The Best Tennis Betting Strategy and Systems to Win Bets

Tennis is one of the most popular sports in the UK, right beside football and rugby. One of the best things about it is that tennis tournaments are held throughout the year, giving punters plenty of activities and opportunities to bet on the sport.

If you are a tennis fan and enjoy betting on it, you will need a tennis betting strategy to beat bookies and make a profit. Luckily for you, you’ve come to the right place because we have prepared several strategies to help you get started.

Six Quick Facts About Tennis Betting Systems

• Matched betting and arbitrage betting can guarantee profit no matter the outcome.
• Dutching helps you spread your stake equally to break even if only one selection wins or make a profit if multiple ones do.
• Research and studying players’ form is the most effective way to make a good bet.
• A proportional betting system is excellent for novices.
• You will need to use a free bet promotion to make matched betting work.
• In-play betting is great with tennis as there are fewer factors to consider than in sports like football.

How to Bet on Tennis

Betting on tennis works like betting on any other sport. To place a bet, you will need to visit either an online or a land-based bookmaker. Rather than having to browse through hundreds of online bookmakers in the UK, we’ve already prepared a list of excellent new betting sites for 2021.

After you find the one you like and register, simply navigate to the tennis section, pick a market to bet on, decide how much you are willing to stake, and place your bet.

Apart from strategies, our tennis betting guide will show you why tennis is an excellent choice for novices to start their betting journey. Namely, unlike other sports, tennis has fewer variables to consider, which allows you to obtain enough information before placing a bet.

For example, you have 22 players on the pitch in football, while only two play a tennis match (or four, in the case of doubles). Instead of wondering how a dozen or more players feel before the match and how they will perform, you only have to worry about two of them.

Additionally, while learning how to bet on tennis, you won’t have to pay much attention to factors like referees and the home crowd. Players can challenge the ref’s decision in tennis, while a wrong corner kick decision in football can lead to a goal, and you and your team may end up feeling robbed. As far as crowds go, the home court can often play a significant role in football, while virtually every tennis match is played on neutral ground.

Perhaps the best reason you should learn how to bet on tennis is that there are only two outcomes. Since a draw is not possible in tennis, you can even use this to your advantage with some betting strategies we will cover later on in the article.

Granted, while there are plenty of factors you should consider before placing a bet, betting on tennis is relatively straightforward. Even if you have never bet before, it won’t be long before you’re ready to place your first bet. However, while betting on tennis is easy, knowing how to bet on tennis and win is a whole different story. To win bets and eventually make a profit, you will need a reliable strategy you can stick to.

To show you how you can make a profit from betting on tennis, we’ve prepared several strategies, ranging from the basic to advanced ones, which both novices and seasoned punters can use. However, before we get to the good stuff, let’s briefly cover what happens with your bet in case of heavy rain, an injury, or similar.

Tennis Betting Rules

While the specifics of each bet may vary from one bookmaker to another, there are several rules about betting on tennis that you should know before placing your bet. These rules are applied if a player retires from the match or the tournament due to an injury or other circumstances.

• Ball Served

If a player retires at any point after the first serve of the match, they forfeit the match, and bookies award bet winners accordingly.

• One or Two Sets Completed

A tennis betting rule “One or two sets completed” states that the bet is valid as long as players successfully finish one or two sets in a match. If a player retires in a third set, the bet is still valid, even if the match is not completed.

• Match Completed

For this bet to stand, the entire match must be completed. If either of the players retires or the match is cancelled for any reason, the bet is proclaimed void, and the bookmaker will return your initial stake to you.

As far as match delays go, most tennis betting rules consider your bet valid.

As we already mentioned, the exact specifics of each bet will vary from one bookmaker to another, so make sure to check the bookies’ policies. Granted, while these rules are not going to help you win bets, knowing the specifics of a bet may help you decide whether to bet on a player who’s going into the next match with an injury.

Tennis Betting Systems and Strategies

Now that we’ve covered all the basics, it’s time to dive into business. In the following section, we will show you several strategies and how to use each tennis betting strategy to increase your chances of winning and beat bookies.

