How to Bet on Tennis at the Tokyo Olympics

Olympic Tennis Tournament Basics

The men’s and women’s tennis tournaments will be taking place from July 24 through August 1. There are a total of five competitions: men’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s singles, women’s doubles, mixed doubles. There will be two days for both the first and second rounds and matches are best of three rather than best of five for the men’s competitions.

Any Murray won gold at both the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games, but much has changed since then. He underwent surgery and failed to make it past the third round at Wimbledon this year. Novak Djokovic will be looking to become the first man to win a calendar Golden Slam, having already won the first there Gland Slams of the season. Another player that people will be watching is Stefanos Tsitispas, who has been in excellent form despite his first-round exit at Wimbledon. There are also a number of women players worth watching, such as Naomi Osaka, Barbora Krejcikova and Ashleight Barty.

2020 Olympics Tennis Betting Markets

There are numerous betting markets available on the various tennis competitions at the Olympics. There are outright markets, which relate to the tournament as a whole, and game markets, which are on the individual matches. If you fully understand all of the different markets, then you can begin to combine them and build a betting strategy. While there are many markets, they are all easy to understand. Here is an explanation of the most popular ones.

Gold Medal Winner

The name of this market tells you all that you need to know. It is the most straightforward outright betting market available. You are simply betting on which player will win the Olympic gold medal. It is an excellent market to start with if you are new to tennis betting as all it requires you to do is choose a player and if they win gold, you win your bet. You can place this bet at any time up until the final of the tournament. 

One of the most attractive things about this market is that you will find that the odds are better than even money on nearly all of the players. This means that there is the potential for large returns, especially if you are backing one of the underdogs. However, even if you simply bet on the favourite, it is a good chance to make some profits.

Furthermore, you can back more than one player. You could back the favourite and then choose a few of the underdogs and this way try to cover all of your bets. Of course, it is not a risk free strategy, but it is one that is utilised by many serious gamblers.

Winner Full Time

This is the most straightforward bet you can place on an individual match. Rather than betting on who will win the tournament, you are betting on who will win the match. Simply choose one of the players and if your chosen player wins, then you will win the bet. It is worth looking for matches where you think the underdog may cause an upset, as often there will be very generous odds available.

It is rare for the favourite to have odds that payout even money or more. However, while this means the potential returns are smaller, it doesn’t mean that the market should be discounted. It is still possible to make a profit and it is always worth keeping a careful eye on the odds as you may spot some excellent opportunities.

Handicap Games and Sets

Handicap betting can appear to be a bit confusing at first, but it is actually very straightforward and it opens up some exciting possibilities. Handicap betting can be particularly beneficial if you think there is a player who will do better than expected but still lose the match. The basic idea is that the favourite to win is given a handicap that evens out the betting markets. That way, if the underdog does do better than expected, it is still possible to back them and win the bet.

For example, you may see a market such as Player A -2.5 and Player B +2.5. In this instance, Player A is favourite to win the match. However, if you were to bet on Player A, then for you to win the bet they must win by at least 3 games. If you were to bet on Player B, then you will win the bet if they lose by no more than two games (or win the match). It is because of this that it is possible to win a bet on the underdog even if they lose the match.

If the above example was a match played with three sets and the scores were 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, then it is clear that Player A has won by two sets to one. If you then look at the number of games won by each player, you will see that Player A won 15 games and Player B won 14 games. This means that while Player A won the match, those who backed Player B would still win their bet as the player lost by less than 2.5 games.

There are many more situations where the handicap can be applied. Rather than on games, it may be applied to sets. You will also find 3-way handicap betting, which is very similar except for that you can also bet on a tie in the number of games or sets won.

Over/Under Sets and Games

Over/Under bets are very simple to understand and present some interesting possibilities. An over/under bet applied to sets is simply a bet on how many sets there will be in a match. For example, in a best of three format, you may be able to bet on there being over or under 2.5 sets. If you bet over, then you think that it will require all three sets to be played (i.e. there will be more than 2.5 sets), if you bet under, then you are betting that the match will be won in straight sets (i.e. there will be less than 2.5 sets). You will also see over/under markets on games, and possibly on other aspects of the sport, such as how many aces will be served in a set.

Exact Score/Set

This is a very difficult bet to get right, which means that it offers some very long odds. You are betting on what the exact score of a set will be. As it is so hard to predict, if you feel that you can do so, then you could be in for a big payout. The Exact Set bet is very similar, you are betting on how many sets each of the players will win. However, as there are far fewer options than the Exact Score bet, the odds will not be quite as long.

Prop Bets

Proposition bets, sometimes known as Match Specials, are a lot of fun and sometimes extremely interesting. They are bets on specific things to happen within a match and often the markets will vary from game to game. For instance, you may see markets such as Player To Win At Least One Set, Any Set To Finish To Nil, and Total Games Odd/Even (whether the total number of games will be an odd or even number). The bets are all very simple and are normally in a yes/no format. Be sure to explore these bets carefully as there are often some exciting opportunities.

2020 Olympics Tennis Betting Research

The key to placing winning bets is always to carry out detailed research. Thanks to the tennis season calendar, there is plenty of recent information for you to look into.

You will obviously start by looking at the players’ forms based upon their recent results. You also need to be aware of the latest player news, for instance whether they have suffered any injuries or are struggling in training. You can often find a lot of information about this in the news and on players’ social media accounts. Before a match, you can also look at the head-to-head results from the two players. It is possible to read too much into these, but they are certainly worth looking at.

One factor that people often forget is the weather. Be sure to look at the weather forecast before a match and consider how it may affect the game. For instance, will players be in a climate they are not used to?

You will have many chances to place bets across all five of the Olympic tennis competitions, so take the time to do careful research and with a bit of luck, this will translate in lots of winnings.