Relatively speaking, beach volleyball is one of the newest sports in the Summer Olympics. This medium has been around since 1996, and 24 teams of men and women will take to the sand in hopes of finding glory.
Get yourself ready for betting on the Summer Olympics today! We'll have all of the great Olympics odds at BookMaker.eu.
THE FORMAT
The format for both the men and women is exactly the same. Every nation is allowed to send a maximum of two teams. The 24 teams will be split into six pools of four. No nation will be forced to play against each other in pool play.
Each foursome will play against each other. The top two qualifiers in each group will move on along with four of the third place finishers. From there, it's off to the knockout stage where the teams will be ranked based on their records in pool play.
The losers of the two semifinals matches will play against each other for the bronze medals.
HISTORY OF BEACH VOLLEYBALL IN THE SUMMER OLYMPICS
No surprises here for sure. The two top nations when it comes to beach volleyball are the United States and Brazil. These two have combined for 20 of the 30 medals awards in the Olympics, and that's really saying something considering the fact that each nation is only eligible to send two teams per year per gender into competition.
The United States is the proud holder of six gold medals in beach volleyball, while Brazil is the only other nation with more than one gold. The only other gold medal holders are Australia and Germany, each of which have one to their credit.
TEAMS TO WATCH
Things are going to open up a little bit on the women's side of the beach volleyball bracket. Kerri Walsh Jennings and Misty May-Treanor retired after a third straight gold medal four years ago in London, though the duo of April Ross and Jennifer Kessy which took home the silver will likely once again be one of the toughest teams to eliminate.
With the Olympics being held in Brazil, there's a really good chance that we'll see the women shine brightly in this tournament. Larissa Franca and Talita Antunes haven't teamed together in the Olympics yet, but both have played in bronze medal matches individually. Brazil has grouped these two together as its showcase women.
Watch out for the Chinese as well. Tian Jia and Wang Jie were in the gold medal match in 2008, while Xue Chen and Zhang Xi came together to finish third in 2008 and fourth in 2012.
On the men's side, Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann won the gold medals last year, and they got past a pair of Brazilian sides in doing so. It was disappointing for neither of the American teams to not get to even the semifinals of this event.
AND THE GOLD MEDAL GOES TO…
The Americans will surely have teams which can replace arguably the greatest duo this sport has ever seen, but the real key here is in the Brazilian squads. Even though their B-teams aren't going to be nearly as good as their A-teams, the Brazilians know this is a winnable event on both the men's and women's side. Anything less than two medals in beach volleyball would be considered a brutal disappointment for the host nation.
Olympics odds at BookMaker.eu
BookMaker offers play-by-play betting odds for live sporting events every day! The user-friendly wagering interface on your smartphone provides an easy way to place bets on the go. Mobile betting lines are updated by the minute, so click here to start gambling on thrilling live action at BookMaker Sportsbook! The Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil run from Saturday, August 6, 2016 through Sunday, August 21, 2016. All of the events can be seen on the NBC family of networks.
