With all of the sports betting options available these days at online sportsbooks, you’ve probably noticed that many of them now give you the option for betting on extreme sports.
Extreme sports are sporting activities that are seen to be more dangerous, hence the name extreme. A few examples of these activities include rock climbing, surfing, mountain biking, and even deep-sea scuba diving. While it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to bet on things like scuba diving, there are certainly plenty of ways to bet on activities like BMX and snowboarding.
Extreme Sports Categories
Extreme sports can be classified into various groups. These groups, along with some examples of the extreme sports in them, are below:
- Water Sports: The sports in this category are pretty obvious as they are all performed either in or on the water. A few examples include surfing, kiteboarding, diving, and windsurfing.
- Hillside Sports: Motocross, cliff jumping, mountain biking, BMX racing, and rock climbing.
- Winter Sports: Snowboarding, skiing, and snowmobiling.
- Air Sports: Paragliding, air diving, and parachuting
The biggest extreme sports competition is the X Games. The X Games feature warm weather sports, while the Winter X Games are held in the snow.
Not only is the X Games very popular with all the sports that each series offers, but it is also the time when most extreme sports betting takes place. Many sportsbooks have quite a few betting options for those who watch the X Games.
Here are a few examples of extreme sports to bet on:
- Surfing (big wave and tour events)
- Snowboarding
- Mountain Biking
- Trail Running
- Kitesurfing
- Rock Climbing
- Ice Climbing
- Jet Skiing
- Water Skiing
- Windsurfing
- Motocross
These are just a few of the examples of the extreme sports you can bet on. While some of the top sportsbooks have odds for extreme sports, some sports are more popular than others, and because of that, you are likely to find betting odds for the more popular sports.
For example, it is more likely that you will find odds for extreme sports such as surfing, snowboarding, windsurfing, and mountain biking than for other less popular extreme sports such as ice yachting, ice diving, skysurfing, and Canyoning.
Getting Started
When you start to bet on extreme sports, the first thing you have to do is sign up with a sportsbook that offers odds on these events. Typically, the bigger and more popular sportsbooks will offer the most sports betting odds.
You also have to understand the odds for extreme sports. They are a little different than other sports considering that extreme sports is betting on individuals rather than betting on teams.
Just like betting on other sports, when you have a sportsbook account, go to the extreme sports section or the individual sport and find the events that have posted odds. Then simply make a bet on who you think will win and see what happens.
Extreme Sports Betting Tips
One advantage of extreme sports betting is that you are betting on individuals in an event rather than a team. Because of this, you can check out the history of the person you want to bet on in terms of how they have performed in that event in the past, and also find out more about their recent form.
Extreme sports are mostly performed outside (skateboarding being an obvious exception), and because of this, you’ll also need to look at the weather and other conditions and how the athlete you want to bet on has performed in these conditions in the past.
For example, if you are betting on a surfing event, check out the conditions of the event. If it calls for bigger or smaller waves, look to see how the surfer you want to bet on has performed in those types of conditions.
Also, look at head-to-head matchups to see how a player has performed against their competition. Just like for other types of sports betting, take advantage of bonus offers to pad your extreme sports betting bankroll.
Since betting on extreme sports predominantly involves betting on individuals, you can increase your chances to win if you handicap the event, like you do for other individual sports such as tennis and golf.
