Ins And Outs of Tennis Betting
Tennis betting is extremely popular among bettors and there are good reasons for such a high demand. To start with, tennis tournaments are held all year round and the calendar is packed with all kinds of competitions run almost every day. This provides plenty of opportunities to wager and bookmakers are glad to offer multiple betting options with various outcomes. Besides, tennis is comparatively easy to analyze and predict, since it is not a team sport, where you need to consider the position of many players, and it features stable long-term trends, helping to better understand possible outcomes. Also, there is no draw in tennis and this makes it easier to predict the results of circuits and tournaments. While the game features a rating of players, revealing both favorites and outsiders, and thus promising minimum surprises, there are still many bet types and strategies to choose from – that’s how you can add some excitement to your sports betting experience. However, as a beginner you are not likely to get much profit from it without using tennis betting tips provided by more experienced bettors and tennis experts.
Tennis Betting Odds and Lines
Bookmakers offer an abundance of betting options for betting on tennis. Typically, the exact number of action lines depends on the level of competitions – naturally, for the final match of a Grand Slam tournament bookmakers will offer a line with a bunch of special bets, while for a regular match of the ATP series you can expect a much more limited line. Nevertheless, for most matches bookmakers allow betting on such markets as outcomes, handicaps, total match games, total match sets, tie-break match, correct score set, correct score game and many others.
Similar to other sports, tennis betting odds specify how much you can get from any placed bet in the event of a correctly predicted outcome.
Factors to Consider for Successful Tennis Betting
Tennis is not that simple as it might seem to a novice bettor. There are many ins and outs you should take into account when betting, but we start with the main factors that can influence tennis outcomes.
- Court surface and weather conditions
Carpet, hard, clay, acrylic, artificial clay or grass – there is quite a choice of court surfaces and they do matter when it comes to betting. The type affects the rebound of a tennis ball and the dynamics of players’ movements, so the strategy of playing on courts with different surfaces can be radically different. With that, there is no preferred surface for any kind of tennis tournaments, and even the most prestigious professional tournaments are held on courts with various surfaces.
Almost any tennis player has his or her preferred type, while almost nobody can play equally well on any surface. When your favorite tennis player has played tens of matches on grass courts, you can’t expect him or her to switch to hardcourts with a wave of the wand. And usually, tennis players are given 1-2 weeks for adaptation, but nobody can guarantee that the player will be able to adapt this fast. Moreover, there are many professional tennis players who show their best results only on certain surfaces, while scoring low on others.
Within tennis betting, you should also take into account the fact that tennis players are the most sensitive to the court surface factor at the end of the season, when the fatigue from many games and minor injuries are accumulated. You need to correctly assess tennis players’ shape by analyzing at least 5-8 games in order to see the difference in his/her style depending on court surfaces.
Besides, you need to consider the weather conditions forecasted for the day of a game. Rain, strong wind, heat – all these factors affect tennis players and can change the outcome drastically. When assessing tennis odds for betting, don’t miss this important aspect.
- Motivation
This is one of the main factor influencing the success of both player and bettor, but it is rather difficult to predict. You have to delve into player’s psychology in order to understand how the person is going to behave and what reasons can affect his/her motivation. Some of these reasons are:
– winning amount – you would try hardest for a bigger prize, wouldn’t you?
– tournament class – when a tennis player takes part in several tournaments, he/she will go all out for a completion of a higher class.
– home or away – everything is easier at home, remember? Moral support from multiple fans is also a source of motivation. As an option, any player can have his/her own preferences in locations, delivering better results on certain courts or feeling like home in certain countries.
Yes, you have to do some serious research to understand the sources of motivation for different athletes. And since typically a tournament can accept up to 300 players, you’d better choose and focus only on those of them who are likely to hold your attention until the end of the season.
- Ranking and physical condition
One of tennis betting tips lies in the fact that player’s physical condition is more important than his/her current ranking. First, we have already explained the difference in players’ styles depending on different court surfaces – if a player ranks high in general, this doesn’t mean the athlete will rank among the first for a particular court type. Second, as has been also mentioned above, favorites may not be interested in putting their best effort into minor tournaments. Thus, you need to take into account player’s position in ratings, but you shouldn’t overestimate its significance.
The key factor for tennis betting is player’s physical condition rather than his/her current ranking. To learn whether it is optimal or not, watch a couple of recent games, but only those that take place no later than several weeks before the competition you are going to bet on. Avoid betting on players who rank higher, but show poor physical condition in recent games. In this case, it is often better to do the opposite thing – to bet against a favorite who is not in the best shape at the moment. Also, you can choose 5-10 tennis players and collect stats on them all year round until you are able to discover certain patterns of their ups and downs.
- Human factor
Tennis is exactly that kind of sport where you need to pay close attention to the history of head-to-head battles between tennis players. Have you ever heard about troublesome rivals? Actually, it’s not uncommon for a top-class player to win with great difficulty, though playing with a little-known athlete from the second hundred. Left-handed blows, a certain style of playing or serve technique – there are plenty of personal features that can make a particular player feel uncomfortable when struggling with a particular opponent. So, your tennis betting odds will improve, if you analyze head-to-head clashes of the players who are going to meet in the match you are interested in.
- Statistical data
Say what you like, but you won’t be able to make an accurate pre-game forecast without detailed statistical analysis. Nothing can give you such an amount of information about a forthcoming game, as the world of figures. The first of our tennis betting tipsis to pay attention to the percentage of the first and the second serve winnings, as well as to the percentage of serves held. If you want to bet on a weaker player, you can learn about his/her ability to hold against a favorite thanks to exactly these figures.
Also, have due respect to a winners-unforced errors ratio. In some cases, it will be advantageous to place a bet against an active player who makes many unforced errors, even if there are a lot of winnings to his/her name.
Certainly, there is much more information you should learn about the game to improve your tennis betting odds. However, don’t forget to put this theoretical knowledge into practice, as this will allow obtaining invaluable experience.
