Top sportsbooks have released their odds for Wednesday’s Olympics action.
Three games interest me as worth investing in: Serbia vs. Puerto Rico and South Sudan vs. USA in basketball, and France vs. Egypt in handball.
For your best bets, I will recommend investing in Serbia first-half, Egypt, and South Sudan.
Serbia vs. Puerto Rico (Basketball)
Wednesday, July 31, 2024 – 11:15 AM ET at Pierre Mauroy Stadium
Great Spot for Serbia
This is a great spot for Serbia because it will be both motivated and confident.
Coming off a loss, the Serbs will be motivated because they need to win.
They’ll also be confident against a Puerto Rico team that is looking vulnerable and that has a weak history against them.
Size Problem
Puerto Rico is going to be disadvantaged in every aspect of this game.
For starters, it has a size issue that keeps it from being competitive on the glass. South Sudan, in its opening match against Puerto Rico, was tellingly able to dominate the rebounding competition. As a result, South Sudan won the second-chance battle 24 points to two.
Nikola Jokic
Puerto Rico’s impotence around the basket makes one wonder how it will limit the likes of NBA superstar Nikola Jokic.
Jokic is a great scorer inside where he can be a bully, but he can also employ finesse moves that are tough to stop.
He is also a great passer, with his vision of the court, as someone who attracts a lot of attention from the defense.
Guard Play
Serbia has the guard play to help out Jokic against a Puerto Rico defense that struggled to stop South Sudan’s guards as part of South Sudan’s 90-point output.
Bogdan Bogdanovic is Serbia’s most well-known guard. He plays for the Atlanta Hawks.
Head-to-Head
In the head-to-head history between these teams, Serbia shows a pattern of relaxing in the latter stages of their games.
Therefore, a full-game play seems rather risky, especially with the spread as large as it is.
A first-half bet on Serbia is the way to attack this game: the Serbs will use their dominance inside the arc and with their guard play to bounce back from their opening loss.
Basketball Best Bet: Serbia First-Half -10 (-115) at BetOnline (visit our BetOnline Review)
France vs. Egypt (Handball)
Wednesday, July 31, 2024 – 01:00 PM ET at South Paris Arena 6
Differences in Form
There is awesome value to be found in this handball match because these teams differ strongly from each other in terms of form, yet the odds are what they are because of historically grounded perception.
We need to attack this difference between how recent history tells us to perceive this French side and the reality of how this French team is playing.
After failing to compete against Denmark, France lost to Norway. Only Dika Mem is playing well for the French.
His teammates are shooting with horrible levels of efficiency.
Egypt, however, withstood some sloppiness to be more competitive against Denmark after beating Hungary in its opening match.
We are essentially getting what is currently the better team as the underdog.
Handball Best Bet: Egypt +3.5 (-112) at Bookmaker (visit our Bookmaker Review)
South Sudan vs. USA (Basketball)
Wednesday, July 31, 2024 – 03:00 PM ET at Pierre Mauroy Stadium
Odds Change
When these two teams first played – in a recent exhibition match that South Sudan nearly won – the Americans were favored by 43 points.
Oddsmakers now have Team USA favored by 29 points. This represents a tremendous shift in the odds, which means that oddsmakers recognize how wrong they were to favor the Americans so heavily in the first game.
The tremendous odds change shows that oddsmakers are still trying to figure out this South Sudan team.
South Sudan has been very impressive. After nearly beating Team USA, this group beat Puerto Rico by eleven points.
In order to win, South Sudan also had to withstand some uncommonly good shooting from Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico was also, early on in the betting, actually favored to beat South Sudan. So oddsmakers were way off in this game, as well.
My point here is that we should hold oddsmakers to be continuing to underrate South Sudan because they have been wrong about this group.
Team USA Tendencies
I also see this as a bad spot for Team USA. Their results show a clear pattern: they take the well-reputed teams seriously and beat them soundly. So, they punished Canada and, most recently, Serbia.
However, they take less-reputed teams lightly.
And so, even when they should have been more focused after getting that scare from South Sudan, they still almost lost to Germany.
After they just pummeled Serbia, I expect them to take this game against the Africans rather lightly.
Basketball Best Bet: South Sudan +29.5 (-110) at BetOnline
*The line and/or odds on picks in this article might have moved since the content was commissioned. For updated line movements, visit BMR’s free betting odds product.
