Tokyo 2020 betting: There are some events to bet ahead of Friday's Opening Ceremony

·3-min read

The Olympics officially begin on Friday. But there are events that you can bet on at BetMGM before the Opening Ceremony happens. 

Both softball and men’s and women’s soccer have events that begin before the opening ceremony. And they’re also two of the easiest sports to bet at the Olympics given how popular they are in the United States. It doesn’t take you much to figure out how to bet any of those games.

Let’s start with women’s soccer, where the United States women’s national team is the overwhelming favorite for the gold medal. The USWNT is -185 to win the entire tournament, ahead of the Netherlands at +600 and Great Britain at +900. (Remember, while the countries of Great Britain play independently in international soccer tournaments, they compete under the same banner at the Olympics.)

The USWNT features the familiar stars you know like Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan and Julie Ertz. The United States is in Group G and is -450 to win the group ahead of Sweden at +475. The two teams play each other at 4:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday morning in the United States on the USA Network. We like a fun longshot bet of a 2-0 United States win at +575.

While it’s not a guarantee that the U.S. will win the gold medal in women’s soccer, we can’t advise you to bet anyone else in the tournament despite the United States’ low odds. That’s how good the women are.

On the men’s side, the tournament is much more wide open. Men’s teams are generally featuring their nation’s top young talent, and you won’t see many of the same stars that you saw at Euro 2020 among the European teams in the competition.

A notable exception is Spain. The country is -160 to win Group C and features six players from the Euro squad including teenage sensation Pedri.

France is -140 to win Group A with a roster that’s completely different than its Euro 2020 squad. The front line features 35-year-old Andre Pierre-Gignac and 28-year-old Florian Thauvin. France has such a deep international roster that it’s very possible it could win the Olympics with its No. 2 team.

Group D, meanwhile, features both Brazil and Germany. That makes the Ivory Coast and Saudi Arabia real longshots to win the group.


The United States enters the softball tournament as the favorite over Japan. The U.S. is -200 to win the tournament while Japan is at +250. The U.S. opens the tournament on Tuesday night (10 p.m. ET) against Italy (+8000 to win the tournament). The Italians are +1100 to pull the upset while betting the U.S. in the opener is just at -3000.

A much more even matchup to bet on is Canada vs. Mexico (1 a.m. ET, Wednesday). Canada is +1400 to win the gold while Mexico is at +2000. Mexico is +155 to win the game while Canada is -200 to win.

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