Giro d'Italia Betting Sites

Most Important Facts to Know About Betting on Giro d'Italia

Let’s kick things off with some important facts about this race that will help you make some good decisions when you start your Giro d’Italia betting. 

It’s the Second Most Important Stage Race in the World

Only the Tour de France has more prestige, more TV viewers and more prize money on offer than the Giro d’Italia when it comes to cycling races, so you can say with confidence that the Giro is the second most important stage race in the world, ahead of the Vuelta a España. The three of those together make up the Grand Tour. 

Such importance and prominence in the world of cycling makes the Giro well-covered on TV, radio, in sports newspapers, podcasts and sports betting sites, not to mention sportsbooks themselves. In summary, there’s plenty of buzz about it. in 

Not All Stages Are the Same - How the Giro Works 

When betting on events it’s important to understand the format and structure of them. 

Held across just over three weeks, the Giro is normally made up of 20 or 21 stages and a prologue, which is an individual time trial under 8k in length. There are also three rest days, which is understandable and necessary given the physical demands of the race.

The Giro’s 20 or 21 stages consist of a mix of mass starts, individual time trials and team trials. 

Mass starts are ‘every man for himself’ and include the infamous mountain trials in the Alps, while individual time trials see cyclists try to cover a certain distance as quickly as possible, without any assistance from teammates or their competitors. 

In team time trials the team races together as a whole with the key time being the one of the fourth-best rider; the riders finishing first, second and third will have the time of the fourth-best cyclist attributed to them. 

Each stage will result in a time awarded to each rider and the rider with the overall lowest time is the winner of the Giro. 

So when betting on cycling races such as this one, remember that the team as a whole is just as important as the strength and endurance of their team leader. More on this later. 

Mountain Stages Can Make Or Break You

Some of the stages involve huge mountain climbs of the Alps or Dolomites. This is often where the race can be won or lost. 

The best climbers who can get away from the peloton can buy themselves far more time than they’d manage on flatter terrain, while those who can’t keep up leave themselves, well, ‘a mountain to climb’, in terms of having to recover that time in a future stage. 

Once again, this is where the team strength can make a big difference, as other riders can support their team leader by letting him draft behind them and save energy. 

How Popular Is Giro d'Italia Betting?

It may seem hard to believe but there was a time at the start of the 20th century when cycling in general and the Giro D’Italia in particular were considerably more popular than football in Italy.

The big cyclists of the day were real heroes among the population, whose efforts were closely followed by millions over the radio every day. These days, it’s the second most popular sport in Italy in terms of fans, behind only football. 

Having said that, it would be untrue to suggest that at both established and new online betting sites, Tour of Italy betting is one of the more popular events. Cycling, in general is considered something of a niche sport. 

In other words, it probably wouldn’t make the Top 10 of the most popular sports to bet on at most sportsbooks, way behind football, horse racing, tennis and US Sports, but instead, it will have something of a ‘cult’ following among cycling betting fans. 

As we know, the Giro is the second most popular cycling race in the world, so it follows that it’s also the second most popular race to bet on. 

How to Bet on Tour of Italy

And here’s how to go about betting on Giro d’Italia at the best betting sites. 

Choose from our list of carefully curated best Giro d’Italia betting sites depending on what your priorities are: bonuses, live streaming, lots of payment options, generous Giro d’Italia betting odds -and open an account at one or more of them.

• Make a deposit: If you’re claiming a Welcome Offer in the process, pay attention to the terms and conditions as it may require you to use/not use a particular payment option to make the deposit, or to deposit a minimum amount in order to be eligible. 
• To start your Tour of Italy betting, navigate to the list of sports on the left-hand side of the homepage and choose cycling. 
• Click on Giro d’Italia. 
• The Giro d’Italia betting site will then display all the betting markets available (see below) so choose the one you want to bet on. 
• Click on your selection. For example, Juan Ayuso to win the 2025 Giro, and choose your stake before processing the bet.

Giro d’Italia Popular Betting Markets

And now let’s look at some of the most popular markets relating to the Giro. Remember that cycling isn’t necessarily a huge betting sport at most bookies, so not all of these will be available at all of them. But hopefully, most of them will. 

Winner

They’ll definitely have this one if they’re offering Giro d’Italia betting. It’s a straightforward case of picking who you think will win it, the same as you would for a horse race, a Formula 1 race or any other race. 

In many cases, you can place each-way bets with half of your stake being on the cyclist to win the whole event and the other half on the cyclist finishing in the Top 3, at a fraction of the winner odds. 

Stage Winner

As you’ll know by now, there are 20 or 21 different stages and each one will have a winner: the rider or team (in the case of team time trials) who completes the stage in the quickest time. 

So you can bet on the stage winner, both pre-race and in live betting too, with the next day’s stage winner market available as soon as that day’s stage is over. 

Points Classification/Mountains Classification/Team Classification/Young Rider

These are the markets that may or may not be available, depending on the site. These are the different awards up for grabs beyond the General Classification (overall winner) and sometimes you can bet on who will win them. They are: 

• Points Classification: Every time a rider finishes a stage, he’ll get points awarded to him based on his finishing position, with the actual time gaps ignored. 
• Mountains Classification: Points are awarded to the riders based on their performances in the mountain stages over designated climbs. The climbs are put into different classifications based on the difficulty of the climb and their position in that day’s stage. 
• Young Rider Classification: This is an award handed out to the best performer at the Giro, who is also under the age of 25. Theoretically, the Young Rider and the overall winner could be the same rider, but this is pretty rare. 
• Team Classification: This award is for the team that performs the best in that year’s Giro rather than the individual rider. Recently, the calculation has been done by taking the times of the top three riders from each team for each stage and adding them up together. The team with the lowest time using this method is the winner.

Additional Tips for Giro d’Italia Betting Success

And here are some last-minute tips if you’re thinking of having a bet on this year’s Giro. 

Look at the Rider’s Team

One of the recurring themes in this article has been the importance of the team leader having excellent support from his team-mates. 

That could be in the form of producing good results in the all-important team time trials or supporting the team leader in the mountain stages by assisting his ride, the so-called draft we’ve been mentioning, and ensuring the team leader is travelling at the pace they should be. 

However good a rider is on an individual level, they’re highly unlikely to win the whole thing unless they’re supported by a strong team. So check out the riders’ team’s past results. 

The Better Value Could Be on the Side Markets

Whereas it may seem obvious to play the overall winner market seeing as it relates to the race’s biggest prize, better betting value may lie elsewhere, such as in the Young Rider winner market or the Mountains Classification market. 

After all, the bookies know everything there is to know about the biggest names and their chances of winning the Giro but they may have some odds that are out of place - which, of course, is what you want if that means the odds being bigger than they should be - on other markets where they haven’t put so much time and effort into researching them. And therein lies the opportunity. 

Past Mountain Stage Winners Can Do It All Over Again

In golf, it’s common to see a particular golfer enjoy success at the same course year after year, the golfer eagerly awaiting for the tournament at that course to come about to gain some much-needed prize money and ranking points, knowing how much they enjoy playing there based on past performances. 

The same could be true of a rider and a particular stage of the Giro, especially the mountain stages. If the distance, terrain, steepness and other conditions were to a cyclist’s liking in the past, especially if they actually won that stage in the past, then they might be about to win it again.