Betting on the Tour de France 2025

Tour de France 2025 Race Overview

2025 represents the 112th edition of the Tour De France and sees the whole race take place solely in France for the first time in several years. Often, a Grand Départ (the name for the start of the race) will be abroad, with the riders working their way to France, or see stages included just across the border in Spain, Belgium, Andorra, Italy, or Switzerland. This year, however, the organisers have kept everything French-related. This is a more traditional tour in line with the race's early years and it will begin in Lille.

The tour director has created a route that the defending champion Tadej Pogačar called brutal and is essentially split into two halves. The opening half will see 10 mainly flat stages, which will suit the sprinters. However, the next 10 will take the riders up the Pyrenees and Alps before the traditional final day procession and dash on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. Only two time trial days are set aside, and one of these is a brutal uphill stage between Loudenvielle to Peyragudes on stage 13, which will play a huge part in sorting the peloton out before 5 more hard mountain stages.

The biggest talking point outside the route has been the addition of a 23rd team, which some have claimed will cause safety issues; certainly, the more riders in the peloton on coastal stages can lead to larger crashes as crosswinds can play havoc. The benefit for gamblers, however, is the more opportunities for surprises as smaller teams' riders look to make a name for themselves.

Tour de France Femmes 2025 Overview

Following on from the men’s event, Brittany will see the grand departure of another set of riders as the Tour De France Femmes heads off on its own route around France. Women’s road racing has seen a massive increase in popularity in recent years, and this has gone from a one-off race just before or after the men's tour to becoming its own official tour event since 2022, which includes all 15 women’s professional teams. The growth in popularity and size of the women’s tour has led to this year's edition being elongated to 9 races over 10 days. This makes it the longest ever women’s tour event held.

The women’s event this year is structured much like the men’s, with 5 mostly flat stages followed by 4 heavy mountain days. There is no final day procession for the ladies, however, as they will finish atop the famous Alpine ski resort of Les Portes des Soleil, and the contenders will likely have to race right up to the line in what promises to be an exciting finish. The French love anything cycling related, and the Women’s race should see packed towns and roadsides just like the men's one. You can expect Cédrine Kerbaol, the big French hopeful, to receive widespread support as they hope she can better her 6th-place finish last year.

History of Tour de France

In the days before the internet and television, road race cycling coverage was pretty much restricted to reading the next days newspaper. In France, newspapers would be in a rush to print the results of track events and the classics (a series of one-day road cycling races still held today) first to optimise their sales. The two main rival publications were L’Auto and L’Éclair. With the interest in road race cycling clear from the classics, and L’Auto’s sales falling, their main journalist, Géo Lefèvre, suggested a 6-day setup of races around France sponsored by L’Auto to help boost their sales.

It represented a chance to bring the big names of the day to provincial French towns that were away from the main tracks and races in the north of France.

The first edition took place in 1903 at the start of July, it had 60 entrants, 5 stages and was won by French legend Maurice Garin (despite some allegations of cheating!). The tour was a huge success and gained nationwide interest, and boosted sales of both newspapers considerably. The success led to the tour becoming an annual event that was only interrupted by the two World Wars.

As the tour developed and grew, more stages and more jerseys were added for various disciplines (green, polka dot, white, combative), and French interest has never wavered despite their last yellow jersey winner coming way back in 1986. The leaders' jersey being yellow began in 1919, as yellow was the main colour of the L’Auto logo. Part of this is the increased worldwide appeal of both the sport and the tour. We have now seen competitors and winners from countries right across the world.

The tour has had many ups and downs and has never been far from controversy, mainly concerning doping, with the most infamous winner, Lance Armstrong, being stripped of 7 titles between 1999-2005 in a dark era for the sport. This is in some ways the thin edge of the wedge, and allegations of cyclists doping are still rife and follow all successful cyclists and teams. The sport today is probably as clean as it has ever been, with regular drug tests and cyclists having their personal Athlete Biological Passport (ABP), which regulates their performances across the annual world tour.

Why Bet on the Tour de France 2025?

