Sports bettors in the Hoosier State will have some more wagering options as the Winter Olympics kicks off on January 4th in Beijing. This is after the Indiana Gaming Commission (IGM) announced that there’s some extra winter fun in store for punters.
The Indiana Gaming Commission recently announced that both mobile sportsbooks and
online casinos
now have access to betting options in the 2022 Winter Olympics held in Beijing this year. The festivities kick off from February 4th until February 20th, and seven new options have been added to residents of the Hoosier State’s list of wagering options.
The options approved by the Indiana Gaming Commission are cross country skiing, bobsledding, ice hockey, speed skating, short track speed skating, curling, and alpine skiing.
All
online sports betting sites
or casinos that legally operate in Indiana can offer these wagering options. Indiana’s current list of operators includes Underdog Sports, DraftKings, FanDuel, Yahoo Fantasy Sports, FantasyDraft, and SportsHub Game.
While none of the operators are required by the Indiana Gaming Commission to offer these betting options, most will be offering a variety of Olympic events for punters. This can, of course, become a source of competition between operators if Winter Olympic events become popular wagering options.
There is already an established US favorite for women’s skiing as Mikaela Shiffrin’s odds stand at +225 to win this event.
Betting types that will be offered for these events vary between futures, props, totals, and money lines. However, bet types are not limited to these options.
A crucial role-playing factor for sports bettors from the Hoosier State to consider is the significant time difference drawback of betting on events taking place in the Beijing Winter Olympics from US soil. Bettors will only be able to watch a delayed version of the broadcast, which can affect some betting strategies.
However, this can only make it more interesting as bettors will not have to consider the effect of the time difference when doing their calculations.
Behind The Indiana Gaming Commission’s Decision
In 2021, the Indiana Gaming Commission gave the green light for sports betting on events during the 2021 Tokyo Olympics which took place during the summer.
The number of events that were allowed to be included for sports betting was more than three times that of the Winter Olympics and included volleyball, basketball, soccer, track and field events, baseball, swimming, and many more. There were also Olympic sports that were banned by the Indiana Gaming Commission like gymnastics.
Indiana allowed sports betting during the Olympics in the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games last summer. Indiana residents could bet on more than 25 different events in the summer, including baseball, basketball, soccer, swimming, track and field, rowing, diving, and volleyball.
Nine sports were not allowed for sports betting in the Hoosier state due to the fact that the outcome of these games is determined by judges according to the rules of each game. An example of such a sporting event is gymnastics.
According to the Indiana Gaming Commission, this removes a crucial component of objectivity from the game as a third party is involved to determine the athlete’s success. For this very same reason, sports like figure skating are not allowed for sports betting purposes in this year’s winter Olympics.
However, a major contributing factor to the Indiana Gaming Commission’s decision to allow wagers on Olympic events again is its roaring success in 2021. With the latest
gambling news
reporting that the revenue from the 2021 Tokyo Olympics contributed a massive chunk to the state’s overall sports betting revenue, which was record-breaking.
From this perspective, it is not surprising that the Indiana Gaming Commission carefully chose events from the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics this year for sports betting purposes. Additionally, due to last year’s success, sports betting operators in Hoosier State will be very likely to add these sports to their collection.
