The Oscars, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) will honour the best films that were released between March 1st and December 21st, 2021.
This particular iteration of the awards will be the first to feature multiple hosts since the 83rd Academy Awards.
Academy Awards betting has become incredibly popular in recent years, with the ability to watch and bet on more novelty events, such as TV and politics, providing something a little different to standard sports betting.
In order to bet on the Oscars, you simply need to sign up with your bookmaker of choice before heading to the relevant section to find the Oscars betting markets. You will then be met by a glut of Oscars betting markets to wager on.
In this Oscars betting guide, we will go over ways you can make money through Oscars betting, how to bet on the Academy Awards, the Academy Award betting favourites for this year and much more.
Best Bookmakers for Betting on the Oscars
The best bookmakers for Academy Awards betting 2022 will usually come down to your own personal preference. Often, bettors will simply sign up with a bookie because of the new customer welcome bonus that they are currently offering.
However, we believe that there are a number of important factors that help to show the difference between a good bookmaker, and the best.
To start with, you must ensure that the welcome offer that is provided is something that you will use. For example, if there is a Bet £5 get £5 in free bets on offer, you need to ensure that this is the sort of promotion that you will use. If you are more of a high roller and would prefer a matched deposit up to £200 then a bookie that is providing a bet £5 get £5 probably isn’t ideal for you as it’s a far less generous promotion than the matched deposit.
Next, your bookie of choice must provide you with the sports and betting markets that you want to bet on. For example, if you only want to bet on the Oscars, football and tennis, and the bookie you sign up with only offers tennis betting, then this venture will likely prove a waste of time, or one that restricts the sports you can bet on.
From here, the features the bookies offer are so important. Offering bet builders that can be used with your Oscars betting and Oscars odds, live betting, live streaming, in-game stats and graphics, mobile app betting, a range of depositing and withdrawal methods and more will always prove to be very important when you come to signing up with a betting site.
As for who are traditionally seen as the best Oscars betting sites, we would recommend Bet365, William Hill and Betway. The trio offer a wide range of betting options and markets, along with very competitive odds. The features they are able to provide also helps to elevate them above the rest in most facets of betting.
Of course, as we have mentioned previously, the best bookmaker will be down to you, and if all you want is the ability to bet on the Oscars, competitive Oscars odds and bet builder features, then your best bookmaker will likely be very different from the next person.
Can I Make Money Betting on the Oscars?
The short answer is, yes. Academy Award betting provides you with a huge range of ways to bet on the best films across the last year.
At the time of writing, the likes of Best Actor and Best Actress are always very popular, while you can also wager on Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Animated Feature, Best Cinematography, Best Director and much more, with the scale of Academy Award betting very impressive.
In order to make money on Oscars betting, or any betting for that matter, you need to be intelligent with how you bet. Below, we have created a short strategy for you to use.
Don’t Blindly Back the Favourites
A favourite is a favourite for a reason, with the majority of the betting going their way. For example, a certain person could be odds-on favourite to win best actor in the Oscar betting, and if they are big odds-on favourites, then that market will quite often be something of a foregone conclusion. However, if you are wagering on a market that has a favourite that is by no-means odds-on, then there is value in backing them, or even backing a person just behind them in the Oscar betting.
Do Your Research
This is important in Oscar betting, and every other type of betting. In a game like football, you can usually just back a team in the match winner market purely on name recognition. In the Oscars betting, this is not wise. You may recognise a particular person or film, and you may think that they/it was fantastic and fully deserving of an award. However, the academy and the bookmakers may not agree, meaning you might get good value in your pick, but it will likely have little chance of coming off.
If you do enough research, you will be able to work out which picks are not worth backing and why, and, more importantly, you may be able to pick out a choice that provides value and has a chance of coming in.
Don’t Let Bias Make Your Bets
When you decide to back your own personal favourites, this will often come with a real lack of any kind of reasoning other than the fact that you like or support them.
Betting with your heart is not something that is recommended. Instead, you should always wager with your head by utilising reasoning and stats.
How to Bet on the Academy Awards
Above, we have detailed a quick strategy on how to ensure that you are not either settling for shorter Oscars odds every time, or needlessly throwing your money away by backing choices that simply will not win. In this section, we will give a short rundown on the systems that Oscars betting experts will use to work through the clutter and help find the best value bets for the upcoming ceremony.
Film Critics and Reviews
Delving deep into the reviews of different film critics will give a good indication into what has and has not been well-received across the course of the year. Certain films could go in as big underdogs only to see what the voters think of them change dramatically after they are talked up by a few critics. You do not need to take a critics review as the only words to listen to when it comes to Oscars betting, but it will give you some great insight before you look into the best Academy Awards odds.
Bet Early
By the time most people have actually come to wagering on the Oscars, it is already very close to the ceremony itself. This means that a huge proportion of the general public will have placed their bets, meaning the odds will have shortened on the favourite picks as the bookmakers react to the consensus of the majority.
If you are able to bet early on the Oscars, it simply means that the odds on all of the possible choices will likely be longer as there is less money behind them.