The Tour de France is pretty much a bettor's paradise, with 21 days of cycling action and daily races that give you the chance to bet on various outcomes during a day's racing, in-play or before the start, that lasts between 4-7 hours! The main markets are below:

• Overall Tour Jersey Winners (yellow - best time, Polka Dot - most mountain points, green - Most sprint points, Red and white - most combative).
• Stage Winner - The Daily winner of the stage.
• Stage sprints/climb winners - Daily mini race points to bet on.
• Fastest - Which riders are quickest on time trial stages?
• Head-to-Heads - Choose two riders or more and bet on who finishes first from those selections.
• Team Helmet - Which team will finish first overall or by stage?
• Margin of Victory - How many minutes a rider will win by.

Top Betting Sites for Tour de France 2025

1xBet #1

1xBet is well established in the sports betting market, having operated since 2007, and it accepts a good range of payment methods in Malaysian currency. They have markets on a wide range of sports as well as offering special bets on politics and TV shows. You can also use the casino section of the site once you are registered. More importantly, as a worldwide site, they will have excellent Tour de France coverage for their players to access and should run some promotions all the way through the 21-day race. 1xBet is worth adding to your online gambling portfolio if you have not already, and not just for the generous welcome bonus that is on hand.

BK8  #2

BK8 offers a safe and trusted sportsbook for its Malaysian player base. Founded in 2014, with its headquarters in Malta, they hold a full offshore licence. They offer a bespoke welcome bonus for Malaysian bettors, which is one of the biggest in the region. But there are plenty of other reasons to sign up here as well. BK8 has a huge range of sports and markets to choose from and a well-structured casino section to use. In terms of Tour de France coverage, they should have a range of markets and bets for you to enjoy during the race, following on from their general cycling coverage during the normal season.

GemBet #3

Gembet was only formed in 2021 but has already become one of the fastest-growing bookmakers and Casinos in the Southeast Asian region. It has established a big user base in both Singapore and Malaysia, you might have seen their adverts locally fronted by football legend Luca Modric. GemBet has a huge range of over 50 sports you can bet on and get odds and markets on, and has weekly free tournaments alongside numerous bonuses and offers. They will be covering the Tour de France on their dedicated cycling section, so head there to see the current race odds. Added to all this, the welcome bonus is one of the most generous on this list.

AW8 #4

AW8 is a site that is very much Asian oriented, having been formed in 2018 with a PAGCOR gambling license. It is totally accessible in Malaysia and has a welcome bonus in Malaysian currency that you can recoup when you join. We would recommend you take them up on this as the site is packed full of sports, markets and features, has a mobile app that is easy to use and works on both Android and iOS and a large selection of ways to deposit and withdraw, including cryptocurrency. They cover cycling all year round and will be a good place for you to head when you are looking to place your Tour De France bets.

888Starz #5

With a full Curacao licence, you can trust 888Starz with your Malaysian bankroll. They have only been operating in the gambling market since 2020, but they have a real dedication to covering all the major worldwide sports and events. This includes cycling (Section shows as - bicycle racing). This means the Tour de France will be covered here, and hopefully, they will have some weekly promotions included as well.  Add to this a full casino section and over 40 other sports you can bet on, you can use this as a one-stop shop for all your gambling. Sporting odds are consistently good and it is well worth adding this website to your gambling portfolio.

Tour de France 2025 Predictions & Favourites

Realistically, here we need to look at the main prizes on offer via the GC (General classification) as well as the KOM (King of the Mountains) and Points Competition (Green Jersey). You also have both the Young rider (White Jersey) and Team award (Yellow helmet) to look at for pre-race overall bets.

For the GC, Tadej Pogacar is the clear favourite and is trading at around 5/11, and no surprise, he has won 3 out of the last 5 years. The man who won in the two years Pogacar missed (2022 and 2023) is Jonas Vingegaard and he is 2nd favourite on odds at (13/5). Outside of these two, the dark horse is Remco Evenepoel (14/1). Anyone else comes in over a 20/1 bar and would need one of the main favourites to go down in a crash to have much chance.

