Our Complete Guide to Tennis Betting – Everything You Need to Know

Tennis is a sport watched, played, and loved by millions of people around the world – and it boasts a big following of punters too. With a multi-tiered professional circuit that provides action for almost the entire year, there are near-endless opportunities to get in on the tennis betting action.

It’s not only that tennis is played all year round that makes it appealing, though; one match alone can boast 18 markets and a multitude of bigger-picture bets.

Not convinced? Don’t worry, there is more to love about tennis: the in-play markets in tennis set it apart from many other sports, adding even more opportunities for you to win big.

By this point you’re probably thinking there might be something to betting on tennis, but where do you start? That’s what we’re here for. We’ve put together an extensive tennis guide that will take you from tennis novice to tennis ace in no time.

Start out by learning the basics of tennis and the must-know rules before meandering down memory lane with a short history lesson and a look at some of the legends of the sport.

Then, when you’re up to speed with how tennis works, it will be time to get down to the details of how to bet on tennis, and what strategies win. After all, that’s what you’re here for!

If you already consider yourself something of an expert, then you can skip right ahead to the juicy betting bits. We’ve included some handy links so that you can jump right ahead (don’t say we don’t look out for everyone…).

Regardless of what tennis knowledge you start off with, we’re confident that by the time you finish reading our tennis betting guide, you’ll be ready to head on over to your favorite betting site and get off to a winning start.

Finding the right site to bet on tennis with is perhaps the hardest part of betting on tennis; there are so many options, and it’s hard to know which one is best. Luckily, we’re here to help.

We’ve done the hard work for you, and have compiled a list of sites that offer you great value, plenty of options, and most importantly are trustworthy and reliable.

Many sites claim to have done their due diligence too, but unfortunately, not everyone has your best interests at heart. Here is why we’re different:

• Our recommendations are based on facts. You can’t pay for a recommendation on our site – we’re not in the business of putting a price on our reputation; we’re in the business of providing you with the best recommendations out there.
• If a site is on our recommended list, it’s because it offers a top-notch product; there is no hidden motivation.
• Our recommendations aren’t for life, so if a site drops its standards then they will drop off our list. We update our recommendations regularly to ensure you’re getting up-to-date advice.

With that in mind, here are the sites which we’ve compiled that we feel offer a great product to bet on tennis with:

We’ve also ranked the best sites for betting on some of the biggest tennis tournaments. You can find our rankings on the following pages. Some of our recommendations appear multiple times, but the best tennis betting sites for one tournament are not necessarily the best for ALL tournaments.

The above sites were selected after a long process that involves significant vetting. We have strict criteria with which we measure sportsbooks and below are some of the most important factors we consider.

There are certain criteria that we simply will not under any circumstances compromise when evaluating sportsbooks and betting sites, and they are Trust, Reputation, Safety, and Security. If we can’t 100% trust a site, it’s not on our list.

If a site does not have a good reputation, it’s not on our list. If we don’t believe your personal information or winnings will be safe with a bookmaker, then they are not on our list. No exceptions.

These criteria should be givens, but unfortunately, the betting industry is filled with companies that don’t have your best interests at heart.

Don’t worry though, we’re here to do the hard work for you so that you steer well clear of any sharks. When analyzing betting sites and sportsbooks, these are the criteria we consider:

• Security and Trustworthiness
• Deposits and Withdrawals
• User Interface
• Game Selection
• Bonuses and Promotions
• Customer Service

Once we’ve weeded out the shady characters, we turn our attention to the factors that will enhance your betting experience. The first of those factors is the markets available.

We know that you don’t just want betting sites that have the best bets, but also sites that have the most bets – after all, the more markets there are, the more money there is to be made!

With this in mind, we consider which betting sites offer the most bets across a wide variety of events. We never want you to head to one of our recommended betting sites and find you can’t bet on the tournament you wanted to, so we consider a sportsbook having a wide range of bets to be a major plus.

Well, that’s not something you need to worry about with sites on our recommended list! Ease of use is crucial to an enjoyable betting experience, so we consider the user interface of a site before adding it to our list.

We’ve all been at the beginning and experienced being new to betting on a certain topic; it can be hard to know what to do first and what to avoid.

We’re here to help you avoid making the mistakes that many punters before you have made, so take a look at our section on the basics of betting on tennis before you go any further. If you’re brand new to the game itself, we even have a guide on tennis terms and meanings you should know.

As with most sports, the official tennis rulebook is a lengthy read, so we’ll just go through the basics that you need to know in order to have a proper understanding of the game.

We’ve been through the basics of the scoring system already, but here is an outline of the complete scoring used in a tennis match…

However, if the score is 40-40 or ‘deuce,’ then at least six points in total are required to win the game – the fifth point results in ‘advantage,’ and the sixth wins the game.

