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Place 5 x €/£10 or more bets to receive €/£20 in free bets. Repeat up to 5 times to receive maximum €/£100 bonus. Min odds 1/2 (1.5). Exchange bets excluded. T&Cs apply. See more Betting options There are different types of bets you can place on athletics, although the market variety will not be as rich as in football or tennis for example. The best-betting markets value and variety are available at the major athletics events. Some of the common types of bets offered by most bookies include: Straight bet – this is the most popular market when betting on athletics. You simply back the athlete you think will win an event. One drawback is that the odds tend to be pretty low, especially in events where there’s a clear favourite. Such was the case with Usain Bolt in all events he took part in during the Summer Olympics 2012 and 2016. This forced bookmakers to offer different markets, such as “winner without”. Winner without – this betting market is available on athletic events where there is a clear favourite athlete to win with very short odds. In winner without, you back an athlete to win by eliminating the clear favourite out of the race. For example, if you back Justin Gatlin winner without Usain Bolt in the 100 meters race, your bet is a winner if Gatlin wins the race or comes second place only after Usain Bolt. Each-way – covering the first three position, in any event, each-way betting can be profitable when you have an athlete you think could win an event, but is still considered unlikely by the bookies. Each-way covers your bases, where you can win if your chosen athlete wins the event but you can also win if the athlete finishes in a predetermined place in the top 3. Set new world record – usually available during the biggest athletics events, the Olympics or World Athletic Championships. One option you have is to bet on an athlete who you think will set a new world record in a given event. The second option is to bet on an event you think will have its world record broken. Win multiple events – here you can bet on an athlete to win multiple events, for example Usain Bolt to win the 100m and 200m races. Total medals – particularly for the Olympic Games, some bookies will offer markets where you can bet on the total number of medals a country will win. You could bet for example on the exact number of medals to get the highest odds, for example Great Britain to win 15 medals, or you could bet over/under, Great Britain to win over 10 medals. Not very often, but sometimes bookmakers can offer the same markets for medals for individual athletes when a clear favourite competes in several events.