Who are the Best Bookmakers for Extreme Sports Betting?

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Let’s face it: Regardless of how you feel about your favourite sport falling under the ‘extreme’ bracket, it’s unlikely that it is getting mainstream media attention. Even top events like the Winter X Games barely get a mention. As a consequence, opportunities to bet on extreme sports can be somewhat limited, with some major bookmakers providing no coverage at all.

On the other hand, some major sportsbooks do offer extreme sports betting and they can even be paired up with online sports betting offers like free bets, no deposit bonus awards and so on. Below are some major bookmakers who run extreme sports betting markets:

Bet365

Best for: Surfing, Winter Sports.

Bet365 has always been known for a wide choice of betting markets, and those do include some coverage of less mainstream sports. Top of the list is the excellent choice of markets coming for the World Surf League. For example, as the WSL Men’s Championship reaches its conclusion on 20th December with the Billabong Pipeline Masters, we see a three-horse race for the title with Bet365 giving odds for Gabriel Medina at 2/5, Julien Wilson at 3/1 and Felipe Toledo at 8/1. As most who follow WSL will be aware, it’s Medina’s tournament to lose as he takes a near five-point lead into the final round. In short, a third-placed finish or better in Hawaii will see Medina clinch his first WSL Championship since 2014.

William Hill

Best for: Winter Sports, BMX.

Generally, you can bet on stuff like snowboarding and tobogganing whenever the big events – Winter Olympics, Winter X Games – roll around. However, skiing is covered most of the year around and few do it better than William Hill. Right now, for example, you can bet on the Ski Jumping World Cup, with Poland’s Kamil Stoch given odds of 6/5 as favourite ahead of Japan’s Ryoyu Kobayashi at 7/4. William Hill is also pretty excellent for cycling coverage. Aside from the usual Tour de France and BMX events, you can find one of markets for Victor Campenaerts to beat the one-hour world record challenge in 2019. The record of 54.246km is currently held by Bradly Wiggins, but Campenaerts is 3/4 to beat that record next year. If you don’t expect the Belgian to take the record, odds of 19/20 are quoted.

Paddy Power

Best for: Biathlon, Surfing, Novelty Betting

Paddy Power has always been the ‘cheeky’ bookmaker, characterised by sometimes controversial, sometime hilarious, marketing campaigns. Of course, they are serious about some things, and you can currently find betting odds for Winter Sports like biathlon. The Biathlon World Cup is currently underway, with Johannes Thingnes Boe the hot-favourite at 1/20 to secure the title. Surfing is given decent coverage too, especially with individual events. For example, we mentioned earlier that there is one remaining event in WSL Men’s Championship – the Billabong Pipeline Masters in Hawaii. Paddy Power quotes odds for the event, with Medina given a generous price of 7/2 to clinch the title in style. One last word should be given to Paddy Power’s commitment to ‘novelty betting’. It’s a broad area, covering everything from TV specials to politics. But you can be sure if there is something ‘fun’ going on, Paddy Power will be all over it. That will sometimes cover world record attempts at anything from sky-diving to base-jumping.

Creative Commons photo by Lillehammer 2016 Youth Olympic Games