Tennis is an action-packed sport with a large number of possible outcomes. You can bet on tennis before the match and also during the match - live (it is also called in-play). In the latter case you must monitor live TV or online video broadcasts. Bookmakers offer different types of markets priced at different odds (which means different potential winnings). The higher the odds, the bigger the potential returns, but there is also more risk as well. You can minimize that risk if you know a lot about tennis players. In this respect tennis betting is much easier than football or other team sports because you only need to take into account the stats of two or four players.
To form your own predictions use all the available information – not just the athlete's physical condition but also what's happening in their private lives. Beginners might find free predictions of sporting events useful.
Please keep in mind that, unlike many other sports, there is no draw in tennis. If the score is tied, the match goes to a tie-break. The win of Player 1 or Player 2 is represented by W1 and W2 on the website. You can bet on the outcome of the whole match or of separate sets. For example, when betting live, it is useful to assess the player's form in the first set and bet on the outcome of the second set, on whether a tie-break will take place or not, and on other match features.
Total in tennis usually means the total number of games played. It is something to remember when betting on tennis. Bookmakers use totals in various markets. There are the following options:
overall match total;
total even or odd;
total over or under;
result of a player in a match or in an individual set (sometimes called "individual total").
Bets on several markets are popular in tennis as well. Total is considered to be more difficult to predict than the whole match outcome because you need to know the players well, assess the dynamics and analyse the stats. Sometimes it's even important who serves first.
In this case you need to estimate the potential difference in games won between opponents. A handicap can be a positive or a negative number. A positive handicap bet will win if, after adding the handicap to the player's score, that player wins. A negative handicap needs to be deducted from the player's score. A decimal handicap makes a draw impossible.