Learn to Read the Statistics

If you have browsed through various tennis strategies, you might’ve noticed that research is an occurring theme. However, even though research isn’t necessarily a tennis betting strategy, the reason it is so often mentioned is that it is one of the most effective tools you can use to win tennis bets. After all, the more you know about a match and players, the easier it will be to place a good bet.

Apart from just collecting information, you will also need to learn how to read it and use it to your advantage, which comes with experience.

If you wish to learn how to bet on tennis games and instil good habits, the first thing you should always consider before placing a bet is the player’s form. To do that, simply check their statistics and performance in the past matches. Of course, the goal here is not to overdo it and focus on relevant information. Knowing players’ results from five years ago or more is not a good indicator of their current form.

Despite what some other online betting guides for tennis say, we believe that head-to-head results are crucial, and you should always check them before betting. Virtually every player has their nemesis and a player they struggle against.

For example, Andre Agassi, widely regarded as a legendary tennis player, has continuously lost to Andre Gomez. At the same time, one of the best players of today, Roger Feder, is only 11–8 against Nalbandian despite being a much better player than him on paper.

The surface the match is being played on is the last bit of information you should consider if you wish to learn how to bet on tennis like a pro. As you may know, clay courts slow down the ball and produce a high bounce, which is disadvantageous for players who rely on their serve. Similarly, grass courts are faster than hard or clay courts, favouring players with a serve-and-volley playstyle.

Dutching

Dutching is a popular betting strategy, and it involves betting on two or more selections with different stakes so that you may break even or make a nice profit. Even though it is most often used when betting on horses and is not necessarily a tennis betting strategy per se, dutching can be applied to sports like football, tennis, and many others.

Instead of putting all your eggs in one basket, the goal with dutching is to spread your bankroll based on the odds of the selections you are betting on. The lower the odds, the more you will stake on that selection, while you will bet less on selections with high odds. That way, if either of your selection wins, you can break even.

Unlike horse racing where you have multiple selections to choose from, there are only two opposing sides in tennis. Therefore, to use this tennis betting strategy, you will have to bet on different markets for the same match. For example, you could place an over and under bet and bet on a player to win the match.

To best illustrate how dutching works, let’s say that Djokovic is playing Monfils. Since Djokovic is a favourite based on his form and rankings at the time of writing, the odds on him would be, for example, 1.7 to win. Additionally, the bookmaker may offer the odds of 2.8 for Monfils to win the second set.

Let’s say that you’re all set on this tennis betting system, and you have a bankroll of £100. To make the strategy work, you would bet £62 on Djokovic to win and £38 on Monfils to win the second set. That way, if either of your selection wins, you would earn £105.78 and make a small profit.

Dutching is an excellent system to use because it reduces the risk you take by spreading your bankroll across two or more bets. Of course, an important thing to remember is that this tennis betting system is not risk-free, and there is always the possibility to lose your bankroll if both of your predictions are wrong.

The easiest way to figure out how much you need to bet on each selection is to use an online dutching calculator. They are free to use and will do all the work for you. Simply enter the odds for the selections you plan to bet on, and the amount you wish to stake, and the calculator will tell you exactly how much you need to bet on each selection.

Proportional Betting

Proportional betting is a great tennis betting system that is extremely easy to use. Unlike progressive systems like Martingale or Fibonacci that are most often used for casino games like roulette, the proportional betting system is popular among punters.

Each time you bet, you would wager a portion of your bankroll, which in most cases is 10% of your total bankroll. For example, your bankroll is £500. This means that the first bet you place would be £50. If you win and make a profit of £150, you will add that amount to your total bankroll and bet 10% of that amount. In that case, the next bet you place would be £65.

Proportional betting is one of the best tennis betting systems for novices. Since you are gradually increasing the amount you stake each time you bet, but decrease it with each loss, the goal of this system is to keep you in the game for a while. Even if you make several losing bets, you will have the time to recover and make a profit in the end.

