Tennis Betting Guide: Understanding Markets & Odds
Relying heavily on technical prowess and tremendous stamina, it’s the unpredictable and high-paced nature of the game that’s made tennis betting so popular.
Tennis is a very straightforward sport, and yet, there are so many different ways to bet on the outcomes of each match or tournament. In this tennis betting guide, we’ll walk you through all of the markets and tennis odds to let you place your wagers fully informed.
Understanding the Basics of Tennis Betting
Tennis betting offers a vast array of different outcomes, incidents, and score lines to bet on, but first, it’s key to get a grip of the basics. This means knowing how the sport works and what is meant by each of the core tennis bet types.
How Does Tennis Work?
Tennis Scoring
Tennis scoring is essentially a race to reach four points while also being two or more points ahead of the other player. The calls for each of these four points are “Love” for zero points, “15” for one point, “30” for two points, “40” for three points, and “game” for securing the fourth point while being two-up on the opponent.
When the game is tied at 40-40 or “deuce,” the game must continue until one player wins two points before the other. This puts the calls to “advantage,” for being one point up, and then “game” for winning with that second consecutive point gain.
Winning in Tennis
From there, a player must win six games again with a margin of at least two wins to then win the set.
A match can be a best-of-three or best-of-five sets, meaning that the player needs to win at least two or three sets in the match to win. This format holds across the many tour events and the headline Grand Slams.
Key Tournaments in the Tennis Calendar
The Grand Slams are the pinnacle of professional tennis and are the main attractions of tennis betting. The Australian Open is the first, taking place in January. In May, it’s the French Open (also known as Roland-Garros), followed by June’s Wimbledon, and then the US Open in August.
How Ranking Works in Tennis
Another aspect to note is ranking. Throughout the year, the men’s ATP and the women’s WTA offer ranking points to players who perform at their certified events.
A player’s score and ranking reflect their efforts over the last 52 weeks. A maximum of 19 results for men or 16 for women can count towards the score.
The points on offer for each tournament and for each stage within each tournament differ. The most on offer is 2,000 points for winning a Grand Slam. So, the rankings can help to inform your tennis betting by showing who has performed the best over the last year.
Popular Bet Types in Tennis
Here’s what you need to understand each tennis bet type available.
Moneyline
The moneyline tennis bet is just a bet on which of the two players or the two doubles teams will win the match at hand.
Set Betting
In set betting, you can bet on which player you think will win the first, second, or later sets.
There are also lines for betting on how many games a set will contain. For example, you bet on there being under or over 10.5 games in the first set. You can also bet on the correct set score in the match.
Game Betting
Game betting can be an overall market or a player-specific one. The Total Games betting market sees you bet if there will be under or over a set count of games in the match. You can also back Player A or Player B to win over or under a number of games in the match.
Handicap Betting
Handicap tennis betting, which is also known as tennis game spread betting, applies a handicap to the number of games won to either player. The player then needs to win the match with that game spread applied. The handicap can be a minus and deduct games from the player’s score, or a plus to bet on a losing player winning with a handicap added on.
Over/Under Betting (Totals)
Totals or over/under betting lets you pick if you think there will be over or under a given count of games in a match. You can usually use a slider or pick from a list of options with this tennis bet.
Prop Bets
Tennis prop bets cover a vast range of options, including markets like if a player will win at least one set, which player will win the most games, and which player will take the first set.
Understanding Odds in Tennis
There are three different kinds of tennis odds: American, decimal, and fractional. On the same bet, they’ll relay the same outcomes, just by presenting them differently.
American Odds
With American odds, you’ll see plus numbers and minus numbers. The smaller a minus number goes, such as out to -5,000, the more likely the oddsmakers see that outcome as being, and the less your bet will return. A 100-coin bet on -5,000 odds, for example, will payout 102 coins in total. For positive odds, like +300, the opposite is true. These are the longer odds that return more than your stake if they win. Here, 5 coins on +300 pays 20 coins.
Decimal Odds
Decimal odds show the total amount that your bet would return per unit staked. Again, the lower the number, the shorter the odds. Decimal odds of 1.04 pay 0.20 coins on a 5 coin bet.
