Betting on the Tour de France 2011 – Voulez-vous un punt?

The greatest cycling spectacle of the year with an encapsulating history is on the horizon with the Tour de France capturing the betting imagination not only in France itself but in the UK, Germany Spain and all over the world.

With wide coverage of the Tour de France all over the television and internet, placing bets on the annual cycling showpiece event with an online bookmaker has never been easier. Almost every online bookmaker will have a substantial betting market for the Tour, but few are as reputable and trustworthy as award winning operator, 888sport, whose parent company, 888holdings, is floated on the London Stock Exchange and is therefore subject to the most stringent checks and balances. Making a bet with 888sport on the Tour guarantees that a punter’s money is safe and in reputable hands until the bet’s conclusion.

With the vast internet and TV coverage of the Tour de France, many companies, including 888sport offer live betting on the event as it happens so punters can make bets at any stage of the race when it’s in progress. Odds change throughout the race as cyclists change positions and the latest standings fluctuate but a gambler can place a bet on his predictions right up until the final bicycle crosses the finishing line.

With the competition between the ever growing number of online bookmakers becoming more fierce every year, all of them are happy to offer incentives of a free bet or even free bets to encourage punters to register and deposit money. Some bookies even offer ‘best odds’ deals to garner a bet with them although a gambler should be aware that ‘best odds’ on one event doesn’t mean best odds on them all. Some bookmakers, like 888sport, not only give full comprehensive fixtures of the upcoming betting markets but also the results of sporting events so a punter is kept fully informed.

The Tour de France highlights how prominent sporting fixtures in the calendar can become prime betting events. Punters in the UK, France, Europe and beyond will do a lot of research: looking through past results; viewing highlights of recent cycling Tours, checking world standings of the cyclists and their teams etc. so their role as the predictor of the winner is there or thereabouts when the final sprint goes up the Champs Elysee in the dying moments of the race a few weeks after the event begins at the end of July.