Tennis matches and tournaments are not just popular amongst fans, but they are also popular amongst sports bettors looking to make some serious cash. With so many events year round, there are plenty of opportunities for you to get into the action and make some money yourself as long as you know what you’re doing.
Making money betting on tennis is not easy, but if you put in the time and effort needed to learn the skills and acquire the knowledge, you can certainly do it. There really is nothing standing in the way of you making a killing betting on tennis except knowledge and hard work.
In the coming sections of this tennis betting strategy guide, we’re going to work to start covering the first part of that equation. We’re going to do our best to give you the tools and strategies you need to build your winning plan to crush this year’s tournaments and tennis matches. Couple that with some hard work and good discipline, and you’ll be crushing in no time.
If you’re serious about being successful and making money betting on tennis, it all starts with the decision of where you’re going to bet. If you’re still betting in a brick and mortar sportsbook or at a sketchy online site or heaven-forbid a bookie, you’re not doing what you need to in order to set yourself up for success. Brick and mortar sportsbooks don’t allow you to line shop and there are a ton of added costs that you are probably not calculating into your bottom line. Yes, the money that it takes for you to get to and from the sportsbook (gas, parking, wear and tear on your car, babysitters, food while you’re out, etc.) all need to be deducted from your bottom line.
Bookies give you the same problem with no ability to line shop leaving you stuck to take the line that they have or else not get in any action. We’re not going to give you the safety speech, but there are risks that we’re sure you’re aware of with bookies.
This leaves the best option to be successful betting tennis to be betting online. But, you can’t just bet with any site out there. You need to make sure you are betting with a reputable online sportsbook that offers extensive action and betting flexibility on tennis matches and tournaments. Otherwise, you won’t be taking full advantage of what they have to offer, and your bankroll security could be at risk.
If you’re looking for a top tennis betting site that you can trust, check out one of the sites we’ve got listed below for you. We constantly update this list as needed to ensure that it’s only the best of the best. Don’t shoot yourself in the foot before you even get started betting tennis. We’ll talk a lot more about line shopping and some of the other factors that play into this in the coming sections. But, for now, check out one of these sites and start making the right decisions to set yourself up for success.
One of the biggest things that you need to understand before you start making any tennis bets is the difference between clay and grass courts. Not every court that professional tennis players play on is made from the same material. While this might not seem like a big deal if you’ve never played tennis, it makes a huge difference in a lot of the factors that you’ll be considering when handicapping a tennis match or tournament.
These types of courts are the most common in Europe and South America, though you will see them throughout most countries in the world. Some of the most famous stops you’ll see clay at are the Monte-Carlo Masters, the Barcelona Open, the French Open, and the Rome Masters. In general, clay courts are known to favor tennis players who are strong defensively and can guard the baseline well like Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
Ever seen tennis players who look like they are sliding when they get to the ball? This is on a clay court. Players are able to slide into their shots which does allow them to conserve energy. From a betting standpoint, this is going to help out any players who might struggle with fatigue especially in later rounds. It won’t really give an advantage to cardio machines, but it will allow those who struggle with cardio to close the gap some and negate some of that advantage.
Clay tennis courts are also referred to as slow. The ball takes a bigger and slower bounce which negates a lot of the advantages of players who are big off the serve. When betting on tennis on clay courts, be wary of players who get most of their advantage off the serve. They can still be successful, but some of that advantage is going to be lost.
These courts are the faster courts that have their own perks and difficulties that you need to be aware of when placing tennis bets. One of the most famous grass court tournaments our there that you’ve probably heard of is Wimbledon. The court itself is comprised of grass that is grown on hard-packed soil. They’re challenging to maintain, but there’s plenty of money in tennis, so that really is never an issue especially at major tournaments.
When it comes to betting on grass tennis tournaments, there are quite a few things you need to realize. In contrast to clay courts, the ball bounces much faster and much lower. This means that the rallies will be a lot shorter (as it’s challenging to pick these lower balls) and the serve is going to be much more important. You should be giving a lot more weight to powerful servers when the match or tournament is taking place on grass courts.
Keep in mind as well that grass tennis courts are also more “fragile” which means that the conditions can change throughout a tournament. Things like how recently it was mowed, how many people have played on the court, and whether the grass is healthy or not will be important to look at.
Tennis is one of those sports that has a few guys and gals that seem to dominate the scene. Often, you’ll be looking at an upcoming tournament where it would probably take some crazy natural disaster or something like that to cause one particular player to lose. When you’re this sure of someone winning a tennis tournament, though, it does not necessarily mean they are a good bet.
This is something that confuses a lot of people. Just because you think someone is going to win a match or a tournament does not mean that they are a good bet. Why? Well, the bigger the favorite a player is, the less you’re going to see in a payout. This is completely fine as long as the reward is better than the risk, but that’s usually not the case with big favorites.
