Cycling is gradually becoming more and more mainstream in the sports betting world. With major races throughout the year, there’s plenty of elite events such as Tour De France, Vuelta a Espana, and Giro d’Italia to boost cycling betting. What makes cycling an even better target for bettors, is that each of the events provides a wide range of different betting opportunities. 

If you want to join this exciting and diverse world of betting, this quick-start guide will help you get a basic understanding of the process. 

Start with the Popular Cycling Bets 

There can hardly be a lack of cycling events on your sports betting calendar. In addition, there are different types of cycling events that can greatly upgrade your betting on cycling. The diversity in events also results in a bigger betting market, however, it’s still easier than other sports to bet on. Although the bet types and markets are mostly defined by the type of the event, there’re still some common and lucrative bet types you can try. 

 

  • Head to Head Bets – Head to head bets pit two individual riders against each other for you to choose who’ll win. If you want to bet on your favorite rider, but you’re not sure that he’ll win the overall race, you can go for head to head bet options. 
  • Race Winner – If after all, you have a clear idea of who’s going to win the race,  go for race winner bets and predict the winner.
    • Stage Winner – For the events with several different stages there’s the stage bet. This is the most popular market that you will surely hit right away if you are interested in cycling betting. More than 200 people start in each big stage event – it would seem tough to predict the stage winner. But in fact, the circle of possible applicants is not so wide – most of the race participants are people who provide assistance to the chosen captain of the cycling team. It is among the captains that the struggle for the overall standings usually takes place—often no more than seven or eight riders.
    • Futures Betting – Another exciting thing about betting on cycling is that like most of the major sports, it also enables the bettors to place bets prior to the event—place futures bets. You can bet on any upcoming cycling races with better odds meaning better payouts if you succeed. The general rule of thumb is that you’ll need to look for the best cycling odds available before making your futures bets. 
  • Prop Bets – These are the bets that are defined around certain occurrences during the race. You can bet on how many riders will cross the finish wearing a specific color in Tour De France, how long will it take the fastest contestant to reach the finish line, etc.  

These are the basic ones you can opt for as a beginner but there’s a great variety of bets in the cycling market you can place, and make the race even more enjoyable. 

Have Some Cycling Betting Tips at Hand 

Before betting on a race, you need to make sure you know what form it takes, as this will be the basis of your research. Once you know what type of race it is, you can start looking at how the different cyclists have performed in that type of race in the past.  

Before you bet on any cycling event, go the extra mile to learn about the different types of races. While the final destination of the finish line may be the same, the rules and betting markets are mostly defined by the type of competition.

Once you’ve learned about the different types of races, it’s always useful to go through some competitions and participants, to get more valuable insights. This will help you to figure out what to look for in a specific type of race. Essentially, the more research you do the better betting outcome you’ll have. Once you’re done with your research, you’ll know what cycling event exactly you want to bet on. 

In order to make your cycling betting experience safe and enjoyable, gather all the data you need, manage your betting budget, choose the best betting market for you and the event, and just enjoy the competition. Once you learn the ropes around betting on the major cycling events, it will become not only your hobby but also a pretty enjoyable source of winnings.