The score in a set could be: 6-4, 6-3, 6-2, 6-1, 6-0, 7-5, or 7-6. The first five options are fairly straightforward: one player reaches six games by a margin of two or more games. However, the score of 7-5 may seem a bit contrary to what we’ve said before.

This is because one player reached six games (6-5) but did not have a two-game advantage. As a result, the set continued and the player with the advantage won the game and with it the set 7-5.

If you thought that one was strange, then 7-6 will be even more bizarre (what happened to the two-game margin?!). This score results when a tiebreak occurs after the players are tied at 6-6.

The winner of the tiebreak is said to have won the deciding game, and with it the set 7-6.

Depending on the tournament, the number of sets over which a match is contested changes. Women’s matches are always best-of-three set encounters. In men’s tennis, best-of-three set matches are used for ATP Tour events, but at grand slams, matches are played over five sets.

The main takeaway from the scoring system is this:

The winner of the match is the player that wins the majority of the sets (either two or three).

The serve is a crucial part of tennis for a number of reasons, the first of which is that it’s how each game gets underway.

There are also a lot of rules that come into play when serving, so let’s run through the basics:

Right, now that we know how a point starts, let’s get into the post-serve action…

Once a successful serve has been made, the returner attempts to – no prizes for guessing – return the ball back to the server. If they do so, then we’re underway with a ‘rally.’ A rally is when players exchange shots which land in play.

A rally ends when one player wins the point (scroll back up to see how that’s achieved). There is no limit on how long a rally can continue, and they can be a thing of beauty when two players are in full flight!

The rules that come into play during a rally that ensure it continues are:

We’ve spoken a lot about the players involved in a tennis match, but there are, of course, also officials who oversee the on-court action.

The senior match official (known as the chair umpire) sits in a high chair in line with the net and calls out the scores after each point. The chair umpire has the final say on any calls and has the ability to overrule the line judges.

The chair umpire can also hand out penalties to the players for any rule infractions.

The line judges are, you guessed it, stationed adjacent to a line and are responsible for calling whether a ball is in or out.

In most major tournaments, players now also have the option of calling for a review of a call thanks to the Hawk-Eye system.

Once you’re comfortable with the basics of betting on tennis, it’s time to turn your attention to the more advanced strategy, and we’ve got you covered on this one too. When it comes to strategy, you need to know what a good bet looks like and how you arrive at that knowledge.

There are a number of factors to consider, and it’s not straightforward, but it wouldn’t be so fun if there weren’t a challenge!

First, we’ll look at outright and match betting, the most straightforward of the lot. From there we’ll spice it up a bit with some handicap betting and a look at over/under betting.

There is no shortage of variety when it comes to different types of tennis bets, which is one of the many appeals of betting on the sport.

For an ATP or WTA Tour event, you can find a wide array of bets on offer.

Another great reason to get comfortable with betting on tennis is because there is no shortage of opportunity. The game is played throughout the year, and there are multiple tiers of men’s and women’s tennis to choose from.

If you’re looking at a tournament in its entirety and have your eye on making one bet—the overall winner—then outright betting is where the action is for you. Here you’ll pick one player—who you think will come out on top at the end of the tournament—it’s as simple as that.

While the payoffs are generally higher than in match betting, there is more risk involved as in a major, a Grand Slam a player will need to win seven matches to take home the silverware.

Depending on your overall betting strategy, a potential downside to outright betting on tennis is that there are often players that are far and away the favorites, and for good reason.

If we look at the below example of outright betting for the ATP Shanghai Masters, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer were the favorites:

The veterans didn’t disappoint, with Federer beating Nadal in the final. At +250, Federer didn’t offer huge returns, but the short odds were an accurate reflection of the situation.

One aspect of tennis outright betting that makes it more appealing than, say, Major League Baseball or the NBA is that tennis tournaments last, at most, two weeks, so even if you are waiting for the final result, you don’t have to wait long to find out if you’re in the money.

Delving a little deeper, match betting refers to betting on the result of a single match rather than an entire tournament.

Here, you’ll be offered two odds, and you either back Player One or Player Two to win.

To add more intricacy to match betting, you can try your hand at handicap betting. Handicap betting in tennis is the same as what is known as spread betting in other sports. The concept is the same; you’re betting on a player to perform as expected or better.

If we look at the below example of opening round matches at the ATP Shanghai Masters, we can see how a two-way games handicap works:

In the first example, there are two options: Either you bet on American youngster Jared Donaldson to win 2.5 games fewer than Argentina’s Pablo Cuevas or you are betting on Cuevas to win 2.5 games more than Donaldson.

