Tennis anyone?

Question

Anyone bet tennis online? Any good tips?

Answer 1

No thanks, love.

Answer 2

While most avid bettors will know of the conventional sports betting options, NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB would be examples of such, many small market sports offer great angles for profit when rightly speculated. One such small market sport (well, small market in North America only, as in Europe it is the third most popular sport of choice to bet on, after soccer and horse betting), is tennis. So let’s talk about tennis betting.

Now BetUS offers tennis bettors numerous ways to bet on tennis. Most sportsbooks offer straight-up matchup tennis odds, but BetUS goes one better with games betting as well as future bets and prop bets. So for bettors unfamiliar with betting on tennis, here is a short guide to help you navigate through the endless options available in tennis betting. Due to the limited scope of this short piece, I will focus on the two most popular forms of tennis betting: the money line, spread and total points.

In order to breakdown it down, for the purpose of this guide, I will use one example of a tennis line from BetUS Sportsbook. The line is as follows:

Tennis betting Line: Novak Djokovic -4 -120 -300 Over 22 -115 Andrew Murray +4 -120 +200 Under 22 -125

Matchup Tennis Odds – This is typically the money line and a bettor is betting on a player to win outright. So using the above example Djokovic is tipped at -300 for the win; meanwhile, Murray is tipped at +200 for the win.

Novak Djokovic -300

On this money line bet, the bettor needs to lay down $300 to win $100 on Djokovic (or in smaller denominations $30 to win $10). If Djokovic is successful, the bettor collects the $100 win and the $300 stake would be returned.

Andy Murray +200

On the other hand, if bettor likes the underdog Murray, he would need to risk $100 to win $200 ($10 to win $20). If Murray orchestrates the upset, the bettor collects his $200 in winnings as well as his original $100 stake.

Games Betting – Games Betting can be done one of two ways: betting on a line on the number of games the match will go and bettors can take the over or under or betting on a combination money line with a spread. This is familiar territory for football bettors. Bookmakers set a number ( in football, typically the number is 3) for the point spread. If action is moving in one direction, in order to balance the action they may add a money line to the point spread to entice bettors on one or the other side. In tennis, it is relatively similar. This is how it would play out:

Using the above tennis line on Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray, the two options are as follows:

Betting on the Spread:

Novak Djokovic -4 -120

Andrew Murray +4 -120

Bettors betting on Djokovic need to lay down $120 to win $100. For this bet to win, Djokovic would need to win by four or more games (-4) than Andrew Murray did. So for example, if Djokovic beats Murray 6-1, 6-1, to find out if you won the bet all you need to do is add the games won for both players. (Djokovic 6+6=12) (Murray 1+1=2) and then subtract the two totals (12-2=10). Djokovic has won by 10 more games, thereby covering the spread. The bettor would collect his $100 winnings and original stake of $120.

Another scenario would be if Djokovic wins by a score of 6-4,6-4. Then when subtracting the two (12-8=4), Djokovic wins by a total of 4 games. The bet would result in a push and a bettors wager ($120) would be returned. This is not a winning bet, as the points spread is not covered.

Betting on Murray (+4) to cover the spread, Murray (the underdog) can win or lose the match by no more than four games. A bettor betting on Murray would need to lay down $120 to win $100. For this bet to win, Murray can win or lose the match by no less than four games. If Murray upsets Djokovic in a close match 7-6, 7-6, then when adding the games won by each player (Murray 7+7=14) (Djokovic 6+6=12) and then subtracting the two totals (14-12=2) Murray wins by 2 games, he has covered the spread. The bettor receives his winnings of $100 plus his original stake for $120.

In some instances, when betting on the spread, a player can cover the spread but not necessarily win the match. Sounds confusing, but it would look like this. If the score reads 7-6, 7-6 with Djokovic winning the match, a bettor betting on Murray to cover the spread would win his bet as the total games won by each player subtracted (14-12=2) means Murray lost the match by 2 games, thereby covering the spread.

Betting on the Total Points:

Novak Djokovic Over 22 -115

Andrew Murray Under 22 -125

Betting on the Total Points in a match, a bettor bets on the combined number of games the match will go taking the over or under. So in the above example, a bettor betting on the over would need to risk $115 to win $100; meanwhile, a bettor taking the under would risk $125 to win $100. For either bet to win, the combined number of games in a match would have to exceed 22 or fall below 22. Therefore, irrespective of which player wins the match, if the final score is 6-4, 6-4, after adding up the games (6+4+6+4=20), the under bet would be the winning wager. However, if the final score were 7-5, 3-6, 7-5 for example, then after adding all the games (7+5+3+6+7+5=33) the over bet would payout.