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Tennis Betting

The best internet bookmaker for tennis betting is Bet365 (£200 FREE sign-up bonus). That firm has more tennis betting events than any bookie, whether it be match betting or outright tournament tennis betting. Click for Bet365

Many Tennis Betting Options

The top online bookies, such as our number one recommended bookmaker Bet365, offer odds on all aspects of tennis betting. It is not just the tennis tournament betting on the outright winner. They also bet on each tennis match, the set betting, even whether there will be a tie break in a set and up to 20 other tennis betting markets.

Gambling on tennis has certainly come of age. The appetite has now extended far beyond the big four big tournaments that make up the Grand Slam.

You can now bet live, in play, with an online bookmaker or sportsbook on a first round match in a tournament somewhere you have probably never heard of between players whose recent performances you will almost certainly have to look up if, indeed, you have heard of them at all.

The ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) organises over seventy international tennis matches across the globe, throughout the year, and they are just the tip of the iceberg from a tennis betting perspective.

If you would like to bet on the tennis in the forthcoming Olympics in two thousand and twelve, the optimists in Britain can bet on Laura Robson achieving gold already. Laura is currently ranked number two in the British women’s juniors behind Heather Watson.

Alternatively, if you would like to combine the British preoccupation with the weather with tennis betting you can even bet on the chances of rain or other climatic disruptions forcing Wimbledon to be extended into an additional week. On certain occasions you may even be able to bet on the colour of the dress Serena Williams will be wearing, such are the wonders of tennis betting in the twenty first century.

While the types of bet available are extensive and the subject of them can verge on the outright ridiculous, the national volume of tennis betting turnover for any individual country is largely dictated by the overall popularity of the sport in that country and, perhaps most significantly, on the quality and popularity of that country’s own tennis players, especially in the men’s game.

Tennis betting seems to be fuelled primarily by patriotic punting on national heroes. While tennis betting in the UK is enjoying an upsurge on the back of Andy Murray mania, the reverse trend is true across the pond in the US.

In the US tennis has, predictably, never enjoyed the scale of following attracted by football but it has now fallen behind Nascar racing (a poor relation to Formula One) in the popularity stakes. A general awareness is growing that all is not well in the world of US tennis.

The Americans want tennis players who are both consistently successful and charismatic. In the nineteen seventies and early eighties, enthusiasm was engendered by an awesome choice of heroes.

There was John McEnroe for those who appreciated incredible artistry and could tolerate the antics of a rather hot-headed hero who would sometimes make the headlines for reasons other than his consummate skill in play.

On the flip side of the coin there was Jimmy Connors. He was reliable, consistent, professional, incredibly powerful and fiercely determined. He epitomised the traditional values of the ‘all American boy’ and, crucially, carried away a large number of the trophies that tennis has to offer. In nineteen seventy four he won three of the four Grand Slam tournaments – he was unable to enter the French Open that year because of his commitments to World Team Tennis.

When both Connors and McEnroe were approaching their sell by dates for top level tennis, tennis betting revenues were serendipitously bolstered by a new kid on the block, Andre Agassi. Agassi seemed to appear from nowhere (he actually came from Nevada) bringing an extremely distinctive and colourful new character to the US and other courts in more ways than one. Exciting to watch with a combination of artistry and pure power, his film star good looks helped to increase tennis viewing audiences in the US and beyond. He is credited by some for single-handedly increasing the popularity of the sport in nineteen nineties. Neither Connors nor McEnroe had anything like his pin-up appeal. Female tennis fans switched on the TV just to watch him, journalists scribbled ad infinitum about him and top companies wanted him to appear in their commercials. Agassi was a new and marketable figure that people wanted to attach to their corporate brand.

Of course there was Pete Sampras too. He certainly ticked the box in terms of consistent achievement but, as a relatively reserved character, he might have beaten Agassi on court on occasions but he simply couldn’t compete in the charisma stakes.

Today, US tennis betting is suffering significantly as American tennis fans are becoming increasingly disengaged. They may have the women’s number one in the shape of Serena Williams with sister, Venus, in the fifth position but the women’s game is clearly not enough to maintain the nation’s appetite for tennis. The men’s game appears to be what really matters for the US punter.

The talents of America’s leading player, Andy Roddick, currently placed a relatively respectable eighth in the ATP rankings, might be more appreciated in a country that is not used to supporting multiple Grand Slam tournament winners. Yes, he is popular, but he simply doesn’t have the degree of charisma of some of their former champions. He also hasn’t enjoyed the degree of success that the US public have been programmed to expect from their tennis champions.

It is not enough that the US public are witnessing the golden age of an all time great in the shape of Roger Federer or the unnatural force that is Rafael Nadal. They are simply not sufficiently inspired by heroes who are not made in the USA.

If the US tennis situation is a cause for concern tennis, and consequently US tennis betting, the UK is certainly not subject to the same downward curve. The UK had endured years of hope that generally resulted in disappointment with the charming, talented but ultimately ineffective Tim Henman. The English gentleman was infinitely likeable, if dull, but generally failed to make it to the final on home soil, or anywhere else for that matter, but he was, at the time, by far the best and only bet on offer to keep British hopes alive beyond the second round at home or abroad.

A few years later Andy Murray appeared. A young man from Scotland, Murray, unlike Henman, appeared to have not only the talent but the aggression and the sheer hunger necessary to win. He was also very obviously in need of media training and a hair cut.

Now, with ATP tournament successes behind him, Murray has helped restore some much needed confidence in British tennis. Whatever successes he achieves in the future, the UK’s patriotic punters will be supporting him heavily in the British tennis betting markets.

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