With the nominations released in January, you can take advantage of the lines being revealed usually around a month or so before the ceremony itself.
What Happened at the other Ceremonies?
With awards season at the beginning of the year, therefore preceding the Academy Awards, it is always a good plan to look at the results of these ceremonies. The likes of the Golden Globes, the Critics’ Choice and more will come before the Oscars. With many of the categories proving to be the same across these ceremonies, they could give you a real insight into which way the same categories could go at the Oscars, and this could then allow you to nail a choice with longer Academy Awards odds.
It is worth noting though that just because a film wins best picture at one ceremony, it does not mean it will definitely win at the Oscars too.
Oscars 2022 Favourites And Betting Odds
Best Picture
The Power of the Dog, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, is currently odds-on favourite with the bookies, with Academy Awards odds of 4/9 with William Hill to win Best Picture. The rest of the options provide good value, with Belfast (5/2), West Side Story (10/1) and CODA (11/1) next in line, but clearly, The Power of the Dog is the one to beat right now.
The Favourite – The Power of the Dog – 4/9 @ William Hill
Best Actor
Will Smith is currently the big favourite to scoop the Best Actor award for his role in King Richard. Smith is 1/3 with Bet Victor, with Benedict Cumberbatch at 3’s and Andrew Garfield priced at 6’s. If the betting is to be believed, Smith has got it in the bag.
The Favourite – Will Smith – 1/3 @ Bet Victor
Best Actress
Nicole Kidman is currently the 6/4 favourite with Coral to win Best Actress. Kidman’s role as Lucille Ball in Being the Ricardos sees her just ahead of Jessica Chastain (7/4), who plays Tammy Faye Bakker in The Eyes of Tammy Faye. It therefore seems like a straight battle between Kidman and Chastain, with Kristen Stewart (9/2) next in line for her portrayal of Lady Diana in Spencer.
The Favourite – Nicole Kidman – 6/4 @ Coral
Best Director
Jane Campion is massive favourite in the Best Director category with odds of 1/8 with Bet Victor. Campion is tipped to collect her second Oscar, with The Power of the Dog seen as a near-certain winner. If you want to bet on a very safe bet, then Campion is likely the one for you, although this will offer you little value.
The Favourite – Jane Campion – 1/8 @ Bet Victor
Academy Award 2022 Predictions
At this stage of the betting, the Academy Awards winners seem to have already picked themselves.
As far as Best Actor goes, Will Smith is massive odds-on favourite and so is difficult to overlook, while The Power of the Dog is another that is hotly tipped in the Best Picture category, and we are predicting a double win for the film with Jane Campion also winning Best Director.
The Oscars betting market that we feel there is room to move in is Best Actress. Nicole Kidman is still the favourite at the time of writing, but Jessica Chastain is not far behind, with both currently available at odds longer than Evens. Despite this, Kristen Stewart, who is available with Academy Award odds of 5’s with some bookies, is the choice for some, with her performance in Spencer one that had originally seen her jostling at the head of the betting. The Best Actress category is, at this time, too close to call.
Conclusion
Betting on the 2022 Oscars is a sure-fire way to make the whole ceremony that bit more interesting. Betting on the Academy Awards can come in many forms, with a huge glut of categories on offer to wager on.
We would still recommend that you utilise our different strategies such as betting with your head, ensuring you wager early, listening to what the critics have to say and more to maximise your chances of winning.
Make sure that whatever Oscars betting tips you decide to back, you are also wagering with the best betting sites too. Take into account the available welcome and existing customer offers, different features, betting markets, competitive odds and more for whatever you decide to bet on.
Most of all, have fun! The Oscars celebrates everything that is great about the world of film, and if you play your cards right, it won’t only be the people at the ceremony itself that are celebrating a big win at the end of the night.
Oscars 2022 Full Winners List
The complete list of the winners for the 94th Academy Awards.
- Best actress in a supporting role – Ariana DeBose, “West Side Story”
- Best sound – “Dune”
- Best cinematography – Greig Fraser, “Dune”
- Best documentary (short subject) – “The Queen of Basketball”
- Best visual effects – “Dune”
- Best animated feature film – “Encanto”
- Best short film (animated) – “The Windshield Wiper”
- Best actor in a supporting role – Troy Kotsur, “CODA”
- Best international feature film – “Drive My Car,” Japan
- Best short film (live action) – “The Long Goodbye”
- Best costume design – Jenny Beavan, “Cruella”
- Best writing (original screenplay) – Kenneth Branagh, “Belfast”
- Best writing (adapted screenplay) – Siân Heder, “CODA”
- Best music (original score) – “Dune”
- Best film editing – “Dune”
- Best documentary (feature) – “Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)”
- Best production design – “Dune”
- Best music (original song) – “No Time to Die” from “No Time to Die”
- Best director – Jane Campion, “The Power of the Dog”
- Best actor in a leading role – Will Smith, “King Richard”
- Best makeup and hairstyling – “The Eyes of Tammy Faye”
- Best actress in a leading role – Jessica Chastain, “The Eyes of Tammy Faye”
- Best picture – “CODA”
