One of the most exciting sports to watch, tennis also ranks as one of the most heavily bet on international sports. Each year, Grand Slam events like the US Open, Wimbledon, the French Open, and the Australian Open remind the world that tennis remains a powerhouse of the sporting and betting universe. Naturally, this has led many prospective users to search for how to bet on tennis with all the best methods and bet types.
Interested in joining the millions of tennis fans who have become bettors? Here's everything you need to know, from important events to understanding odds, different kinds of bets, and more.
How to bet on tennis: Complete online betting guide for beginners
Understanding Tennis betting odds
The most important aspect to know in tennis betting is how to understand the odds. Tennis odds are pretty straightforward once you know the three basic terms:
- Result/Win Market
- Handicap betting
- Over/Under (total games or sets)
These are bookmakers' projections for how a match will turn out, including winner/loser, margin of victory, and total number of games within the match.
There are lots of other ways to bet on tennis, which we'll come to, but these are the main basic ones.
Result/Win Market
Tennis win markets are simple: it's a value — usually expressed either as a decimal or a fraction, depending on which type of odds you are reading — assigned to each player or duo in a set match-up. That value represents each side's chances of winning the match. When bettors wager on the straight-up winner of a match and put money on it, they're betting the win market/result.
If the odds value is 'short' (i.e. lower odds), this typically represents the odds for the favourite, also known as the side that the sportsbooks expect to win. The higher the number, or 'longer' odds, represents the odds for the underdog, or the side less likely to win the match.
Tennis bettors will always win less of a payout on a winning bet with lower odds, and profit more on the payout of a winning bet with higher odds.
We often see lopsided or uneven match-ups in tennis, even in the major tournaments. The win market odds allow bettors to pick straight winners while also enabling sportsbooks to limit their liabilities attached to the overwhelming favourites.
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How to read tennis odds
Reading tennis odds is simple. Fractional odds are most commonly used in the India and they’re expressed as a ratio, such as 5/1 (pronounced five to one).
Breaking it down, that means for every ₹100 you bet, you can win ₹500 in profit. In this instance, a ₹100 winning bet on a 5/1 play means you would receive ₹600, with ₹100 of that being your original stake.
So, in a tennis context, let's say you have some interest in betting on Jannik Sinner over Carlos Alcaraz. If Sinner is listed as a 2/1 favorite, that means you would get 2x your money for every ₹100 you stake. If the bet wins, you'd also get your original stake back.
If you think Alcaraz will pull off the upset, you could bet ₹100 on him at 4/1 and walk away with a ₹400 profit if the Spaniard indeed pulls off the win.
Handicap betting
Another way for oddsmakers to set odds for a tennis match is through the handicap. This is the process by which oddsmakers analyse both sides in a match-up, consider their strengths, weaknesses, and other factors, and assign a 'handicap value' that predicts how many games, or sets, the favourite will win by.
Betting the handicap swaps out the winner odds for total games, or sets. You can bet on a player or duo to have a virtual advantage by having games or sets added to their overall score, or taken away from it. This is shown by either a plus (+) or minus (–) before the odds on the bookmaker's site.
So, a positive handicap would give one player/duo in a tennis match a virtual advantage, say for example +1.5 games, +2.5 games or +1.5 sets.
A negative handicap would give one player/duo in a tennis match a virtual disadvantage, for example -1.5 games, -2.5 games or -1.5 sets.
When the match is completed, the handicap is then added or subtracted by the bookmaker from the actual match score to determine whether your bet has landed or not.
Let's go back to the hypothetical Sinner-Alcaraz match. Sinner might be listed as available with a -3.5 game handicap at 7/5.
If Sinner triumphs by four total games more than Alcaraz, your bet wins. If he triumphs but the margin of victory is three games or less, you lose.
In grand slams, where matches are often played over a longer number of sets, the set handicap is often also a good market to see value. In the above example, if Alcaraz was available at 11/8 with a +1.5 set handicap, you are basically betting on him to either win the match outright, or not lose it by more than one set.
Over/under total
For tennis bettors with less of a rooting interest in either player/duo, there is also the option to bet the over/under total. Betting the total is simple in tennis: the bookmaker offers odds on projected game, or set, totals for a match, and you either bet on the two sides to complete their match in more games or sets (over) or fewer games or sets (under) than the selected total.
This is a very straightforward bet type. If the total combined games wind up higher than your projected total, then the over wins. If the final tally of games is lower than your projected total, then the under wins.
Live tennis betting
As well pre-event markets, many bookmakers, such as Dafabet and Parimatch, also offer betting on tennis matches live.
This means that rather than having to wager before a match has started, bettors can make real-time decisions and bet as the action is unfolding.
Live, or "in-play" markets include things such as next game winner, set winner and match winner, but there is also an array of more intricate markets such as on double-faults, aces and other individual game stats.
To try betting on tennis action live, you can follow along with the action on Parimatch's website and bet in-play here
Accumulator betting in tennis
Accumulators have become a very popular way to gamble on tennis in recent years. In short, tennis 'accas' allow bettors to combine multiple bets (legs) in one big bet for a larger potential payout. The odds of winning are longer because all bets in the accumulator must win for the entire bet to cash out even a penny. Thus, the potential reward is greater.
Bettors only need to combine two legs to make an accumulator, but the most popular accas tend to be in the range of 3-5 legs. The more combined wagers bettors add to their bet slip, the greater the risk for the bettor, so therefore the bigger the potential payout.
Sportsbooks typically allow bettors to add between two and 12 games in accumulators. Some bookmakers will also allow you to incorporate player or game-specific stat bets.
