Tennis betting is rapidly becoming one of the most popular betting markets currently available
to online punters. The fast paced, high adrenaline matches produce for some fantastic betting
opportunities as bookmakers tend to overreact with the initial lines that they set.
One of the reasons behind the tennis betting boom is due to the fact of the widespread availability
of tennis in our homes via television. Multi million pound contracts are secured for everything from
Masters Tournaments, Davis Cup and of course, major championships.
In contrary to many sports betting markets, tennis betting doesn’t appeal as widely to the casual
bettor, but more to the conscientious, asserting sports bettor. As mentioned, the fluctuations in the
market offer up some really good value bets, so throughout this article we will be looking at how you
can exploit this, even if you are just a casual sports bettor.
The introduction of live tennis betting is another factor as to why the popularity of tennis betting
as a whole continues to rise. Each game can throw up as many as 30 inplay betting markets for your
pleasure, some offering more value than others.
The yearly schedule that is apparent in tennis also makes it a sport of which you can bet on all year
round. Whilst the major tournaments will pull in the most punters and largest amount of live betting
markets, smaller competitions can offer up better value as players who may be slightly lesser known
to the average tennis bettor, will go unnoticed.
Best Tennis Live Betting Sites
#
Betting Site Name
Bonus
Bonus Code
Visit Site
1.
bet365
100% up to €100
Not Needed
2.
Bookmaker
25% up to $500
EZBONUS
More Information about Tennis
What is live tennis betting?
Live tennis betting is basically a set of markets that are affected by the changes that occur in game.
So things such as how someone is playing and the overall score of the match will be reflected in each
market and odds will fluctuate accordingly.
The unpredictability of a tennis match can mean that markets will open and close accordingly. For
example, betting on the fifth set of a match will not be available until that 5th set actually starts. If
the game ends before the 5th set then there is no need for the bookmaker to open a market on that
specific set.
How does live tennis betting work?
Before the game has even started, the bookmaker will offer a line on most top markets as to how
the fell the game will pan out. There will be favourites and underdogs, like any market, but the oddsthroughout the game will change meaning that the pre match favourite may not be favourite to win
depending on how the game is going.
You can bet on the match at any point the market is live (or for how long the game is running). The
bookmaker continues to set their odd and you can decide if you feel they offer good value or not.
Live tennis betting tends to overreact to market changes, so keep updating your bookmaker in an
attempt to find that magic bet.
Where can I find live tennis betting markets?
The major internet bookmaker site such as PaddyPower, Bet365.com and Victor Chandler all offer
extensive live inplay betting markets for its users often with multiple betting formats to choose
from.
Betting exchanges are synonymous with live betting these days with odds updating every few
seconds on sites around the world. Taking advantage of the possibility of odds which are up to 25%
better than that of a regular bookmaker are an attractive proposal for any sports bettor.
Spread betting is rapidly becoming one of the most popular betting choices for live tennis betting.
It’s something we will discuss more alter in the article but is worth noting that more spread betting
sites are introducing tennis as one of their most popular markets.
Why does it work well with Tennis?
The worldwide coverage of tennis makes it one of the most watched and played sports in the world.
You only need to look at the diverse nationalities of professional players at any given tournament to
see that tennis reaches every corner of the globe.
The heads up format of tennis will also allow for there to be little middle ground. By this we mean
that there can only be two possible results, a win or a loss, rather than bringing draws into the
equation like some sports.
Live tennis betting also works seamlessly with a number of betting strategies that many people
have successfully adopted and applied to return some fantastic results, and more importantly,
profits.
Similarly to most sports tennis has a group at the top which are considered the elite (of both the
men’s and women’s sections). Whilst these guys will be favourites for most tournaments, the live
betting aspect allows you to pick up value on things such as them taking a set off the favourite. Very
few games are total whitewashes, so value can be found if you know where to look.
What live betting markets are available?
The amounts of markets really do offer something for every type of bettor, from recreational to
professional gamblers. If you’re looking for a cheeky punt on an outsider or looking to find a tiny
slice of value as part of your betting strategy, the live tennis market will accommodate both. Let’s
take a look at just a sample of live betting markets currently available.
--> Match betting – an obvious one, yet still relevant. Betting on the outcome of the game
can be undertaken at any point in the match with the odds fluctuating accordingly based
on who is on top and who looks like they are playing the better tennis. The changes in this
market are one that carry a lot of overreaction from internet bookies. If one of the red hot
favourite’s looks set to bow out to a lesser name they are very reluctant to shorten the
price, so keep an eye out for this.