Let’s say that we think Donaldson is going to win fairly comfortably, so we would bet on Donaldson at -2.5. For us to win our bet, we need Donaldson to win 2.5 games more than Cuevas. If the final score is 6-4, 6-3 in Donaldson’s favor, then the Americans won 12 games to the seven of Cuevas. So, when we apply our -2.5 handicap, Donaldson still edges it 9.5 to 7.

It’s crucial to note that the match result is not important here; it is only the number of games that matters. So, if Donaldson won the match 4-6, 7-5, 7-5, we would lose our bet as Donaldson won 18 games and Cuevas won 16.

We needed Donaldson to win by more than 2.5 games, and despite winning the match, we lost our bet with a -2.5 handicap.

In a two-way handicap bet you do not have the option of betting on the tie, but three-way handicaps are also on offer as you can see in the example below:

Handicap betting isn’t restricted to the number of games; it can also be applied to the number of sets. With men’s matches at grand slams aside, tennis matches are played in a best-of-three sets format, which means that handicap set betting is generally at +1.5 and -1.5.

Over/under betting is similar to handicap betting in the sense that you’re betting on the number of games or sets that will be played rather than the match result.

If we look at the below example from the ATP China Open final—a best-of-three sets match—we have two options: under 2.5 or over 2.5.

If we pick the first option, we are saying that one player will win the match in straight sets (2-0). It doesn’t matter if it’s Nadal or Kyrgios who wins, as long as they do so in 2.5 or fewer sets (as you know, you can’t win 0.5 of a set in tennis…).

The same type of bet can be applied to the number of games in a match. Unlike in handicap betting where we were betting on an individual player to win a certain number of games, in this over/under bet, we’re focused on the total number of games:

Do you think you know the winner and the margin of victory? Great—there is a tennis bet to make the most out of your knowledge! There are a number of correct score-type bets in tennis, with the final score in sets and the score in an individual set available on a betting slip near you.

Let’s take a look at the correct score in games in a set. As you can see in the example below, there isn’t anything too complicated about this one – you pick the score you think will be correct and you either win or lose:

The same can be applied to the margin of victory in sets in a match. In a three-set match, there are four possible outcomes, and you can choose either one of the four:

One of the great things about betting on tennis is that there are so many bets to be made before and during matches. In-play betting on tennis is very popular at the moment and is only getting more popular.

The reason for this is that you can bet on anything from individual points to the outcome of the game, the set and, of course, the match.

If you’re in any doubt as to the near-endless opportunities on offer, take a look at the example below:

There are two things to take note of this in-play dashboard:

Options and opportunities are the name of the game when it comes to betting on tennis.

We could go on all day about bets worth making on tennis, but here is a quick look at a few others to consider:

We explore the most important among them and offer tips on how to use statistics to bet on tennis and make money.

If you have experience in any form of data analysis, you will know that adding context to the numbers is crucial. Tennis stats are no exception. You always have to consider various factors when evaluating them for betting purposes.

Here are the most important circumstances you need to take into account when analyzing the numbers.

These are just some of the most important factors you have to consider when you perform statistical analysis for tennis betting. However, there might be other circumstances that affect the context and you should always be thorough.

A good general rule is to exclude any data from events that are significantly different than the ones you’re about to target with your wagers.

We have decided to split the different stats for tennis gambling into different groups. The first one includes long-term numbers that can give a good idea of a player’s general performance level and overall quality.

They can be used when preparing for tennis futures and outrights, or simply as a starting point that can help you determine how good the player is.

You have to be cautious with the stats in this group because there might be huge deviations in the short term. Always look for the trends in the athlete’s performance on top of the general stats.

The goals here are to both determine the ceiling of the player and his or her current level.

You should always look into how a player performs on specific surfaces. You can look at their balance in terms of wins and losses, as well as the overall performance in tournaments that are played on the same type of courts.

This is an excellent way to evaluate just how comfortable an athlete is on the surface in question. It could be the best one in terms of results or the worst. The point is that the overall record shows what kind of performance you could usually expect.

Once you check that, it’s a good idea to look at the record in a relatively recent period, like the past several months, so you can evaluate the player’s current form. Any emerging trends in either direction could be very helpful from a gambling perspective.

If you’re betting on tennis matches, the head-to-head record is one of the stats you really should check. Previous meetings are a good indicator of how the styles of the two players involved interact.

Naturally, your statistical analysis should take several factors into account.

You should stick to comparable matches on the same surface and format. You should also mostly ignore encounters that are in vastly different circumstances in terms of age.

For example, if one of the players was just entering the tennis tour in previous matches, but reached their prime years for the upcoming clash, you shouldn’t read too much into the past.

This is a statistic that can be very useful when you’re looking for underdogs or players who are on the brink of a large jump in the standings.

If an athlete has consistently performed well against the best of the world, it’s only a matter of time before they join that group.

Also, certain players are very good at a specific surface, usually clay or grass, and they regularly beat top opponents on it.

