The Olympics officially gets underway on Friday and although it isn’t the biggest betting tournament out there, there will still be plenty of spread betting punters looking to profit from Great Britain’s gold medal winning prospects.

Sporting Index are now offering a spread of 11.9-12.4 for British gold medals having been around 11.1-11.6 only a few weeks ago. Buyers will be concerned that the team have only won 20 golds at the last two Olympics, but many hopes will rest on the shoulders of Mark Cavendish and the other cyclists. China are the clear favourites to take home the most gold medals in Beijing, with a spread of 42-44. Sellers will be delighted to hear that they won 32 in 2004, 28 in 2000 and only 16 in 1996.

However, buyers will take heart from their upward curve, in addition to home advantage. The USA have won 36 gold medals in the past two Olympics (spread 37-39 currently), but their best recent tournament was in 1996 when they won 44 golds on home soil in Atlanta.