We Showed You The Money: LetsRun.com’s Rio Olympic Betting Guide Picks Proved To Be Spectacular
If you followed our betting advice, you’d have made an amazing 80.2% return on your bets
by LetsRun.com
August 22, 2016
We hope you listened to us. In addition to producing LetsRun.com free of charge, before the Olympics we did something that few websites ever do – give you free betting advice. Before the action in Rio got under way, we listed all of the American track and field athletes and their betting odds and bolded the ones we thought were the best bets. We bolded 10 women and 11 men. We sure hope you followed and advice on bet on them. You would have made a ton of money.
First of all, our stone-cold lock of the meet was right on the money. Upon seeing the 7/2 odds offered on Emma Coburn to medal, we wrote, “THIS IS THE BET YOU HAVE TO MAKE.” That was far from the only bet we told you to make that would have paid off handsomely. We also told you to bet on Galen Rupp, Evan Jager, Jenny Simpson, Matthew Centrowitz and even total longshot Clayton Murphy – all of the US mid-d/distance medallists except for Paul Chelimo.
Sure we also encouraged you to bet on Shalane Flanagan, Desi Linden, Molly Huddle, and Bernard Lagat but we were looking for value – not sure things.
If you followed our advice and bet $100 on each of the 21 suggestions, guess what your return would have been on your $2100 investment? 80.2%. Yes, that’s right. You would have come close to doubling your money and taken home $3785. You would have made at least* $1685 in profit off of $2100 risked.
And unlike most betting sites, we’ve got proof that our picks were on the money. Here are bets we bolded in our original betting guides: Men’s betting guide, women’s betting guide).
| Event |
Gold Odds | Medal Odds | Comment | Profit / Loss on $100 Wager |
| Women’s 100 | ||||
| English Gardner | 8 to 1 | 5 to 4 | Getting US champ and World #2 at these odds isn’t awful | $-100* |
| Women’s 1500 | ||||
| Jenny Simpson | 50 to 1 | 8 to 1 | Getting a former World champ at 8 to 1 for a medal is interesting | $800 |
| Women’s Steeple | ||||
| Emma Coburn | 25 to 1 | 7 to 2 | THIS IS THE BET YOU HAVE TO MAKE | $350 |
| Women’s 10k | ||||
| Molly Huddle | 66 to 1 | 20 to 1 | She’s in great shape, it might be fun to bet on her | $-100* |
| Women’s Marathon | ||||
| Shalane Flangan | 25 to 1 | 5 to 1 | She’s medalled before | $-100 |
| Desi Linden | 66 to 1 | 25 to 1 | We think these odds make it fun to put down $10 if you are American | $-100 |
| Women’s 400h | ||||
| Dalilah Muhammed | 5 to 4 | 1 to 5 | We think the bet for gold might be worth it | $125 |
| Sydney McLaughlin | 16 to 1 | 7 to 2 | Might be fun to bet on a HSer | $-100 |
| Women’s LJ | ||||
| Brittney Reese | 1 to 1 | 1 to 4 | Does Reese win half the time? We think yes. | $-100 |
| Women’s PV | ||||
| Jenn Suhr | 5 to 1 | 5 to 4 | The reigning champ who has lost just 1 all year | $-100 |
| Total Profit Loss on $1000 wagered ($100 per event) | $575 | |||
| Men | Gold Odds | Medal Odds | Comment | Profit / Loss on $100 Wager |
| Men’s 800 | ||||
| Boris Berian | 14 to 1 | 9 to 4 | 14 to 1 for the win isn’t bad | $-100 |
| Clayton Murphy | 33 to 1 | 8 to 1 | The medal odds are tempting | $800 |
| Men’s 1500 | ||||
| Matthew Centrowitz | 20 to 1 | 4 to 1 | These odds are VERY tempting. | $400* |
| Steeple | ||||
| Evan Jager | 8 to 1 | Even | We like these odds | $100* |
| Men’s 5000 | ||||
| Bernard Lagat | 20 to 1 | 8 to 1 | We’d consider the medal bet | $-100 |
| Marathon | ||||
| Galen Rupp | 16 to 1 | 4 to 1 | Tempting | $400* |
| 110h | ||||
| Devon Allen | 7 to 1 | 11 to 10 | We like these odds | $-100* |
| Men’s HJ | ||||
| Erik Kynard | 10 to 1 | 2 to 1 | Maybe to medal | $-100 |
| Men’s Pole Vault | ||||
| Sam Kendricks | 6 to 1 | 1 to 2 | Victory isn’t out of the question | $-100 |
| Men’s Shot Put | ||||
| Joe Kovacs | 3 to 4 | 1 to 10 | Maybe bet him to win | $-100 |
| Men’s Decathlon | ||||
| Ashton Eaton | 1 to 10 | 1 to 50 | Is there a 10% chance he gets hurt or no heights? | $10 |
| Total Profit Loss on $1100 wagered ($100 per event) | $1110 | |||
| Total Men + Women Profit on $2100 Wagered | $1685 | |||
| % Return on Investment | 80.20% |
It’s worth noting that we really only made big money on the events we claim to be experts on – mid-d and distance. Here is how the profit/loss was per event group:
Sprints/Hurdles: $-175
800/1500: $1900
Steeple-Marathon: $450
Jumps: $-400
Throws: $-100
Multi: $10
Talk about our betting guide on our world famous fan forum / messageboard: MB: Looking for proof positive that we are experts when it comes to track and field? Read this. (Rio betting advice)
*On several picks, based on the description, one could argue it wasn’t clear whether we advocating for you to bet for gold or simply for a medal as we wrote something generic along the lines of “We like these odds” or “Tempting.” For most, we meant the bronze medal pick. But if you argue it meant for you to bet both, your return would actually be way higher as one of the events was the men’s 1500 where Centrowitz was offered at 20-1 for gold.