Tennis is up there with football and horse racing as one of the most popular sports to bet on in the UK. And with so many tennis betting markets available, there are plenty of opportunities to get involved!
But knowing what the different tennis betting markets are can be tricky. You’ve come to the right place. Here are the markets I’ll talk about in this post:
- Match betting
- Handicap betting
- Over and under totals
- Correct score
- Set winner
- In-play betting
- Outright betting
Understand tennis betting markets better and boost your profits!
Tennis betting markets
Match betting
This is the most popular and basic form of tennis betting. It’s simple: place a bet on a player to win a match. If the player wins, you win the bet. However, if the player loses, you lose, too.
Handicap betting
Handicap betting shows up in all kinds of sports betting. And it’s the same in tennis. Bookmakers give a handicap to a player to level out the match. It’s a good way to bet when a match looks really one-sided but the match winner odds are too low to consider. If you bet on handicaps, it’s important to count the number of games and not to predict the actual winner of the match.
Game handicaps
We’ve all heard the term “game, set and match”, but what does it mean? Well, it’s the scoring strategy of tennis. There are four points in each game: 0, 15, 30 and 40.
In game handicaps, one player is given a game advantage and the other is given a game deficit.
Example: Player A +5.5 games and player B -5.5 games.
Set handicaps
To win a set, a player must win at least 6 games. The maximum number of sets in a tennis match is 5 for men and 3 for women.
In set handicaps, one player is given a set advantage and the other is given a set deficit.
Example: Player A +1.5 sets and player B -1.5 sets.
Over and under totals
There are two forms of tennis over and unders: total games and total sets.
Total games over and under
A bet can be placed on the match finishing with under 21.5 games played (maximum of 21) or with over 21.5 games played (minimum of 22).
Total sets over and under
A bet can be placed on the match finishing with under 3.5 sets played (maximum of 3) or with over 3.5 sets played (minimum of 4).
Correct score
Use this tennis betting market to predict the scoreline of a match or a set. The odds tend to be higher as the chances of winning are much lower.
Match correct score
The type of bet used when predicting the winning player of a match and the correct scoreline by which the player won.
Set correct score
The type of bet used when predicting the correct scoreline of a single set.
Set Winner
Bet on a player to win a single set (the first, second or third).
In-play betting
In-play betting on tennis is growing in popularity with a wide range of markets available. It can be a quick-fire way for punters to make a profit when betting on the scoreline of individual games or sets.
Outright betting
Tournament winner
The odds lower on this type of market as soon as the tournament begins, so punters tend to place their bets on the winner before it begins.
Quarter final winner
A bet placed on a player to reach and play in the semi finals.
Player to reach final
A bet placed on a player to reach and play in the tournament final.
Each way betting on tennis
One bet is placed on a player to win the tournament outright and a second bet is placed on the same player to reach the final, but ultimately finish as runner-up. Either way, you’ll win some money with an each way bet. How much, though, depends on the outcome of the match.
Read our article on each way betting to find out more.
Alternative tennis betting markets
Other, less popular, tennis betting markets include:
- Winning margin
The number of games a match was won by. - Individual player totals
The number of games or sets won by an individual player during the course of a match. - Tie break
The possibility of a tie-break being played in a specific set or at sometime in the entire match. - Correct score after a given number of games
The set scoreline after a given number of games. - To not win a set
The possibility of a player winning a minimum of one set.
Now that you’re an expert on tennis betting markets, it’s time to bust some bookmaker jargon.
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