You see, once the betting line is released, it moves based on how many people and how much money is being bet on each tennis player. The betting public absolutely loves to bet on the heavy favorites because they like to win even if it’s only a few bucks. The sportsbook wants balanced action so to try and slow down the money coming in on these big favorites, they have to keep offering less and less of a payout. This means that even though you think that player is going to win, the payout you’re potentially going to get is not going to be worth the risk.
Are we saying not to bet on big names in tennis matches and tournaments? No. What we are saying is that you need to take the time to see if there is actual value in the bet. Unfortunately, unless you get in early on big names in tennis tournaments, most of the time the value will be non-existent or really thin. In fact, it can be a good strategy to always start looking for your value bets by looking at the people opposing bigger named players that the betting public is going nuts for.
Confused about how value works and what we’re talking about? If this is a concept that is new to you or something you are rusty on, we recommend you take a few minutes and read our Understanding Value and How Betting Lines Work guide right now. It’s the key to crushing any format of sports betting and taking your game from the amateur level to the pro level.
While this is not going to be something that you always have to be on the lookout for, it is something that you should be aware of. Sometimes you’ll get players playing in smaller events that they really don’t care about. Maybe they’re playing out of obligation to a sponsor, or their mind is focused on a bigger upcoming event.
Whatever the case may be, be careful of bigger named players who might not be 100% in for an upcoming event. You don’t want to get caught with your pants down betting on a player who isn’t even concerned with winning. The best way to look for this information is two-fold. One, look at their historical performance and see if they play in certain events where they seem to struggle for no real apparent reason. Two, follow their social media and the news stories. Yes, we usually advise you to steer clear of the media stories that aren’t fact-based, but this is one area where you can stray from our guidelines just a little bit and only for the purpose of looking for red flags.
An often overlooked strategy when picking tournament winners in tennis is to bet more than one selection. Most of the time, most of the entrants in a tennis tournament are going to be offering better than even money on themselves to win. The only exception is tournaments where there is an obnoxiously clear favorite to win. This means that you can bet multiple people to win and still make money as long as one of the tennis players you selected is the victor.
Now, there are some things you need to realize before employing this strategy On the positive side, it’s going to lower your overall variance. You’ll end up winning more often as you’ll have more opportunities to win. This can significantly lower the time between wins which can be important if you’re looking for a more steady flow of cash on your winning picks.
On the other side, you need to realize that this is going to lower the amount you can win. When you win one of your bets, you’re also simultaneously going to be losing your other bets you’ve made. Make sure that you’re okay with this and make sure you do the math to ensure that you’re still turning enough of a profit on each player to make it worth your while. Every additional player you bet to win a tennis tournament lowers the ceiling of the total profit that you can make on the event. But, the tradeoff is that you’re going to end up winning more often even though it’s going to be for less money.
It’s important to make sure that it’s clear this is not something you are required to do to win. It’s merely a different approach you can take to picking tournament winners in tennis that is going to have less variance. You also need to realize that if you are making additional bets on a tournament, you’ll have more money on the line unless you lower the amount of each individual bet. These are all decisions that will be up to you. There are no right or wrong answers here as long as you are sticking to a bankroll management plan and you build your decisions into your long-term strategic plans.
Speaking of making multiple tennis bets, you need to make sure you’re taking full advantage of the predictions that you have and using the right type of bet to fit those predictions. While there is nothing wrong with keeping things simple when betting on tennis, there are instances where different types of bets are going to be more effective.
For example, we talked earlier about avoiding betting big names and big favorites because the public is going to hammer those lines too far the wrong direction. Well, there are instances where you can bet spread-style bets that allow you to get much better payout odds betting a heavy favorite as long as they win by a certain margin. This is just one example where utilizing a different type of bet can allow you to get value and action where you might not have seen it before.
If you aren’t aware of the all the different types of bets available, check out our Types of Tennis Bets Guide now where we break down every bet type, how they work, and how you can with them. It’s not necessary to fix something that isn’t broken, but a lot of these different types of bets can go a long way with helping your bottom line.
The single biggest sports betting tip that we can give you for betting on tennis is to shop your lines. Tennis is not one of the big three betting sports which means that the total money bet on each match or tournament is smaller than with other sports. This means that the line movement is going to be much more volatile (move a lot more) and will have a much higher probability of being different from sportsbook to sportsbook.
In other words, you can get a much better payout on the exact same tennis bet just by looking to see what another sportsbook is offering. If you’re curious why this is, make sure you check out the guide we referenced in the “Be Careful of Big Names” because it covers why different sportsbooks offer different betting payouts on the same bets.
You only need to check two or three different sportsbooks to ensure you’re getting the best value on your tennis bets. Also, make sure you are shopping each line separately. It’s okay to have some bets with one sportsbook and some bets with another. Just make sure the different books you are using are reputable and that you’re not betting somewhere shady just to take advantage of a slightly better line.
The bottom line with line shopping is that it’s a must-do if you’re serious about making money betting tennis and the only excuse for not doing it is laziness. We’ve given you several great options to utilize at the top of the page. Now, you just have to take the few seconds every time you bet to make sure you’re giving yourself the best chance to make the most cash on your tennis bets.