Arbitrage Betting and Matched Betting

Even though arbitrage and matched betting are not illegal, bookmakers dislike these strategies. Why? Because they guarantee profit no matter the outcome. In fact, some bookies dislike arbitrage and matched betting so much that they may close your account if they discover that you use these strategies.

If you’re willing to take the risk and make a guaranteed profit with these two tennis betting strategies, our tennis betting guide will show you precisely how they work.

Arbitrage Betting

We all know that odds vary from one bookmaker to another. In some cases, you can take advantage of the difference in odds and secure profit, which is what arbitrage betting is all about. Additionally, you can apply the same principle with the difference in odds between a bookie and a betting exchange. If you have never used a betting exchange before, make sure you check out our article and find out what a betting exchange is before proceeding.

Essentially, the principle is rather similar to dutching. However, rather than betting on multiple selections, with this tennis betting strategy, you are betting exclusively on who will win.

To show you how arbitrage betting works, let’s say that Nadal is playing Shapovalov. The bookie gives Nadal the odds of 1.6, while the betting exchange offers 3.3 to lay against Nadal.

If we stake £100 on Nadal, we can determine with an online arbitrage betting calculator that we need to lay £48.48 against Nadal to secure profit. Then, if Nadal wins at the odds of 1.6, we will win £160. If Shapovalov wins, we will also win £160. Since we bet a combined sum of £148.48, we will lock in £11.52 no matter who wins the match.

Matched Betting

Matched betting is a risk-free tennis betting strategy, and it requires a free bet promotion to work. Luckily for you, free bet promotions are easy to come by and we have already prepared a list of some of the best betting offers in the UK.

As far as matched betting goes, it works just like arbitrage betting, except in this case, you won’t have to look for a big difference in odds.

In our previous example, we had the odds of 1.6 and 3.3 to work with. However, what if Djokovic was playing Nadal? Since both players have great chances to win the match, the difference in odds would be a lot smaller and may look something like 1.6 for Djokovic and 1.7 for Nadal to win.

To show you how this tennis betting strategy works, let’s say that a bookmaker offers £10 in free bets. If we used an arbitrage calculator, it would tell us that we need to bet £9.41 on Nadal. Because the difference in odds isn’t significant enough, a bet of £9.41 will only minimise our losses. If either of our selection wins, we will win £16, which means that we are down £3.41, no matter the outcome.

However, since we are not technically betting on both outcomes and have a £10 free bet to work with, we only need to stake £9.41. In other words, by using a free bet promotion, we can lock in profits even if the odds on each selection are nearly identical.

Of course, this is just an example, and to effectively use this tennis betting strategy, you should adapt your calculations based on the free bet promotion and how much you need to stake to place a qualifying bet. After you place a qualifying bet and receive the free bet promotion, simply repeat the same process, and you will lock in profits at either the bookmaker or at the betting exchange.

Tennis Live Betting Strategy

Even though tennis is a fairly dynamic sport, the downtime between serves, games, and sets makes it feel a tad more slow-paced than some other sports. In many cases, this “breathing space” allows you to assess the situation and read the game better.

Remember how we said that information is the key when betting? Well, what better way to obtain information than have it delivered to you live. For that reason, tennis live betting is a viable strategy where you can truly put your knowledge of the sport to the test.

Additionally, you can always use momentum swings and grab an excellent opportunity to place a bet that is a lot more valuable than it would be if you bet before the match started. Moreover, factors like fatigue, endurance, or player’s mentality may come into play with long matches and can significantly help you play a winning in-play bet.

The Bottom Line

Using a strategy is essential if you are a serious punter and wish to profit when betting. It is essential to know that no single tennis betting strategy is the best. In fact, even strategies that can guarantee you profit every single time have their disadvantages.

However, you don’t have to always stick to one strategy. A more effective way of making a profit would be to mix it up slightly from time to time and even combine different strategies. Rather than trying to find the best tennis betting system, use the one that fits the situation.

Regardless of the strategy you choose, make sure to do your homework because nothing is as effective as research and understanding players’ form.