Get to the Point

By Jimmy Harris

The Olympics have finally wrapped up and the flame is already on its way from Beijing to London, where the next summer Games will take place in 2012. I enjoyed this year's Olympics, but it didn't do much for my betting bankroll.

Going into the Games I thought, 'this is great, I'll finally have something other than baseball to wager on a daily basis through the month of August.' That proved to be the case, but the big favorites in the Olympics didn't pay jack.

Take the two big stories of the games - Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt. Even if you bet on Phelps to win all eight of his gold medal events you would have pocketed mere pennies unless you bet your house.

Phelps was such a massive favorite that you were really making only pennies per dollar bet. I remember one race I bet on he was a 1/40 favorite; even if you bet $100 on the fastest fish in the water, all you would bank in profit is $2.50.

The same went for the fastest man in the world, Usain Bolt. He wasn't the heavy chalk that Phelps was, but I still only made a few bucks on his 100-meter domination. I got him at +150 in the final, which I had to wager on before the heats even began to get those odds.

By the time the 4x100-meter relay came around, the Jamaicans were so heavily favored it would have made more sense to bet on Trinidad and Tobago and hope the Jamaicans dropped the baton.  

Aside from the electrifying Bolt and Phelps show, the talk of much of the Olympics was the Redeem Team. Even though Team USA recaptured the gold medal, there was actually some money to be made here because of the giant spreads the Americans had to cover. I bet against the Americans ATS in every game and it actually paid off enough times for me to make some profit.

If you were to ask Jimmy what his most memorable moments were from the Games, it wouldn't be Phelps or Bolt or the LeBron and Kobe hoopsters. It would be athletes going nuts. There were numerous examples in Beijing of athletes just snapping and going off.

My personal favorites were the Swedish wrestler who tossed his bronze medal to the mat and stormed away, the Canadian fencer who went off on a tirade after an upset loss, and that crazy Cuban taekwondo nutbar who kicked the referee in the head after disagreeing with a call.

Now there's some great Olympic spirit!