Although the likes of football, soccer and basketball are often identified as the most popular sports around the world, it might surprise you to learn that tennis is perhaps equally popular.
In fact, according to recent reporting, approximately 87 million people play tennis across the world. This is in addition to the hundreds of millions of people all over the globe who tune in to high-profile tennis competitions throughout the year.
The esteemed annual Wimbledon Championships, for example, attracts hundreds of thousands of in-person attendees who make the pilgrimage to West London each year. Which is, of course, in addition to the estimated 15.5 million Britons who tune in to live broadcasts of the competition on the BBC.
Interestingly, tennis is also somewhat unique in having achieved relative parity in terms of the respective popularity of men’s and women’s matches. In the past, women’s tennis has even outranked men’s matches in terms of viewing figures, which is something many other sports could only dream of.
This has helped to increase the popularity of tennis overall, and has turned it into a sport that is watched and played by millions all over the globe.
With this in mind, it is perhaps not surprising that tennis has proved popular with online sports betting fans in recent years. In fact, if you were to head over to your online sportsbook of choice during any major tennis tournament – such as the US Open – you would be greeted by a dashboard filled with recently placed tennis bets and wagers.
And with tennis tournaments running for roughly 11 months of the year worldwide, this is something you are more than likely to encounter throughout the year!
Betting on Tennis
Tennis odds are available on essentially any level of tennis match you could think of. This includes everything from the high-profile grand slam competitions to minor regional tournaments. Olympic tennis is also incredibly popular, although this obviously runs on a more irregular schedule!
When it comes to the types of bets you can place on tennis matches, there are five main types available, according to online sports portal WSN.com, these include outright, match, handicap, over/under and in-play betting.
- Outright betting: Pick the winner of a tournament rather than single matches.
- Match betting: Select the winner of a specific match – the most straightforward bet type!
- Handicap betting: One side in a match is given a ‘handicap’ to overcome. If your selection’s score is greater than that of their opponent after this has been applied following the result, you will win!
- Over/Under betting: A two-way bet where you wager on the number of games or sets that will be played over/under a specific threshold.
- In-play betting: A form of betting where wagers are placed after the match has started and the action progresses.
In addition to these five basic types of tennis bets, there is a range of other wagers you can place during a competition. This includes betting that a player will reach a certain stage in the tournament, or picking the specific number of sets a player will take to win a match.
In-play betting has proved particularly popular with online betting fans, given how suddenly a player’s fortunes can change during a match. After all, professional tennis is filled with heroic comeback stories where a player comes back from the brink of defeat to win a tournament!
It is this variety of bets that has helped to make tennis so popular among online sports betting fans.
Tennis Betting Bonuses
As more and more online sportsbooks have set up shop in recent years, tennis fans have become spoiled for choice when it comes to finding a platform to bet with.
And with more competition than ever, online sports books have started to offer an increasingly generous array of bonuses to entice users into signing up for their platform.
With that said, there is now a wide variety of promotions and bonuses on offer. This includes some of the following:
- Deposit bonuses: Often, sportsbooks will give you a straight cash bonus for signing up and depositing to their platform. This can be used in any way you see fit, subject to certain wagering conditions.
- Free bets: Some sportsbooks might give you a free wager up to a certain value that can be placed on any tennis event of your choice. The winnings from this free bet might be subject to certain wagering conditions.
- Cross-promotions: Some of the bigger online sportsbooks will be partnered with online casinos. To encourage you to use both services, they might offer you cross-promotions, which can be used on the casino side of their business.
- Cashback bonuses: Cashback bonuses essentially give you a certain percentage of any deposits you make to the platform, which will be credited to your account. You can use these funds to place any wagers you would ordinarily make.
As you can see, there is a wide selection of bonuses and promotions you can take advantage of when it comes time to place some tennis bets.
The main betting tip we would give you when choosing between these is to always keep in mind the wagering restrictions that are attached to them. Try and choose the bonus with the best balance between wagering restrictions and its total value.