--> Set Betting – you are able to bet on the exact score in sets of the outcome of the match.
Often these provide better value than that of simply the overall winner. Looking through
form guides of the players head to heads will show if a player is capable of picking up a set
or two.
--> To win first set – basically choosing who will win the first set. You can bet before the game
on who will win first and second for women’s and first, second and third for men’s. After this
the markets will open up further sets betting according to how the game pans out.
--> Total match games – this market is a simple betting line from the bookmaker who sets the
amount of games they think the game will last for. It’s then up to you to choose the over or
under this amount.
--> Alternative game handicaps – here we have a situation where a player is given a handicap
on the total number of games from the match. This comes about as a head to head battle of
how many games each player wins. The handicaps are deducted accordingly at the end of
the match and the winner is chosen.
--> Correct score (set) – you are able to select what you think will be the correct score in each
set. Odds are given on all possibilities for each player respectively.
--> Total player games – this market lets you select the total amount of games each player will
win. Similarly to the total match games market, the bookmaker sets a line and you simply
select the over or under.
Live Tennis Betting strategies
Top betting strategies have been around in sport for as long as the bookmaker has been on the high
street. Many are useless, but there are a select few of which people make very good money from
and even in some circumstances, make livings from. Tennis betting has risen as one of the leading
betting industries due to the fact that it works well with a number of different betting strategies. The
certainty behind an outright winner means that there can only ever really be two results, win or loss,
depending who you backed. Let’s take a look at an example.
Arbitrage betting is a top system that works in an attempt to manipulate the different odds
that internet bookies offer on a result. It’s the diverse nature of each bookmaker’s opinion on
the outcome of a game that makes this strategy successful. Basically what we need to do is search
around for the best prices for two players in a tennis match. We are looking to back both players
which make us a guaranteed profit regardless of result.
Once we have done this we can enter the odds and our stake into an arbitrage calculator (freely
available on the net) to see if we can churn a profit from each bet. If so, the calculator will then
inform us of exactly how much to bet on each player so we return a profit. Profit margins can vary
greatly and can be anything from 1-2% ROI up to 20%. Placing small amounts on this system aren’t
likely to yield very quickly. Let’s run through a quick example.
Player A is available at Bookmaker X for 2.44. Player B is available at the same bookmaker for 1.65.
After a little searching about we find the price for player A is the best available, however we find a
better price of 1.85 for player B is at bookmaker Y.
We then take our bet and key in the odds to our arbitrage calculator which informs us that, for a £1000 stake we need to place £431.24 on player A and £569.76 on player B at the respected internet
bookies.
Player A wins we make £52.21 (£431.24 x 2.44 = £1052.21 - £1000 (stake) = £52.21)
Player B wins we make £52.21 (£568.76 x 1.85 = £1052.21 - £1000 (stake) = £52.21)
These odds have given us a guaranteed return of 5.2% on any result.
Live Tennis Betting Streaming
The majority of major online bookmakers offer a host of live streaming packages for free for their
customers. This gives you an ideal opportunity to take advantage of the live inplay tennis betting
markets whilst keeping up to date with not only the scores, but the flow of a match.
Obviously for the major tournaments the live streaming is limited online (as they are more often
than not readily available on TV anyway, this is not a massive problem). Where the streaming comes
into its own is really with the lesser matches that are played. You can often find some really good
value markets in the smaller games which often have big fluctuations in the market due to the
inconsistent betting patterns that occur.
Tennis Spread Betting
Earlier in the article we mentioned a little about the growth of tennis spread betting and the
fantastic value it can give you in live betting market. What happens with spread betting is that
bookmaker will set a line of which we can choose the over or under respectively.
Every score over this line is known as a point in the spreads market, and you can choose how much
you want to bet per point. So if you bet £1, that’s not going to be overall outlay as spreads, will take
that as £1 per point. The market is very high risk-reward but offers up a host of value bets.
If we took the world record Wimbledon 2010 match between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut that
lasted a staggering 183 and we had placed the over on 37 games (around the average for a men’s
tennis match) at £1 a point then this game alone would have bagged us a tidy profit of £150 (£1 at
150 games over 33). Obviously this game was somewhat of a one off, but shows the potential that
live tennis spread betting really has.
