Tennis betting: Your advanced guide

Betting on tennis is a year-round activity for many punters and eventually you’re going to start looking beyond the match odds. Whether it’s a desire to squeeze greater value from your bets, or a curiosity of what else is out there, expert tennis punters love to branch out in the sportsbook.

Here at Paddy Power we know how passionately tennis betting fans follow the sport. So, we go the extra mile when displaying our tennis odds. You can now get scores of advanced tennis bets on matches from Wimbledon to lowly ITF events.

In this guide we’ll show you six advanced tennis betting markets that are available at Paddy Power today.

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Advanced Tennis Bets

These advanced tennis bets are designed for players who want to get closer to the action. Many of these markets require close attention and also benefit from betting live on matches.

If you’re relatively new to the sport then we recommend you read our guide to the types of tennis bet you can make. This will give you the start you need when accessing Paddy’s tennis odds for the first time.

If you’re a seasoned bettor or one who wants to advance your tennis betting options then read on. Below are six bet options available on most matches during the season.

1. Game Handicaps

Betting on tennis game handicaps is the next step from simple match betting. The aim is to back a player to win or lose while carrying an advantage or disadvantage to their final score.

For example, you might bet on Player A to win the first set with a -2.5 handicap. They need to win by three games (6-3 or better) for you to win your bet.

The point of game handicaps is to increase your odds when backing a player. It’s most useful for dead certs because you can greatly widen the odds available to you, and therefore increase your profit potential.

Game handicaps naturally come with greater risk because you’re often relying on a player to dominate their opponent. However, you can also back an underdog to win with a positive handicap, meaning you can still win your bet if they narrowly lose.

2. Total Match Games

Did you know there is, on average, between nine and 10 games per set in professional singles tennis. By this logic we can assume there will be around 18 or 19 games in a match that lasts two sets, and perhaps 25 or 26 in a three-set match.

Paddy Power facilitates match game totals, with lines on practically every viable outcome. So, you can bet on there being +24.5 games in a Nottingham Open match. Or you might choose to bet below that line.

Paddy’s advanced betting options allow you to wager on alternative lines, so you can effectively choose your mark. This allows expert tennis bettors to go into fine detail and squeeze the most value possible from the odds.

3. Set Correct Score Groups

Using the correct set score market is a great way to start in-play betting on tennis. Here, you simply bet on what you think the score will be. However, the odds on any result are usually high because accurately predicting the correct score of any set is tricky when there are 13 possible outcomes, plus sometimes tie breaks.

So, advanced bettors use Paddy’s correct score groups to predict how the set will finish.

You can bet on groups like you would when grouping the winning rounds in boxing. These groups usually are:

• • • 6-0 or 6-1
    • 6-2 or 6-3
    • 6-4, 7-5 or 7-6

So, if you think one player is going to dominate another then you can bet on 6-0 or 6-1 and stand a better chance of winning than if you’d backed just one of those scores.

4. Exact Games Winning Margin

It’s possible to win a game of tennis without winning the most games, thanks to how sets work. However, in most cases match winners also come out on top with the number of games won.

Therefore experienced tennis punters rely on the exact games winning margin market to confidently place accurate wagers. The idea is to simply bet on the number of games won over the other player.

So, in a Grand Slam men’s singles match that goes to four sets, Player A might win 10 more games than Player B. It’s likely that these odds are quite high, because that’s a heavy victory.

One tip here: if you consider most sets feature nine or 10 games, it means most set results are 6-3 or 6-4. A player winning in straight sets outside of a Grand Slam might therefore win by between four and six games. That should be your benchmark if you assume the match will be done in straight sets.

5. Win First Service Game

A simple yet effective bet is to back a player to win their first service game. Serves dominate men’s singles tennis and you’re likely to see both players win their opening service games. Therefore, it can make sense to combine both bets into a double, and back both to successfully defend serve.

The betting gets a little trickier in the women’s singles game, where serves aren’t so dominant. Here, bettors usually look at how effective the opponent’s return game is before deciding whether or not to back a successful service game defence.

6. Set With Most Games

A great side bet when betting on tennis is to predict which set will feature the most games. It makes sense that the opening sets will feature more games as both players are physically towards their peak and aren’t yet drained by their exploits on court.

However, sometimes players figure each other out later in matches and end up battling over long tie-breaks.

This is a hard market to get right but experienced bettors keep an eye on it over the course of the season to understand which players are more likely to go this distance compared to others.

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