Tennis Betting Explained

When it comes to tennis odds, examples work better than any explanations.

Individual match head-to-head betting

Nadal meets Tsonga in a head-to-head match.
What does it mean when you see Nadal -450 / Tsonga +240 ?

• If you bet on Nadal to win, you need to bet $450 to win $100. If Nadal wins, you collect $550 (your original $450 stake plus $100).
• If you bet on Tsonga to win, you need to bet $100 to win $240. If Tsonga wins, you collect $340 (your original stake of $100 plus $240).

Basically, you risk more and win less for a "safe" bet (betting that the hot favorite is going to win), and risk less and win more when betting on an underdog.

Set betting

In head-to-head matches you can also go for set betting. You'll encounter something like this:
Nadal -1.5 -450 / Tsonga +1.5 +240

This means:

• If you bet on Nadal, you need to bet $450 to win $100, and he has to win with 3 sets to 1 or 3-0. You lose the bet if Nadal wins 3 sets to 2.
• If you bet on Tsonga, you need to bet $100 to win $240, and Tsonga needs to win at least 2 sets.

Games betting

This is similar to set betting, except that you count the numbers of games won. Example:
Nadal -4.5 -450 / Tsonga +4.5 +240

Suppose Nadal wins 6-4, 7-6, 7-6. Nadal won the total of 20 games to Tsonga's 16. The difference of 4 games is not enough (you need 5) and you lose the bet.

Another scenario: Nadal loses 6-0, 6-0, 6-7, 6-7, 4-6. This is 28 games to 20, and you win the bet even though Nadal lost the overall match (28-20=8, which is greater than the required 4.5).