sign up sign in
Betting Advice

Everything You Need To Know About Tennis Betting

how to bet on tennis

Introduction

Tennis is a very popular sport around the world. There are plenty of different tennis competitions played annually on a global scale. You can consistently bet on different tennis fixtures because, at any given point, there will be tennis at some level. Of course, the Major events are played over a 4-tournament layout, but other smaller games also occur throughout the year. This piece will introduce you to everything you need to know about tennis betting.

Tennis Betting Explained

Betting on tennis is easy enough in its simplest form. You just select the market you want to bet on and enter your stake amount before submitting the bet.  If you are betting via a bookmaker, you select the outcome you think will happen. If you are betting on an Exchange, you have the option to bet on an outcome NOT happening. These will be explained in further detail later. You must understand a few small factors before betting on tennis. These include the Odds, rules and scoring methods for a game of tennis. An explanation of these three segments will be given in the following short headings so you can fully understand them.

Odds

The Odds of a bet are how likely the bookmaker thinks the outcome is to happen. BetConnect odds are displayed in fractional values, with 8/13 as an example. To understand these odds, you must first know the numerator and denominator. The Numerator comes before the slash, and the Denominator is after the slash. In fractional odds, for every Denominator you place, you will win the Numerator as profit. For example, every £13 placed will see you gain £8 in profit (totalling £21). Odds change for every market; you could see odds rising higher than a whopping 20/1 (£20 profit for every £1 placed!)

Rules

In Tennis, players must hit the ball over the top of the net while making the opposing player fail to hit the ball back. A white box borders a playing area, and if the ball goes outside this box before it has bounced inside the box, the point goes to the opposing player. To score a point during a game, the serving player must hit the ball into the opposing player’s half and then have it bounce twice within the playing borders or once before leaving the area of play.

Scoring

To win overall in tennis, the player must win 2 Matches. To win a Match, the player must be the first to win 6 Sets. For a Set victory, the player must win three games. For a Game, the player must be the first to score 5 points. Scoring points is done as explained in the previous section. To win any Match section, the player must be the first to reach the specified number. There can be no Ties; if the Match is tied, it will continue with a tiebreaker Set.

A Brief History of Tennis

Historians widely believe tennis originated in northern France in the 12th century. Tennis, or lawn tennis, as we know it now, was invented in Birmingham, England. Royal/Real Tennis is another game version that follows the old and more complex rules. Some of the big tennis tournaments played during the year date back to the 1800s, but the sport has been around for much longer.

Tennis Organisations

A few large Tennis organisations oversee the different players and the tournaments they participate in. These different associations and federations are where most players will define their legacies and the legacy of whatever country they represent in Major tournaments.

ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals)

The ATP Tour, ATP Challenger Tour, and ATP Champions Tour are the three men’s professional tennis circuits governed by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). To safeguard the interests of professional tennis players, Cliff Drysdale, Jack Kramer, and Donald Dell founded it in September 1972. Drysdale was elected as the organisation’s first President.

ITF (International Tennis Federation)

World tennis, wheelchair tennis, and beach tennis are all governed by the International Tennis Federation (ITF). Twelve national tennis organisations formed the International Lawn Tennis Federation in 1913. ITF’s membership consisted of 211 national and six regional organisations as of 2016.

WTA (Women’s Tennis Association)

The Women’s Tennis Association is, of course, the main organising body for any female professional Tennis player. The WTA Tour is one event governed by the Women’s Tennis Association, and this tour was founded to create brighter futures for female tennis players worldwide. The WTA Tour takes place from January to November, with breaks in between to split the competitions and allow players to compete in tournaments such as the Majors.

Betting on Tennis

Placing a bet on a Tennis match with BetConnect is easy. Firstly, you want to make sure you are signed in and have money in your account balance. Next, select the match you wish to bet on and use the drop-down menu to select the market you want. You can then place your stake amount in the box, and the bet will be placed. It is that simple, and now you just have to wait until the bet settles to see if your bet has won or lost.

Tennis Betting Markets

With any sport, you can choose from various markets and decide which ones you think you have more knowledge or luck with. There are a few different markets that bets can be placed on during any tennis. The main markets to look for are the following;

Match Result

These are the most popular wagers on Tennis. You choose a matchup and wager on the player you believe will win. In most cases, a contest will have a “favourite,” the bookies predict will win. You will always get the greatest odds with BetConnect, giving you an edge over other bettors.

Game Handicap

A game handicap wager is similar to a match result but has an extra layer of speciality. Imagine betting on a team to win a game, but you make them start the game on negative points. For example, in Tennis, you are betting that Rafael Nadal will win a Set by at least 1 Game; you can bet on Nedal at a -1 handicap (meaning he hypothetically starts the set on -1 games). This works in reverse, too, betting on the underdog to win while giving them a positive handicap, hypothetically starting the Set with an extra Game win.

