Olympics Betting: Tough Ask For GB Women

While the field for the Olympics is considerably weaker than for a Women's World Cup there are still some powerhouse squads for Great Britain's women's squad to contend with.

The qualifiers left less teams from strong areas such as Scandinavia for instance - and amazingly Germany are absent. But the USA and Brazil are both at London 2012, along with Sweden, Japan and France.

Great Britain, who won their opener against New Zealand last night 1-0, have to take on Brazil in the group stages, although their chances of progression are good because the system is three groups of four with two third placed teams going through - a Copa America style event.

USA are short odds but then you would expect that. The competition has been held four times and USA have won three and lost in the final once. The only team to beat them - Norway - haven't qualified and in the past two Olympics they beat Brazil in the final.

USA and Brazil are expected to dominate in the absence of the Germans, Norwegians and Italians. Despite England's excellent performances since the boost of Euro 2005, the bookies don't expect the GB squad to be in the medals.

The South Americans are second in the betting and then come Japan (4th in 2008), France and Sweden (played in all previous tournaments)  before Great Britain appear at sixth in the running.

USA                            2/1

Brazil                          7/2

Japan                          5/1

France                        7/1

Sweden                      10/1

Great Britain               12/1

16/1 Bar

Prices from Bet 365