Identifying them is an excellent recipe for picking underdogs when you bet on tennis matches.

This group of tennis stats can be applied when you bet on matches, and they are especially useful for live wagers.

Analyzing the data we talk about here will give you a good idea of the style of the player as a whole. For example, you can determine whether defense or attack is their top priority.

The numbers also deliver a good indication of current form if you’re looking at a small set of recent events.

Let’s begin with the number of winners. This includes any shot that the opponent didn’t manage to return and led directly to winning a point. The more aggressive a player is, the more winners they will record.

The very best athletes in tennis usually have a lot of winners, but they are not the only ones. Players who prefer to attack a lot also register many of them, which is why you should always compare the number of winners to the number of unforced errors.

A large number of winners doesn’t mean too much if there are also many mistakes. A player who has a lot of both simply has a very aggressive style that adds a lot of volatility to the outcome of their matches.

A good ratio means that the athlete attacks often, but doesn’t go too far in the desire to finish the points quickly.

Every mistake that a player makes without pressure from the opposition qualifies as an unforced error.

Simply put, if a player hits the ball out or into the net while under no pressure, that’s an unforced error.

Every player has unforced errors and it’s important to evaluate where the mistakes are coming from. If they are combined with a lot of winners, that points to an aggressive style.

If a player has a high number of unforced errors without many winners, it’s a sign that they simply aren’t playing well.

Net points are another interesting statistic that could be helpful when betting on tennis.

This stat shows how often a player goes to the net in search of a finish, and the success rate when they do so.

Taller athletes with good volleys tend to use this strategy more often, while baseliners rarely visit the net.

You should always consider the surface when looking at this stat. Players who rely a lot on net points usually struggle on the slow red courts and excel on grass.

We decided to include this one because it can be useful for live betting on tennis as well as some pre-match wagers.

If you are watching a match that you’re betting on and it reaches a tie-break, you should check the tie-break records of both sides.

The specific format of tie-breaks, and the added pressure, can lead to an improved performance by some players and a drop for others.

This statistic is useful when you prepare for close matches, too. If you expect a tight clash, there’s a good probability of tie-breaks which could give an edge to a player who’s significantly better in them.

It’s time to move on to tennis stats that cover more specific aspects of a player’s performance, starting with the serving numbers. You should be looking at these mainly in two situations.

The first one is during live betting when you have to determine how well the athlete is serving against this particular opponent in the current match.

The second one is when checking the most recent matches while preparing for future encounters – ideally analyzing fixtures from the same competition. This will tell you about the current serving form of a player which can be crucial from a gambling perspective.

You should always analyze the serving stats when betting on tennis matches because they can give you an excellent idea of what to expect.

For example, you will often encounter women’s matches in which both sides are vulnerable when serving. That’s a recipe for a wild clash that could see a lot of twists and turns, leading to a ton of opportunities to make money with live bets.

In fact, that’s one of the favorite strategies for in-play wagers of one of our writers. Check out the following blog post for more of them.

Once you’ve evaluated the serving skills of the players, it’s time to move on to their performance when returning.

It’s another helpful group of stats that can reveal a lot. These statistics can help you determine the most likely scenarios when you bet on tennis matches, either live or before the clash has started.

Once you’re done with both the serving and returning stats, you should be in excellent shape from a tennis betting perspective.

They can showcase emerging trends when it comes to live wagers or you can use them to evaluate the chances of both players to win their service games and, subsequently, the match.

The following tips will help you avoid some of the common mistakes people make when betting on tennis.

We have several tips that can improve your chances of winning when betting on tennis matches and tournaments.

The first thing you need to do is compare the players from all angles possible. You should check the following factors:

Study Player Preparation

It’s important to understand how rested each favorite is and if his or her preparation for the tournament went according to plan.

Consider the Surface

Professional tennis is played on three different court surfaces; grass, clay, and hard. Each surface is unique and comes with a set of characteristics that distinguish it.

Consider Crowd Support

Partisan support can affect the outcome of games, especially when it comes to local players who typically have almost the whole crowd behind them.

Australian Open

The Australian Open is the first big tennis tournament each year. Millions of fans watch the event that takes place in Melbourne. The Australian Open is one of the oldest and most prestigious tennis tournaments in the world. It all started in 1905 as the Australasian Championship and has grown to attract players from all over the globe.

French Open

The French Open is one of the oldest tennis tournaments in the world. It was founded in 1891 in Paris, under the name the “French Championships.” The competition was only open to members of French tennis clubs until 1924.

Wimbledon

It’s the only Grand Slam competition played on grass over two weeks of action each summer.

US Open

The tournament features over 100 matches within two weeks and lots of gambling opportunities.

ATP Finals

The ATP Finals is arguably the biggest tennis event in the closing stages of the season.