Baby, it's cold outside. Wrap up warm with William Hill and learn all about winter sports betting. You might feel like you're on thin ice, but luckily William Hill is here with the definitive guide to winter sports odds and strategies to break that ice.

From alpine skiing, to cross-country skiing, to freestyle skiing and even more types of skiing, there's plenty of variety in winter sports betting. Just kidding, winter sports is actually chock full of events to spectate and bet on. Don't get snowed under - keep on reading and you'll be ready to hit the (betting) slopes in no time.

Tip of the iceberg

So what does winter sports betting actually entail? On top of the aforementioned ski events, here's a quick rundown of sports that feature at the Winter Olympics:

Biathlon

Bobsleigh

Curling

Figure skating

Ice hockey

Luge

Nordic combined

Short track

Skeleton

Ski jumping

Snowboard

Speed skating

Lots to take in. Let's break it up into more manageable chunks and focus on the headline events that make up the majority of winter sports betting and the types of odds available with William Hill.

Ready? Don't worry, William Hill won't ever give you the cold shoulder when it comes to winter sports betting.

Ice ice baby

Alpine skiing

Also known by the less fancy moniker of ‘downhill skiing', the alpine variety of this sport is broken down even further. 

At the Winter Olympics, alpine skiing comes in several flavours. Alpine combined, downhill, giant slalom, slalom, and Super-G - these events are then split up amongst men and women with 'alpine team event' there for when the genders ski together.

When it comes to winter sports betting and alpine skiing, there are a handful of markets in which you'll find plenty of amplitude. The outright is the obvious one - available at the Winter Olympics, of course - but William Hill applies its trade to the World Cup, the World Championships, and all other major events in the alpine skiing calendar.

You'll also find head-to-head bets available in the world of not just alpine skiing, but winter sports betting in general. 

Head-to-head does what it says on the tin - we'll pit two ace skiers against each other and you can bet on who you think will come out on top.

Biathlon

Ever really wanted to plummet down a snow-covered hill and shoot things on the way down? Then the biathlon is the sport for you. Combining the ski races you already know and love and throwing a touch of shooting into the mix, the biathlon tasks participants with getting to the bottom of the course in the fastest time. 

At certain points of the course, skiers will stop to take down targets with their rifle. Any missed targets incur a penalty to the overall time. Easy enough, right? That's what makes it one of the easier winter sports betting opportunities available.

The biathlon comes in all shapes and sizes – sprint, pursuit, mass start, individual, and relay are all types of biathlon ranging from 10km to 30km in the relay. As usual, they come in different variations for men and women with a combined relay for the mixed teams.

When it comes to the biathlon and winter sports betting, backing an outright winner is again the simplest avenue of getting your winter sports odds fix. There's a total of 11 events in the Winter Olympics, which makes it fertile ground when it comes to winter sports betting.

Ski jumping

Another sport which doesn't take much brainpower to work out what it entails - which is good news for those of you looking to get into winter sports betting. 

Ski jumping is the art of launching off a snowy hill and landing as far (and as safely) as you can. At the Winter Olympics, men get to participate in individual normal and large hill jumps, with a team variant on the large hill as well, while women make do with a normal hill of their own.

There are four components of a successful ski jump - the in-run, the take-off, the flight, and the landing. Athletes are scored on their overall distance, as well as 'style' points'. 

Jumpers get a practice run and then two real attempts at the slope. 'Style' is judged on several fronts –flight, landing, and out-run, with a maximum of 20 points available overall.

As for ski jumping and winter sports betting, there are two types of markets in which William Hill offers winter sports odds - the outright and match betting. 

You're familiar with outright by now - back the jumper or nation who you think will take home top prize. For match betting, the same principle applies except on a smaller scale, in individual stages that make up the overall tournament.

Cross country skiing

Yep, skiing is back! What can we say, people just love attaching planks of plastic to their feet and hurtling down mountains. Cross country skiing is a bumper event at the Winter Olympics with 12 events in total to find some winter sports odds on.

Cross country skiing is simply a race of varying lengths, ranging from 10km sprints to 50km marathons. And yep, winter sports betting is available on all of them.

Our old friend the outright market makes a return - letting you predict the person or team to win the whole shebang - but match betting rears its snowy face as well, breaking down those winter sports odds into smaller events.

And that's it! Those are the headline winter sports betting events which you can find at William Hill. 

Remember, while the Winter Olympics steals the limelight every four years, you can find plenty of winter sports odds year-round at major events. It's always snowing somewhere, right? 

Still feeling overwhelmed? Take a chill pill, news.williamhill.com is here for you with some winter sports betting tips.

Snowball effect

Don't get cold feet - one of the best things about winter sports betting is that there's so much to choose from. We've already gone over the many different types of winter sports, as well as the wide variety of sectors within. 

Basically, you're spoilt for choice when it comes to winter sports betting at William Hill.

What's great is that you can find a particular event which suits you the most. Like alpine skiing but prefer the giant slalom to the Super-G? No problem, go find some skiing odds in there. 

Not a fan of the racing variety of skiing but love it when they jump off those mad slopes? Ski jumping is full to the brim of winter sports odds.

The best and basic tip when it comes to winter sports betting is this - just watch it. The more you learn, the better bettor you'll be. Explore the huge range of winter sports betting odds William Hill offers and just follow whatever takes your fancy. 

Take it seriously for an event or two and you can be a winter winner. Don't get left out in the cold - join the world of winter sports betting.