From 17th century regattas on the Thames to the world-famous Oxford vs Cambridge annual clash that began in 1856, the sport of modern rowing as a competitive endeavour can be traced back to the rivers and waterways of Great Britain.

It's therefore apt that the country is one of the sport's most successful proponents, boasting regular success at elite level, with the hallowed prize of an Olympic gold medal acting as the peak of the sport.

But Great Britain is far from the only nation with a passion for the oar, and the International Rowing Federation (FISA) was formed in 1892 to oversee a sport that now features over 150 competing nations. 

And those looking to get involved with a bet on rowing will be pleased to know that you don't have to wait every four years for the Olympics to come around in order to do so.

Rowing rules

While in all rowing events the participating rowers face toward the back of the boat (the stern) and use oars to propel the boat forward, there are nonetheless a variety of forms of the sport in both men's and women's competition.

Infrequent followers of the sport will likely be most familiar with the Olympic setup, which sees competing teams race side-by-side over a standardised 2,000-metre course. 

Sweep-oar rowing involves teams of pairs, fours or eights using one oar each, held in both hands and sometimes steered by a coxswain.

Meanwhile, sculling sees each rower using one oar in each hand and is usually a single, paired or quad pursuit, without a cox. 

In all forms, the team crossing the line first is the winner, with the rowing betting odds reflecting the most fancied and in-form outfits. 

Olympic rowing

Only missing out on its Olympic debut at the 1896 Games – considered the first modern Games – due to bad weather, rowing's appearance at the following event in Paris in 1900 makes it one of the oldest Olympic sports.

The Olympic rowing programme tends to feature 14 rowing events, including the single, double and quadruple sculls, the Coxless pair, Coxless four and eight.

Given the popularity and large participation numbers in the sport, the World Rowing Championships held the year before an Olympics double as a qualifying event for the Games, along with Continental Qualification Regattas held in Asia, Africa and the Americas.

The university boat race

The long-standing rivalry between Oxford and Cambridge universities comes to its head every spring, with the men's and women's teams racing over four miles of London's Thames River. 

Betting on the boat race is made even more exciting given the traditional close nature of the races, with only a handful of wins separating the Light Blues of Cambridge from the Dark Blues of Oxford, despite racing over 160 times in the men's event. 

The women's race, an annual event since 1964, has been a little more lop-sided, with Cambridge proving to be the more dominant team on the water.

How to win betting on rowing

Backing the Brits on the water has proven a successful rowing betting tactic in years gone by – Team GB features up alongside the Americans (where the sport is often referred to as “crew”) and the Germans at the top of the Olympic medal table.

The Italians, Romanians, Australians and New Zealanders also boast a strong heritage in the sport at both the Olympics and the World Championships. 

Team GB topped the rowing medal table in Rio in 2016 thanks to gold-medal performances in the men's Coxless four and Eight and the women's Coxless pair of Helen Glover and Heather Stanning. 

And it's notable that it was Team GB who topped the World Championships medal table in 2015 – the year before Rio – with five golds, nine silvers and one bronze, suggesting that studying the form of the previous year's World Championships can give a strong indication into the form of the front-runners in the Olympic rowing betting.

Notable rowers

No discussion about the sport of rowing can be concluded without the mention of the great Sir Steve Redgrave, whose five gold medals propelled him to the status of national hero alongside his compatriot and rowing partner Matthew Pinsent. 

But with two silver medals and one bronze medal in addition to Redgrave's haul, it's Romanian Elisabeta Lipa who nudges ahead as most decorated Olympic rower thanks to her dominant spell over six Olympic Games spanning 1984 in Los Angeles to 2004 in Athens.

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