The moneyline is the most popular type of bet in tennis. You simply put your money on the player you think is going to win the game. It’s also possible to bet on which player is going to win the tournament by making a tennis future bet. Types of bets that are often overlooked are tennis prop bets.
These sorts of wagers definitely should not be overlooked. Why? First of all, because they’re very interesting. You get to think outside-the-box when betting on tennis props. These include all the wager types that often slip away from the bettors’ radar, e.g. how many rackets will Rafael Nadal break during French Open?
Apart from being interesting, tennis proposition bets can also be very lucrative. You just need to learn how to pick the winning ones.
How to Bet on Tennis Props?
The answer to the question of how to bet on tennis props is: easy! Of course, it’s easy only if your sportsbook has tennis prop bets in the offer.
The good news is that most bookmakers deal with certain types of tennis proposition bets. One such example is the Over/Under wager.
What is the Over/Under in Tennis?
There are two types of Over/Under bets in tennis. One is focused on sets, the other on games. As every tennis match consists of sets, it’s not surprising that betting on whether there’s going to be more or fewer sets than the given number.
Depending on the competition, there may be a maximum of three or five sets. In Men’s matches at Grand Slam tournaments like the US Open, the maximum number is five sets. What this means is that in order to win, the player needs to do win three sets.
In this case, the margin for O/U Sets can be set at 3.5. If you think one player will win 3-0 in sets, you ought to bet Under. If you think we’ll see four or more sets in the match, go with Over.
It’s a similar case with O/U Games. In order to win a set, a player needs to win at least six games. We say “at least” because a requirement is that there’s at least two games difference. A player can win by 6-4 but not 6-5. In that case, another game is played.
In the case when it’s a 6-6 tie, a tiebreaker needs to be played. The player who wins the tiebreaker wins the set by 7-6.
What all this means is that the maximum number of games per set is 13, with the minimum being six. You can bet on O/U Games in a set, while there are also tennis props focused on the number of games across the entire match.
Tiebreaker Prop Bets
Tiebreakers do happen, but not in every game. They are rare when a favorite is pitted against a big underdog. Still, there are many online bookmakers that offer betting on whether a tiebreaker will happen in a match.
Some sportsbooks also let you bet on whether a tiebreaker will happen in a certain set. You can also bet on how many tiebreakers will a specific player win in the tournament, and so on.
Correct Score Betting in Tennis
Match-winner, a.k.a. moneyline bet might be the most popular bet in tennis but is not the most lucrative one.
This goes especially for the cases when a player from near the summit of the ATP list is playing against someone who’s either very low or not ranked at all. In such cases, the odds on the favorite are miserable. You’d need to invest tens of thousands of dollars to win a few hundred.
The good news is that you can spice things up with the help of tennis prop bets. You can bet on correct score, which would give you much better odds.
How these bets work is that you need to choose the winner of the match, as well as guess how many sets he/she will win and lose. For instance, you can bet that Coco Gauff is going to beat Sofia Kenin by 2-1 in sets.
Set Winner
Instead of betting on the winner of the match, you can bet on the winner of every set. A great thing about this prop bet is that it you can bet on set that you can’t be sure are going to happen at all.
For instance, you can bet on which player is going to win the fifth set. If you go with this bet, it implies that you think there are going to be five sets in the game.
So, you’re practically betting on the winner of the firth set, plus Over 4.5 Sets. As a result, your odds are going to be really lucrative.
Total Aces
Ace in tennis refers to the point scored from a serve, when the opponent doesn’t get to do anything. Some players are experts when it comes to scoring aces, some are experts for dealing with the opponent’s serves.
Sports betting sites let you bet on how many aces a match will see. Furthermore, some even let the bettors bet on O/U aces scored by a player.
Exotic/Miscellaneous Tennis Prop Bets
Tennis props aren’t only focused on what’s going on the court. They can be about anything related to the tennis match/tournament.
To understand what we’re talking about, here are some examples of exotic bets you might come across at online sportsbooks:
- Will the Queen attend Wimbledon?
- How many tons of strawberries are going to be eaten during the 2021 Wimbledon?
- Novak Djokovic to hit a ball boy by accident at 2021 Australian Open?
You can find bets like these in the offers of some sportsbooks, while others let the bettors get creative and propose the bets on their own.
Best Sites for Tennis Prop Bets
There are literally hundreds of online bookmakers out there. Some of them are great, some not that great. There are plenty of conditions that come into play when it comes to deciding which sportsbook is good. One of those is the betting offer.
It needs to have a big variety of bets at the players’ disposal. Tennis prop bets need to be there. If not, the sportsbook needs to be user-friendly and willing to listen to users’ suggestions. What we’re saying is that if you have a tennis prop bet in your mind, your bookmaker should be willing to hear you out.