Monogamy works for marriage but not for sports betting. A summer romance with an unfamiliar sport can be the perfect way to spice up an otherwise dull baseball season. Tennis is heavily bet across the pond, and with the grand slam section of the calendar in full swing, we thought it’d be a good time to go over some tips for newbie tennis bettors.
Whole lotta chalkA big favorite in tennis isn’t the same thing as a big favorite in baseball. You’ll see some crazy lines for the top players in the world. Novak Djokovic, for example, was a -10,000 fave the other day against Blaz Kavcic. That means you’d only make $10 if you bet $1000 on Djokovic to beat that jabroni.
Betting the top players in the world is pricey but you can increase you payout if you look at wagering options outside of moneyline match winner. Some prefer betting the over/under on total games in the match, or you can take the favorite and the amount of sets it’ll take him/her to win. Those are a couple ways to play the favorites and avoid all that juice.
Of course, there many bettors don’t even touch favorites priced north of -200 and others who only bet underdogs.
Know the player, surface and situationLike any other sport, the key to handicapping tennis is information. Not many people have four hours to research every play before they hit the “accept wager” button. Here are a few things that should fit in a 15-minute checklist:
Surface: Clay, hard or grass? Different players play better on different surfaces. (See: Andy Roddick).
Situation: Is it a big event like the French Open or a warm-up tourney? The best players in the world will go balls to the wall in all Masters Series events and any slam, but you won’t see their top form in warm-up events.
Head-to-head record: This is always helpful but make sure you cross check it by surface.
Playing form/injuries/fatigue: This is another good one to look at. Mardy Fisher was a notorious underachiever until a few years back when he committed to being one of the fittest players on tour.
Novak Djokovic was a top 5 player but had a reputation for retiring when the going got tough. He switched up his diet and rededicated himself to the game and the result was a season for the ages in 2011.
Injuries do happen though, and an informed bettor should know about players entering tournaments with lingering health concerns.
Recommended websitesYou can’t handicap without the data. We asked followers our followers on Twitter which websites are the best for handicapping tennis. Here are the ones mentioned:
MatchStat.com
TennisExplorer.com
TennisInsight.com (You do have to pay for some of the info here)Shout-outsThere’s no way I could have written this article without help from
sparty444,
AverageAllstar,
packersbackers,
Popo21 and
Alistair. You can see their contributions in
this forum thread.