This article is part of our Betting Advice series.
2024 Paris Olympics: Wednesday's Best Bets, Picks and More
It's Day 5 of the 2024 Olympics, and it will be another busy day across all disciplines. For Wednesday, we'll have plenty of swimming medals awarded in the Women's 100m freestyle, the Men's 200m butterfly, as well as USA's Katie Ledecky featuring in the Women's 1500m freestyle. The Men's 200m breaststroke and men's 100m freestyle also award medals on Wednesday, but that's far from all that is happening.
The men's and women's triathlon goes off on Wednesday afternoon in Paris, or the wee hours of Wednesday morning in the states. Tennis continues, as does pool play in women's field hockey, which is fun to bet. Men's and women's basketball, as well as 3x3 hoops, will also be going on, as well as men's group play in handball, men's and women's beach volleyball, boxing, fencing, women's soccer/football, and much, much more.
We'll try and tab some of the regular sports you're used to betting, as well as occasionally toss in an exotic play to make things fun. Who knows? You might discover a new sport you really like to watch. Every four years, I enjoy betting on handball, and I am finding 3x3 basketball to be a lot of fun, too!
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Men's 3x3 Basketball - Latvia vs. Netherlands (Wed., 12:35 p.m. ET)
The Latvians are the defending 3x3 gold medalists from the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, the inaugural event. This is an experiencing quad of players, and they're considered one of the favorites (+500) to grab the gold medal again in Paris.
In fact, Latvia entered the pool play with the same odds as host nation France, just behind Serbia (+180) and Team USA (+200), who is led by Jimmer Fredette.
On the flip side, Netherlands (+1000) is considered middle of the road for the gold medal. Worthy de Jong, Jan Driessen, Arvin Slagter and Dimeo Van der Horst comprise the Dutch 3x3 team.
De Jong was actually born in Suriname, which was a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands from 1954 to 1975. He played for the Rotterdam Challengers, while spending most of his career with Zorg en Zekerheid, better known as ZZ Leiden, of the BNXT League. Driessen has also played for ZZ Leiden in the past, while Slagter also spent time with ZZ Leiden from 2010-13, while also playing for Rotterdam. He is an 8-time DBL All-Star, too.
As far as Van der Horst, he is the only non-ZZ player, spending time with Apollo Amsterdam as recently as 2019. He played for the FIBA 3x3 World Cup in 2018, the one which won silver.
However, this Netherlands team might be a bit on the slower side, as many of these players are on the downside of long career. Latvia, on the other hand, just won gold in Tokyo, and it returns Karlis Lasmanis and Nauris Miezis from that winning team, as well as the side which won bronze at the 2023 World Cup in Vienna.
The last time these teams met June 3, 2023, Latvia eked out a 19-18 win. Latvia punished Lithuania 21-14 on Tuesday, however, in the pool opener. Look for Latvia, who is playing with a ton of confidence, to get the job done.
- Latvia -1.5 (-113 at FanDuel)
Men's Handball - France vs. Egypt (Wed., 1 p.m. ET)
The host nation takes on an Egypt side which was down double digit at one point against Denmark on Monday, before falling 30-27 in Group B preliminary round play.
Egypt was down 19-9 at half, but it made the big comeback thanks to 68% shooting (13-of-19) on 6 meter (m) shots, while connecting at a 66% (27-of-41) clip overall. In fact, Denmark shot just 59% (30-of-51), but obviously had quite a bit more frequency.
France is looking to bounce back after getting trampled 27-22 by Norway. Despite that, France (+400) still has the second-shortest odds for gold medal behind favorite Denmark (-114).
It's a tough draw for Egypt, going back-to-back against the two favorites. However, Egypt showed tremendous moxie coming back and making Denmark sweat. Look for the Egyptians to hang around and make things interesting Wednesday.
- Egypt +3.5 (-110 at FanDuel)
Men's Surfing - Gabriel Medina (Wed., 1 p.m. ET)
The Men's Surfing Gold Medal will be awarded Wednesday at 1 p.m. ET in Tahiti, which is located in French Polynesia, if you were wondering why the surfing events are taking place literally a half-world away from Paris.
If you haven't seen the already iconic photo of Medina hovering over the water showing him celebrating in the air while still attached to his board, google it. Jérôme Brouillet of Agence France-Presse in Teahupo'o captured the imagine, and to quote Seinfeld, it's real...and it's spectacular.
Medina had just completed the fifth heat of Round 3 in the surfing competition. I'm not saying that things are fixed, but the photo garnered so much social media buzz, it's hard to imagine Medina not coming away with the win.
The Brazilian is a heavy favorite (-115) over France's Kauli Vaast (+350), Australia's Jack Robinson (+550), Australia's Ethan Ewing (+1000) and fellow countryman Joao Chianca (+1000).
- Gabriel Medina - Brazil (-115 at FanDuel)
BONUS – 3-Leg Olympics Parlay +827 (at FanDuel)
- Latvia -1.5 - Men's 3x3 Basketball (-113)
- Gabriel Medina - Surfing (+160)
- Egypt +3.5 - Handball (-112)
BONUS – 2-Leg 1 p.m. ET Olympics Parlay +392 (at FanDuel)
- Gabriel Medina - Surfing (+160)
- Egypt +3.5 - Handball (-112)
Let's get it!
