How Do You Bet on Tennis?

Tennis might not have the appeal of the National Football League (NFL) or Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States. Still, it’s a popular sport worldwide and presents plenty of opportunities for avid sports bettors. This is because the men’s (ATP) and women’s (WTA) tours play almost year-round, with multiple events each week from January to late November.    Because many events take place in other countries and time zones, there are typical matches ongoing in the early mornings and afternoons in the US, making tennis betting an attractive option for experienced and casual bettors alike.   Tennis betting is similar to most other sports in that each match has three primary betting types: the moneyline, the spread, and the over/under. However, these work a little differently in tennis compared to team sports. 

Top 5 Rated Sportsbooks For Tennis Betting

The Moneyline

  The moneyline is the most common type of bet in tennis and is ultimately just an outright bet on who you think will win a particular match. The sportsbook assigns odds of winning to each player based on past performance, betting trends, and overall skill. The betting favorite will have a negative sign (-) in front of their odds, while the underdog will have a positive sign (+).    The odds are based on a standard $100 wager and signify how much you can win with that bet. For instance, let’s assume Novak Djokovic (-150) is playing Carlos Alcaraz (+140). With Djokovic as the favorite, you would need to bet $150 just to win $100. However, you could win $140 on a successful $100 wager on Alcaraz. 

Tennis Spread

  The tennis spread is another popular bet that handicaps the difference in talent between two players. It essentially works the same as the spread in football or basketball, wherein handicapping points level the playing field between two teams, i.e., the Atlanta Falcons (+4.5) against the New England Patriots (-4.5). The Falcons could lose by four points and still win the bet, whereas the Patriots would have to win by five to cover the spread.   In tennis, the spread refers to the number of games and sets. In the aforementioned example of Djokovic vs. Alcaraz, let’s assume the sportsbook set the game spread at -2.5 for Djokovic. This means he would need to win at least four more games than Alcaraz to win a bet.   So, if Djokovic were to win 7-6, 7-6 against Alcaraz, he wouldn’t cover the spread as he would have only won two more games. He would need to win 7-5, 7-6, or by some other score with at least a three-set advantage.    The set spread, meanwhile, is always + or – 1.5. The player with the -1.5 set spread needs to win in straight sets for a three-set match, while the player with the +1.5 set spread could lose the match but win the bet as long as they win one set.

Over/Under Game Totals

  If you want to bet on a match but feel like it’s too close to call, you can instead place an over/under bet on the number of games played in a match. The over/under for a three-set match is usually around 22.5 games. So, if you took the over on a 7-5, 7-6 result, you would win the bet as that’s 25 combined sets. Alternatively, you would lose the bet if the match ended 6-3, 6-3 (18 sets). 

Props and Futures

  Tennis doesn’t have as many prop bets as the NFL, but many sportsbooks do offer unique and interesting betting options for players to make things a little more exciting when wagering on tennis. One of the more common prop bets is the number of aces by a particular player. This is an over/under bet in which the sportsbook will select a number, i.e., 7.5, and the bettor can wager on whether that player will have more or fewer than 7.5 aces.    Other tennis prop bets include predicting the exact score, who will win the first game and the maximum number of volleys during a match.    Tennis futures are long-term bets that allow you to wager on potential champions of the four Grand Slams (Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open). Bettors can typically wager on these outcomes several months in advance. In fact, there’s already a market for the men’s winner of the 2023 US Open. Djokovic had the shortest odds at +137 as of December 2022, while Daniil Medvedev (+275), Alcaraz (+350), Nick Kyrgios (+900), and Rafael Nadal (+900) rounded out the top five. 

Tennis Betting Tips

Playing Surface

  While there’s no foolproof way to guarantee success in tennis betting, there’s plenty of available data you can draw upon to make informed bets. It’s very easy, for instance, to look up a player’s ace rate, double fault rate, first-serve percentage, hold rate, points played per service game, and average serve speed. You can also look up their preferred and most successful shot styles to get an idea of how one player matches up against another.    However, the playing surface is one of the most important things to consider. Tennis players play on grass, clay, and indoor/outdoor hard courts, and some players are better on certain surfaces than others. Nadal is known as the “King of Clay” for a reason. You should look up each player’s record on whatever surface they’re playing before making a bet.

Player H2H

  Looking up past matches involving the two players is another useful tip for tennis betting. The ATP and WTA websites even have H2H profiles for every conceivable match. These pages list the career head-to-head record between the two players as well as their current ranking and other information. They also show where their prior matches were played and on what surface.

Fitness Levels

  You should also be aware of each player’s fitness and past performance before betting on a tennis match. If the match is late into a tournament, there’s a chance one player may have been on the court for several hours longer than their opponent. This could impact performance.