Tennis Betting

Tennis odds are fairly straightforward to understand, but if you are new to gambling online in the UK it is worthwhile having a quick refresher of how they work and what they mean for your winnings.

Most bookies will typically list their tennis bets prices in the familiar fraction style to start with, although if you go into your account options you will likely be able to switch to decimal odds if you so wish.

Fraction odds – for example 20/1 – show the stake on the left of the slash and the potential winnings on the right, so a price of 20/1 means you win £1 for every £1 you decide to stake.

Decimal odds are used on exchange sites such as Betfair, but a lot of people who gamble now prefer to view prices in this way as it is easier for them to understand. In decimal tennis betting odds, 20/1 would be shown as 21, with the number simply referring to the amount of money that you will win for every £1 you place.

When you are betting in-play on a tennis bet site, decimal odds can be a very useful way to see quickly how the prices are moving according to the momentum of the game, but it is up to you which you prefer to use.

The nature of tennis means that there is usually at least one dominant player in the men’s and women’s games, with the sport very cyclical in this sense as there are very defined eras.

What this means in tennis betting terms is that the top player in the world, whether they are male or female, is that they are likely to be short-priced favourites for most of their matches.

Making money from backing the big names to win on UK sites is, therefore, going to be a very slow process as there is not a lot of profit to be made here, but this does not mean gambling on the sport cannot be very worthwhile as long as you have a solid tennis betting strategy.

Tennis is played on a variety of surfaces – grass, clay and hard courts – and this makes a massive difference to some players, with some individuals specialising in one particular service.

The best players in the world are usually all-rounders who can thrive whatever court they are on, but sometimes they may have a weakness that can be exploited, especially if they come up against someone who is on their favoured surface.

Whether the match is being played indoors or outdoors, and whether it is in the UK or elsewhere in the world, can be decisive factors when deciding where to place your money, especially when live tennis betting.

The biggest indoor tournament is the World Tour Finals, which takes place at the end of the year and helps to decide who will top the rankings until the start of the new season, while the vast majority of other tennis events are held outdoors.

Like most sports gambling these days, tennis has a lot of different options and this is especially the case if you decide to bet in-play, once a match is under way.

Of course, you can bet on an individual player to win a particular match, or combine a few selections into an accumulator, just as you can with other sports betting with online bookmakers.

The internet is home to a widely varied number of free tennis betting tips, such as betting on the number of sets that will be played in a game, or even the number of games it will take to find a winner. However, finding what works for them might not work for you – so sticking to where you feel comfortable is the safest tip.

When betting on a live match you can place a wager on the winner of the next game or the next set and due to the fast pace of tennis, this can be a good way to win more money fast if you can get on a good run with your preferred online betting site.

It is not just individual tennis matches you can gamble on, as you can also pick out the winner of a tournament in advance in what is often called an ante-post selection.

The main advantage to doing this is that you will likely get a better price than you would if you waited for the event to get under way, but the risk is that the player you have selected suffers a loss of form or perhaps an injury that lessens their chance of success.

As with most sports, the best gambling strategies for tennis usually include a range of bet types that all keep in mind one of the most important rules of betting – always think about value.

Even if you are sure a player is going to win a match or a tournament, take time to carry out a comparison on betting sites for the best possible price to maximise your winnings and if you do not find odds that you believe to be good value, then walk away.

It also goes without saying that you should seek out the top sign-up offers and never put more cash on tennis bets than you can afford to lose.

Tennis tournaments take place almost all-year round these days, but there is a short break in the calendar around the turn of the year, following the conclusion of the World Tour finals event.

The biggest four competitions of the year are known as Grand Slam events and these all provide opportunities to win more money of gambling as bookies will often offer good promotions, while there will be lots of tennis betting tips out there too.

January sees the first major of the year, the Australian Open, which takes place over a fortnight in Melbourne and is played on a hard court.

There is then a break until the next Grand Slam tournament, with the French Open held around late May and early June on the clay courts of Roland Garros.

Following on quickly is a shift to grass courts and one of the biggest British sporting events of the year, Wimbledon, which is held every July in London, seeing sales of Pimms and strawberries go through the roof at UK supermarkets.

The last of the four tennis Grand Slams takes place in the United States, held at the Flushing Meadows complex in New York on hard courts in late August to early September. Fans flock to gamble on big events – the US Open is particularly popular.

London then hosts the World Tour Finals in November, but of course, there are lower-level tournaments all the way throughout the year, with most weeks seeing an event taking place somewhere in the world.

Internationally, there is the Davis Cup for men and the Fed Cup, as well as the Hopman Cup.

Online bookmakers tend to be very clever, so you need to be just as smart and stick to the tennis betting rules if you are going to be a winner when you gamble on tennis.

As in all areas of life, there are no guaranteed tennis betting system short-cuts to success in how to beat the bookies, so taking time and planning ahead is a must if your betting site accounts are to grow in the long run.

Taking value is always the first place to start – but where is the value in this sport? Here at BettingTop10, we are big believers in forging your own path and not following the crowd, so perhaps it is a good idea to stay away from backing the big names.

Often their odds are too short to be worth backing them anyway, while there are often much better prices to be found on the lower-ranked tournaments. Reading a tennis betting forum is a good way to keep track.

Women’s tennis attracts less interest overall than men’s so there could be some good angles to exploit here for betting experts on tennis, while the challenger tour – which is for new players trying to make their way in the sport – is also out of the spotlight.

This is where research can really count, so take time to look into the records of players on types of surfaces, in various countries like the UK or abroad, against specific opponents and at particular events to help find the best value bets.

Sticking with markets on which you are comfortable is good advice for all sports and it rings true for tennis too, as does keeping a record of all your winning and losing bets so you can track performance over time and identify where you might be going wrong if you get on a bad run.

You should know have all the information you need to be successful in betting on tennis – best of luck from us here at BettingTop10.