First Set Winner

In Tennis, to win overall, a player must win on two fronts. A match is made up of 3 won sets, and a set is made up of 6 won games. The player to win the first Set is a common betting market in tennis matchups, as the underdog could come out strong and win the first set and then end up losing as the bookmakers expected. You will be able to bet on each Set as an in-play market.

Ways to Bet

There are many different methods of placing your bets on Tennis. You can choose from any of these options, and if one of them is easier than the other, then it is probably the better choice for you. The next few sections will show you the main ways to place your bets. The previous sections have taught you what bets you can place on tennis, so now you need to know where to go to place them.

Online Bookmakers

The easiest way to access betting and sportsbooks is through online bookmakers. The advancement of the digital world means that many physical casinos could move online. This allowed for plenty of new opportunities for gamblers, and now there is so much you can do with online casinos and sportsbooks. This will only continue to develop as time progresses and the online world gains more users worldwide.

Betting Shops

If gambling online is not your style, then your next option is to travel to a real betting shop and do it the old way. When visiting your local betting shop, you can put your bets on sheets of paper and collect your winnings in cash. For some, this is a massive benefit compared to other betting methods. The rush of collecting real money compared to numbers on a screen is much more amplified. Another advantage of betting in a betting shop is that there is no need to sign up and present documents other than your ID if you are lucky enough to look younger than 25 years old! Many gamblers will make it very apparent that they are not fans of the complex and overly detailed sign-up process online.

Exchanges

An exchange, such as the Betfair exchange or the exchange offered by Betconnect, is a method of trading bets rather than just placing bets on the markets. They are more of a marketplace than a sportsbook. Gamblers can buy and sell the outcome of a scenario, also known as back and lay. Backing an outcome is the same as placing a regular sportsbook bet, as you are essentially staking on the idea that something WILL happen. On the other side is a Lay bet in which they say an outcome WILL NOT happen. Laying a bet is the opposite of placing a regular bet.

Majors Betting

There are many tennis events annually, but the main four are separate from the rest. These four are known as the Majors, and they each take place in a different country where Tennis is a largely popular sport. The four countries in question are Australia, France, the UK and the USA. The four Majors feature the best male and female tennis players worldwide, all competing for the chance to take home the trophy and a large sum of prize money. The rest of this piece has given you information about how to bet on Tennis markets, but the next few sections will enlighten you about the four Majors.

Australian Open

The Australian Open makes up one-quarter of the annual Major Tournaments in Tennis. This tournament is held in Melbourne, Australia, and is the year’s first tournament. The first season was played in 1905, and each year’s competition has total prize money of $75,000,000. It starts in the middle of January each year and lasts two weeks, featuring men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s/women’s/mixed doubles, wheelchair, legends and exhibition events.

Roland-Garros

Roland-Garros, also known as the French Open, is the second chronological Major event in the Tennis calendar. After the Australian Open is played in January, this competition occurs in late May. Of course, the competition takes place in France, right in the heart of Paris. It is named after a French aviator named Roland Garros and is the world’s only premier clay court championship. Due to the competition being played on clay courts, players expect a slower pace of play and higher ball bounces. This makes it the most physically demanding of the four majors.

Wimbledon

Wimbledon is globally defined as the most prestigious of the four Majors. This competition has been around for the longest time compared to other tennis tournaments, founded in 1877. Wimbledon is played between late June and early July and takes place in London, England. The name comes from where it is played; Wimbledon in Southwest London. Wimbledon is the only Major with a night-time curfew, although games can be played until 11 pm with the correct lighting.

US Open

Now, we take a venture over to the United States of America for our final of the four Majors. The US Open is played on hardcourt, beginning on the last Monday of August. The first US Open was played in 1881, making it the second oldest out of the four Majors. It was previously known as the US National Championship, but to fit with the theme of them being called the ‘Opens’, it makes perfect sense to change it. There are men’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s singles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles. There are also senior, junior and wheelchair events.

Tennis Betting Tips

You can find many tipsters around the internet who will provide tips, but it is difficult to decide which tipster to follow, and there is no guarantee that their tips will be consistent in providing winners. Instead of following a specific person’s ideas, we would recommend you clue yourself up on the sport instead. You can find our Tennis Betting information in the Blog section or learn about the sport from different sites. This piece has given you insight into the basics and a little more detail, but there is always more to learn before putting real money in.

Summary

At BetConnect, we pride ourselves on bringing our users a seamless experience and the best possible odds for placing their bets. You will always be presented with the best odds from our database of bookmakers, and the comparisons will be made automatically. As well as this, we provide information about many sports, and you can find betting guides for different sports/events in our blog section.