2024 Paris Olympics Men’s Handball Odds and Predictions

France has been the face of men’s handball in the Olympics for over a decade. If it’s up to them, that won’t be changing anytime soon.

Most sports betting sites have pegged them as the clear favorites, just like in the 2024 Women’s Olympic Handball tournament. However, the French men’s handball participants do have some competition behind them coming into the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Not sure if you should back France to win? Curious if there’s another country worth betting on? I’ll look over the latest 2024 Paris Olympics men’s handball odds and work my way to a winner prediction.

Odds for Men’s Handball at the 2024 Paris Olympics

Regardless of where you bet on the Olympics this year, it’s likely you’ll find France favored to win the men’s handball tournament.

They come in with the best price at +175, although they’re not totally by themselves. Denmark is pretty close behind at +185, and that alone is cause for pause when placing your bets.

Let’s take a quick look at the other 10 teams and their current men’s handball betting odds for the Paris Games.

France is the rightful favorite, but the pricing line separating them from Denmark is awfully thin.

There is a lot of logic to those odds, which likely tells us we should simply stop our research and decide which country is the one we want to go hard at.

My initial gut call is to back France, but Denmark can’t be ignored, and after the top two men’s handball favorites, the betting value is undeniable.

Are there any other value bets that could seriously threaten the top two squads? Let’s first look at what France is favored – and such a good bet – before also investigating the top mens’ handball value bets for 2024.

Why is France Favored to Win Men’s Handball in Paris?

France is the 2024 Paris Olympics men’s handball betting favorite because they’re the best team in the world. They proved that with a gold medal in Tokyo in 2020.

They’ve now secured the top spot in three of the last four Olympics, too. In fact, during that stretch, the only blip on their radar was a second place finish behind Denmark.

Admittedly, they also fell to Denmark in the 2023 World Championships, so conventional wisdom would suggest France will be out for blood when they meet them again in Paris.

While they didn’t take home top honors at the World Championship, France was runner-up and also took first place at the 2024 European Championship. As you may have guessed, they edged out Denmark in a 33-31 shootout.

Their overall form coming into this year’s Olympics should be regarded as rock solid.

Paced by the ageless Nikola Karabatic, as well as Kentin Mahe and Valentine Porte, France continues to offer an elite offense capable of matching wits with anyone.

Naturally, France may have the leg up on the competition in general, given the location of the 2024 Summer Games. Everything pieced together points to France repeating as gold medalists, but Denmark is still their main competition that will be tough for bettors to rule out.

Top Men’s Handball Gold Medal Contenders for 2024

France is probably going to win gold in men’s handball at the 2024 Summer Olympics, but nothing is guaranteed.

You definitely should pay attention to their rivals, Denmark, and maybe consider a few other alternatives just in case things get crazy.

Denmark +185

If you’re not betting on the French to win the men’s handball gold medal, then you should most likely pivot to Denmark.

Denmark has been the only thing close to a thorn in France’s side. They ousted them at the 2023 World Championships, and they upset them to claim gold in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

The two sides faced off at the 2024 European Championship and have gone to war in each of the last two finals in the Olympics. Could we be looking at a third straight battle? It’s certainly possible.

Bettors should definitely consider how close Denmark was to notching consecutive gold medals at the Olympics, too. France only won 25-23 in that gold medal game four years ago, while Mikkel Hansen and co. reminded us all in the European Championship just how close this rivalry actually is.

Sweden +600

In terms of pricing, there’s also Sweden. They’re far off from the top two favorites, but technically speaking, they shouldn’t be completely ignored.

For what it’s worth, the Swedes were quite good to start things off in Tokyo four years ago. They scored 144 goals en route to a 4-0-1 record to escape Group B, but then lost a nail-biter (34-33) to Spain in the Quarter-finals.

Oh, what could have been, had Sweden done just a tad more to guarantee themselves a showdown with Denmark in the Semi-finals? We’ll never know, but Sweden has had some high-level success in recent years.

Sweden claimed the silver medal in London in 2021, while they were also runner-up at the 2021 World Championship. They actually won the European Championship in 2022, and had a respectable third place finish there this year.

Offensively, Sweden showed out at the last Olympics. They may need the perfect draw once they head to the QF (if they can get there), but at +600, I wouldn’t completely count them out.

Best 2024 Men’s Handball Value Bet for Paris

Spain is a borderline contender at +900, but could also qualify as a sleeper. They won the bronze medal in 2020 and should be on your radar, but if I am going for real value, I’d like to dig a little deeper.

That brings me to Egypt, who feels like a true darkhorse with their +1800 men’s handball odds. They also barely missed out on bronze, themselves, as they dropped a 33-31 match to Spain in Tokyo four years ago.

Egypt barely lost to France (27-24) in the SF that year, and they exhibited one of the better defenses during that run.

As far as recent success, they’ve lit up the African Championship with four titles since 2016, while they took first place in the 2023 All-Africa Games, and were runner-up at the Mediterranean Games.

You’d like to see them perform better at the World Championship (7th in both 2021 and 2023), but I think bettors can still hang their hat on their 2020 Tokyo run, as well as their continued dominance in Africa.

Betting on Egypt isn’t for the faint of heart, but they’re capable of making a run and their +1800 price tag is appealing.

2024 Men’s Handball Winner Prediction

It’s a pretty good bet that the 2024 Paris Olympics men’s handball gold medal game comes down to France vs. Denmark. It’s certainly what everyone wants to see, and the current men’s handball odds suggest as much.

Sports bettors don’t need to know what the exact matchup will be, though. They just need to know who will win. It’s probably as simple as betting on one of these two teams, and in all fairness, you can make a very strong case for both sides.

That said, I’m going with France.

The 2024 Paris Olympics men’s handball betting favorites have the better overall roster, they’re going to be eager to defend their gold medal, and they have a little payback in mind for Denmark taking them down at the 2024 World Championships.

One look back at how things played out in Tokyo reminds me of why I am backing the French. Denmark’s Mikkel Hansen scored nine goals in that gold medal game, while pacing everyone in those Summer Games with 61 total goals.

But for what? The rest of his team couldn’t deliver when it was all said and done in that finale, while no French goalscorer cracked the top-8 in 2020. The point? The French are the better overall team, while they also have a defense capable of making a team like Denmark a bit one-dimensional.

Denmark is a fine bet and they easily could win. But the odds are tight and getting France at +175 feels like a steal. They’re the better team and should win again. It makes sense to bet like it.

Bet: France +175