Tennis betting markets explained

| 18.02.16 | 0 Comments

With Andy Murray established at the top of the game, more tennis superstars than ever, and widespread TV coverage, tennis has shot up in popularity and so has betting on the sport.

With many tennis tournaments taking place throughout the year, there’s plenty to bet on. There is only one outright winner in a game of tennis, so understanding all the markets can be tricky.

Match Winner

Many players will stick to what they know and place a wager on a player to win the game of tennis. This simply means putting your money on whoever you think will win the game and advance to the next round. The odds on these markets are not great, you won’t get a big return when betting on the favourite and there are rarely upsets in tennis. If Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic play then the odds will be low for each player, as they are somewhat evenly matched.

Handicap Markets

Bookies use handicap markets to level the playing field, so to speak. These handicaps counter the difference in the players’ tennis ability. This is to give both competitors a fair chance of winning. The handicap is put in place on the final score to determine the game’s outcome for the sake of the bet (this can be different from the actual match result), so you’re betting on a player to win with a handicap in play.

Accumulators

A widely popular betting market across all sports. Also known as an acca or parley, the accumulator bet is a selection of winners from a number of games; if you correctly predict all winners then you’re in the money. The accumulator bet has a high return if successful, as the bet is spread across a number of events and not one event alone.

The more matches you add to the accumulator, the higher your potential profit, and the margins of the bookmaker (obviously).

Match Totals Markets

This is a common alternative to handicap bets, instead of predicting the outright winner of the game; you’re picking the sets, points, aces, or any other quantifiable figure in the tennis match. You’ll find that sportsbooks offer the option to pick the sets to be over or under a certain number, along with other in-event betting markets.

Set Betting

With this betting market, you have to predict the correct outcome of the match based on how many sets each player will win. Betting on the sets is another market that offers rewarding odds, these odds are much higher than the outright match winner bets, but come with an added risk, of course.

Tennis matches usually have the best-of-three-sets (a player wins 2:0 or 2:1) with men’s singles matches on Grand Slams and in the Davis Cup being the best-of-five-sets.

Other betting markets

There are other popular betting markets to wager on including tie break in-match or first set, first set winner, first set correct score, tournament winner and many more. Sportsbooks are always looking to maximise betting opportunities with added markets becoming available all the time.

If you’re interested in betting on the big tennis games, we’ve got a handy list of recommended tennis betting sites to help you narrow down your search.