one sport. Four years between Games means form is hard to follow across the board. Follow one sport’s world championships and tour results, and bet only there.
• Wait on long-shot futures. A futures bet placed now has to survive two years of injuries, selection trials and form. Halfway through the Games, the medal table tells you more than any preview. The price on the leaders will be shorter by then, but the bet rests on evidence instead of a two-year guess.
• Set a budget. Olympic markets are a two-week burst. Decide the amount before the opening ceremony on July 14, 2028, and split it into small bets.
• Bet the data, not the flag. Backing your own country is the easiest way to take a bad price, and in 2028 the home team is the United States.

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