KOM has two clear favourites as this will likely be won by the same rider who takes GC, so you are again looking at a pick between Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard.

The green jersey is always the most open of the main prizes. It has been shared by 6 riders over the last 6 years. It is worth looking at a big sprinter to take this, but you want to find one that can survive the brutal 10 mountain stages after the flats in this tour. Tim Merlier is currently the main favourite, but there are a few to look out for and you can not write off last year's winner, the wiry Eritrean, Biniam Girmay.

Team-wise wise it is likely to be the GC winner’s team that takes the prize, so that makes it either UAE Team Emirates (Pogacar) or Visma–Lease a Bike (Vingegaard).

The white jersey rewards the young rider with the best final time in the race. You must be under 26 on January 1st 2025, to be eligible for this award. Last year's winner, Remco Evenepoel, is the clear favourite here, though those looking for an outside bet then maybe Carlos Rodríguez or Matteo Jorgenson can spring a surprise.

In terms of stage wins, etc, it is better to look at these as the race progresses and take it one stage at a time; there is little value in trying to pick later stage winners pre-race! Having said that, the opening stage will be a sprinter's dream, and with the chance to take yellow for the day on the line, you know that everyone will be pushing hard. I would look at one of the pre-mentioned Girmay or Merlier, or one of the big, powerful sprinters, such as Jasper Philipsen or Dylan Groenewegen.

Tour de France Betting Strategies and Tips

There are several things to think about when you are betting on the Tour. You need to remember the tour lasts for 3 weeks and things can take a lot of twists and turns with odds potentially changing rapidly from the grand depart to the final sprint in Paris.

• Rider Form - The rider's form is crucial; track this on betting websites or via cycling results. Riders will often target one of the grand tours, and their season’s racing will be geared towards this. Look for riders coming into the tour who are placing well in the races coming up to the tour start.
• Injuries - Being fit plays a massive part in a bike race; keep an eye on who is racing with an injury, who has had a fall and is recovering, and who might have overexerted themselves in a stage and need a rest the next day.
• Know the Stage - Mountain stages favour climbers, flat stages - sprinters, hilly stages - breakaway riders, time trial stages - time triallists. Beyond this simple definition, you also need to look at riders who may know the stage route as they are local to the area. It is also good to see who has performed well if the stage route has been raced in previous years of the tour.
• Team Orders - You have two types of riders, domestic and team leaders, and teams. Teams will be targeting certain stages and events. Riders will need team clearance to attack on certain stages or ride to team orders. You will need to understand who is allowed to go for wins and breakaways on a certain day.

Live Betting on the Tour de France 2025

There are numerous live betting markets in the Tour, and with stages lasting up to 7 hours on extreme mountain days, it is easy to get your bets on and in on time. It is important to keep your eye on who is looking strong in a breakaway and who might have to hold themselves back due to team orders when making these bets.

• Next sprint - Every stage will have mid-stage sprints, and you can bet on who will win them; it may be the whole peloton that contests this or just the members of the day's breakaway.
• Next Climb - You can bet on who will be first to the top of a mountain climb and take the King of the Mountain points.
• Live Head to Heads - You can bet on who will finish in front of whom on a stage.
• Stage Winner - Picking a stage winner later in the race gives you a chance to assess whether you think the current breakaway will last.
• Will a rider abandon? - You can bet on whether a rider will finish the stage within the time limit or abandon the race, which is worth a look after a crash.

What Payment Methods Can I Use to Bet on the Tour de France 2025?

There are numerous payment methods you can use to bet on the Tour de France. Below is a general run-down of the main forms, though this can vary between websites and different forms of each.

Tour de France 2025 Bonuses and Promotions

There are a multitude of different bonuses that different bookmakers will use for the Tour de France in Malaysia. Keep your eye on the main websites for the best ones. They should fall into the categories below in general.

Pros and Cons of Betting on the Tour de France 2025

Let’s face it, despite the lack of Malaysian interest in the men’s tour in terms of riders competing in it, there are plenty of reasons for you to look into getting yourself involved personally with some gambling action. Let’s look at some pros and cons of betting on the race.