How to calculate an accumulator payout
Now that you know the definition of an accumulator, or 'acca', and how you can bet one, let's quickly break down how to calculate an acca bet value.
Once you figure out the odds for each match-up or bet, just divide what the total payout would be by the bet amount and add an initial unit stake of 1.
Let’s imagine a £10 accumulator bet on these match-ups:
Jannik Sinner to beat Carlos Alcaraz (4/6)
Coco Gauff to beat Mirra Andreeva (7/5)
Nick Kyrgios to beat Novak Djokovic (11/8)
Those odds can be broken down like this:
Sinner: 4/6 means ₹400 payout for every ₹600 staked + 1 = 1.67
Gauff: 7/5 means ₹700 payout for every ₹500 staked + 1 = 2.4
Kyrgios: 11/8 means ₹1100 payout for every ₹800 staked + 1 = 2.38
Each of those three numbers we calculated is your multiplier. Now, just multiply those numbers to get your accumulator odds. 1.67 x 2.62 x 1.83 = 9.53904.
That final number is 9.5, meaning your winnings would work out to be ₹850 for every rupees you bet on that particular accumulator. Translation: your ₹100 bet just turned into a ₹850 win.
If you hate maths or just don't want to go through the bother of calculating your accumulator odds manually each time, have no fear. Most sportsbooks do the legwork for you, and you can also find a load of independent acca calculators all over the Internet.
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Player stat/prop betting in tennis
Player prop or stat betting has also become wildly popular. Props allow you to bet on a player going OVER or UNDER a set statistical amount.
You can bet over/under player props on all sorts of statistics, including total aces, serve faults, total games won. You can also bet yes/no props for various hypothetical situations, like 'Who will make the first break of serve?' or 'Will there be a tie-break in the match?'
Futures betting in tennis
Another fun method of betting on tennis is the futures market, which allows fans to bet on whether or not something will happen in the future. Tennis fans can place futures bets on players to win future tournaments or to finish at certain levels in the world rankings.
What are some common tennis betting terms?
- Action – Any wager, or any bet you have on any game.
- Bonus – Funds or free bets rewarded or gifted via promotions run by a sportsbook.
- Book/Bookmaker – A sportsbook, AKA an establishment that accepts bets on the outcome of sports events.
- Favourite – "Betting the favourite" is putting money on the projected winner.
- Cover – When the favourite wins by more than the required number of points or when the underdog loses by less than the required number of points (or wins outright).
- Underdog – The team projected to lose, always getting points and usually yielding plus odds.
- Futures – Bets placed on the outcome of something in the future, like an award, a championship, or a scoring title.
- Handicapper – Someone who studies and bets on sporting events.
- Handle – Total amount of bets taken on a sporting event.
- Hold – The percentage amount the sportsbook makes.
- Hedging – Betting the opposite team or side of your original wager to either try to middle the game, or to reduce the downside exposure of the original wager.
- Hook – A half-point, used by sportsbooks to avoid a push (no betting win or loss).
- Laying the Price – To bet the favourite by laying odds.
- Limit – The maximum wager accepted by the sportsbook on a particular loffering.
- Long shot – A team heavily expected to lose.
- Outright bet – A bet on the straight-up winner of a game, underdog or favourite.
- Over/Under (total) bet – A bet that applies to the final score/total points in a given contest.
- Acca/Accumulator – A combination of straight bets to increase the potential payout. All selections must win for the bet to win.
- Price – The odds of a game or wager.
- Prop bet – A wager on a specific event happening or not happening in a game, usually stats. Examples: Will Kylian Mbappe score a goal in the game? Will there be a red card in the game?
- Spread bet – A bet on the forecasted point differential between two teams. A minus (-) indicates the favorite and a plus (+) is the underdog.
Frequently asked questions for how to bet on tennis
What do the plus (+) and minus (-) mean in tennis betting?
The plus (+) and minus (-) in tennis betting refer to either the point spread or betting odds, when using American odds. They are also used to indicate whether a handicap is virtually adding, or subtracting, from a player of duo's overall match score.
Odds
Favourites will often have shorter odds to win the longer a tournament goes on, unless an event is too tight to call, and several players have low odds. Those players less likely to win will have longer odds.
What is a "unit" in tennis betting?
A unit in sports betting is a measurement of the size of a given bet. It's mainly used because everyone's bankroll is different and a unit refers to the percentage of a bankroll, AKA the amount of money they are using to spend on sports betting. One unit is usually equal to one percent of a bankroll, though it's not the same for everyone.
All tennis bettors — especially new ones — should establish bankrolls. You should always bet within your means and with an amount that you are comfortable or capable of losing.
Here's an example of a unit: If your bankroll is ₹1,000, one unit would be ₹10 or 1%. In this situation, if someone puts three units on a wager with a sports betting app, it would be a ₹30 bet. When someone recommends betting 3-5 units on a wager, they are saying they are quite confident in the win probability of that wager.
What is the 2-5 rule in betting?
Many bankroll management theories exist, so it's up to you to decide which theory or strategy works best for you. The Kelly Criterion, AKA the 2-5 rule, suggests that bettors should never risk more than 2-5 percent of their bankroll per wager.
Example: If you're starting the football season with a ₹500 bankroll, the 2-5 rule would dictate that your largest bet should be no greater than ₹25. Your bet size would then decrease as your bankroll does.
What is a good return on investment (ROI) in tennis betting?
Even a professional will say that simply doubling your money on a bet is a positive. Others prefer lower-risk, lower-reward wagers in which they walk away with 10 percent or 20 percent profit. Everyone's different, just like every bankroll is different.