Betting 101: Understanding Tennis Betting Markets

You may be the wondering why we’re talking about tennis betting in November. After all, the next Grand Slam is not until January 2019.

That’s true.

But what is also true is that before the year runs out, a handful of tennis events will still take place. As such, there’s no better time to learn about tennis betting than right now.

What you learn now could come in handy before the end of the year. It also sets you in the right place to cash in on all the Australian Open action set to come in January.

So, what do you need to know?

The Basics

To be able to make successful bets on tennis games, you have to be familiar with some of the rules of the game. This will help you to understand the betting markets better and will aid in making informed guesses.

Points, games, and sets are the things involved in the scoring system of a tennis match.

A set consists of a number of games (a minimum of six), each of which consists of points. Before a set can be won, one of the competing sides has to be the first to win 6 games, with a margin of at least 2 games over the other side (e.g. 6–3 or 7–5).

A match is won when a player or a doubles team wins the majority of prescribed sets. Grand Slam matches employ either a best-of-three set (female category) or best-of-five set (male category) format.

The Markets

Depending on the kind of tennis game, the available betting markets vary. But for a typical game, you will find the following betting markets:

1. Player (1 or 2) to Win a Set: Here, you can get the chance to predict whether a preferred player will win a set in the game or not.
2. Match Winner: You bet on who will win the game.
3. Home to Win to Nil: It may be a bit confusing to know which player is at “home or away.” Don’t be confused. Just look at which two players are up against each other. The one that comes first is the home player while the one that follows is the away player. For example, Rafa Nadal vs. Roger Federer. In this case, Rafa Nadal is the home player while Roger Federer is the away player.
4. 1^st Set Love: 1st Set Love is a betting market where you can either bet for or against either player not winning any game in the first set.
5. Match Total Games (O/U): Here, you can predict whether or not the total games in a match will be more than or less than a select amount.
6. Total Sets: Do you think a tennis game will be only two sets long or you think it will extend to a three-set-long game or maybe even longer (given it’s a Grand Slam tournament)? Then bet accordingly.

Did you find this post useful? Don’t hesitate to send us your questions related to tennis betting. Leave us your comments and we’ll try to respond with our best answers.