On a 1-coin bet at odds of 5.36, you would win 5.36 coins.
Fractional Odds
Fractional odds show as the amount you could win on the left if you stake the amount shown on the right of the fraction, not including your stake – which always returns on a winning bet, too.
So, 1/4 pays 1.25 coins on a 1-coin bet, showing a more likely outcome to occur. On the flip side, 4/1 pays a total of 5 coins from a 1-coin bet.
Finding Value in Odds
Tennis odds are created as a reflection of what huge statistical samples suggest should be the outcome, and the odds can be swayed by a large amount of action from bettors. It’s a way of ensuring that a bookmaker can operate as a business whichever way the result swings.
However, this does leave the door open to odds having more value than they perhaps should. If you know your tennis, have received important news swiftly, or think that the market is overestimating a certain outcome, you can find value in the tennis betting odds offered.
What to Look Out for Before Placing Your Tennis Bet
You should commit to doing deep-dive research on any upcoming match before assessing the tennis odds and placing a bet. These are some key areas to consider.
Court Surface and Players’ History
Court surface makes a huge difference.
You can look at all of the greats, be it Rafael Nadal mastering the clay or Serena and Venus Williams being particularly dominant on hard courts.
Especially when looking at the rankings to assess who the better player is, check their history on grass, clay, or hard courts to see if their ranking and form mesh with the surface of the upcoming match.
Injuries and Busy Schedules
Being such an intense sport, injuries have long had an outsized influence on tennis betting. If the best in the world is back on the court after a long injury, they may find themselves on the wrong side of an upset.
It can take a lot of time to get back up to speed in tennis, but to do so, you have to compete somewhere. Further, some players will stack up tournament entries to try to get enough points for certain Grand Slams. This can leave them fatigued, which could be worth considering when placing a tennis bet.
Magnitude of a Situation
How does the player handle the high-pressure moments? Some players simply can’t handle the biggest games, while others are too lackadaisical in the early stages and find themselves bowing out before they should in smaller tournaments.
Check the player’s history to make sure they can perform in the situation at hand.
Weather Conditions
While some tournaments are played indoors, the majority of them – including the four Grand Slams – are played outdoors. This means that weather conditions like rain, wind, and beaming sunlight will have a say in the outcome. Some players struggle on a slick surface or particularly hot days, so considering the weather conditions with their past performances is also key.
Player’s Form
Even the greats see a dip in form at some point, and it’s always preferable to catch a player in good form than to hope they break a slump. Their own personal run of form is one thing, but what many find is that they struggle against certain players time and time again on the circuit. As such, head-to-head form is well worth considering.
You can also tell a lot from the seeding of a player in a tournament, which indicates how well their year is going, generally speaking. Some will have enjoyed a surge in form prior, clawing into the seeding spots, while others may have faded from higher seeding and thus, be in poor form. Check these elements before looking at the tennis odds.
Home Advantage
Professional tennis players get used to travelling the world to compete on the court, but for many, there’s no place like home. Experience on courts in your home country and with the weather can count for a lot in tight games, as can having the support of a home crowd.
What You Should Avoid When Betting on Tennis
When betting on tennis, you follow the guidance of all forms of betting: never chase your loses, don’t bet without a set budget, and never bet at random.
Chasing Losses
If you lose your bet, even if it was just by the finest of margins, you should never seek to chase your losses. The best thing to do after a loss is to step back, reassess, and do your research before considering another tennis bet. It also helps to have a budget in place to know when to stop.
Playing Without a Budget
Entering the markets with a set budget is a good way to go to avoid significant losses. The budget ensures that you don’t bet beyond your means and that, even if you lose, it’s a manageable loss that you based your budget on.
Do Research and Avoid Betting Randomly
Before placing any bet, be it on tennis futures or any other kind of sports betting market, you should always do as much research as you can. That way, you can go into the bet as informed as you can be, rather than selecting a random bet.
Of course, the outcome of sports is based on so many external factors, which means that even with research, this does not guarantee an outcome; it is only one factor you can consider before placing your bet.