Betting on Tennis
Tennis anyone?
As any tennis fan knows, tennis is not only exciting, but probably one of the “purest” athletic competitions out there. It’s also a sport where the Men’s and Women’s games draw almost equal interest. So it’s just natural that betting on tennis takes place.
Unfortunately, tennis betting exists in a sort of undefined ambiguous legal form. It’s legal in some US cities (like Las Vegas) and other countries, however, some outlaw it outright. For those wanting to bet on their favorite tennis match, the local neighborhood bookie or online site is sometimes the only answer. But for this article, we’ll concentrate on legal Tennis Betting.
Assuming you live where Tennis Betting is legal, you have several different tennis bets. Betting on who’ll win the match is the most obvious. Like with most sports, one person (or doubles team) is favored to win and one is the underdog. To maximize the number of potential betters, bookies and other bet takers will usually spread out the risk with money lines. Here’s how money lines work:
For Example:
John McEnroe is favored to win the US Open. His opponent Jimmy Connors is expected to lose (we’d use current players, but these past guys are far more interesting). In an even payout wager, most people will bet on McEnroe to win. He’s a low risk – high reward bet. Assuming even money, there’s no real benefit to betting on Connors.
So instead, the bets are shown as: McEnroe -$240 and Conners +$240. This means you must wager $240 to win $100 on McEnroe and a winning $100 bet on Conners pays out $240. It’s a way to balancing out the risk/reward and allows people to bet on their favorite athlete and still have a reasonable bet.
Now, you can bet on the winner of a match, or like Golf and Auto Racing, you can bet on who will win a tournament, make the semifinals, etc. You can even bet the field. Also, some countries (like the UK) will replace the moneyline with their own favored odds (the UK uses fractional odds).
Over and Under bets are popular bets as well. Like the name hints at, it’s a bet that your choice will win by a certain number of sets. The bets are shown much like a money line bet. If McEnroe has a -2 showing, then he must win by 2 sets. It’s an additional way to even out the betting risks.
Since bookmakers don’t like Over/Under bets to go past 2 sets (as that would be a clean sweep), money lines are sometimes combined. What you get is an Over/Under moneyline bet. Such a tennis bet may be shown as McEnroe -$240 and -2. This means to win $100, you need to bet $240 on McEnroe and he needs to win by two sets.
Like with most sports, you can bet on nearly anything in tennis. Bet on who’ll make the most unforced errors, or who will serve the most aces. As long as you aren’t playing in the matches, the freedom on what to bet is yours.
Good luck on your next tennis bet.
