Summer Olympics 2012

Odds & Ends is BTB’s look at betting stories making headlines both in newspapers and on the Web.

In today’s edition, we take a look oddsmakers’ refusal to budge on Novak Djokovic’s U.S. Open futures odds despite his recent struggles and an Olympics betting expert who cashed in big.

Before the Summer Olympics began, we wrote a post asking if a Colorado College economics professor’s model that used only non-athletic data could help with betting gold medal over/unders.

The answer: No. Hell no. But it can teach us something about how touts package their picks.

Summer Olympics 2012 came to an end today. Before they began, BetOnline released hundreds of odds for events in almost every sport, and we recorded and posted as many as we could find.

Now it’s time to take a look at the results.

Through the first seven games, Team USA is on pace for its highest average margin of victory since the original Dream Team back in 1992.

And they’ve left little doubt about Bovada’s over/under margin of victory prop bet set before the Olympics began.

Zach Anderson, a former wrestler who’s been betting on the Olympics since the 2000 Games in Sydney, recently provided us with a breakdown of Greco-Roman wrestling.

Now, he offers his analysis on freestyle, which gets underway today.

The guy that never wins finally won something.

Andy Murray earned his first Olympic gold medal by defeating Roger Federer in straight sets on Sunday, and in doing so, he dealt U.K.-based William Hill its first big blow of Summer Olympics 2012.

Our Olympics experts are on a roll, and much like gymnastics, swimming and fencing, there’s not a chance we know anything about Greco-Roman wrestling and won’t pretend to.

But Zach Anderson, a former wrestler who’s been betting on the Olympics since the 2000 Games in Sydney, agreed to provide us with some of his much-needed insight.

The U.S. men’s basketball team is the overwhelming No. 1 in the world. Tunisia is 32nd, behind countries like Israel, Panama and Iran. Team USA has 12 All-Stars and several future Hall of Famers on its roster. Tunisia has zero pros.

Can we go ahead and credit gambling for adding intrigue to an otherwise unwatchable matchup?

Just like gymnastics and swimming, there’s not a chance we know anything about fencing.

But Daniel Didech, the No. 1-ranked high school foil fencer in the state of Illinois a few years ago, has agreed to provide us with some handicapping help.

Uh oh.

Olympic officials were worried about the effect that extensive gambling would have on the 2012 Summer Games in London, and it appears we have our first suspect.

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