Tennis Betting Odds

The Different Types of Tennis Betting Odds

When you visit different online sportsbooks across the internet, you may notice that some books use different types of odds than others. For example, a sportsbook that's based in Australia will most likely use decimal odds, while a UK book will use fractional odds.

Assuming you're only familiar with one style of odds, this can be confusing when it comes to tennis betting. So in order to clear up any possible confusion, let's discuss the specifics of moneyline, decimal and fractional odds.

Moneyline Odds

Although the moneyline is used by many sportsbooks around the world, it is especially common in the United States. An even money bet starts at 100, and favorites will carry a minus sign in front of the number while underdogs will have a plus sign. Here's an illustration of this:

David Ferrer   -165
Juan Martin Del Potro  +125

Ferrer is the favorite in this match, and bettors would be risking $165 for every $100 in profit. A wager on the underdog Del Potro would require betting $100 for a $125 profit.

To break this down into a smaller betting increment, let's say that you wagered $20 on Del Potro. Since this is five times less than $100, you'd now stand to win a $25 profit on your bet ($125/5).

Decimal Odds

Seeing as how decimal odds are used in many parts of Canada, Europe and Australia, they're quite possibly the world's most popular odds. There are no plus or minus signs with decimal odds. Instead, an even money bet begins at 2.0 and moves from here. You can see how this works below:

Novak Djokovic  1.7
Roger Soderling  2.45

Here Djokovic is the favored player because bettors would be wagering $1 to earn $0.70 in profit ($1.70 total). With Soderling, people are betting $1 to collect $1.45 in profit. An easy way to figure how much money you're going after with decimal odds is to subtract 1. So by subtracting 1 from Soderling's 2.45 odds, you'd arrive at the $1.45 profit.

Fractional Odds

Quite common in the UK, fractional odds feature two numbers separated by a slash. The number behind the slash is what you're risking while the number in front of the slash is what you are trying to win. Here's an example:

Na Li  3/5
Agnieszka Radwañska  6/5

Li is favored on this line because bettors are fronting $5 to win $3 in profit. As for the underdog Radwañska, people would be risking $5 to earn $6 in winnings.

If you understand the moneyline, decimal and fractional odds, you should have little trouble betting at any online sportsbook out there. This is especially true if you know all of the different tennis bets that are available such as totals, prop bets and match lines (which we covered).

Aside from simply knowing how to bet, it's also highly recommended that you study up on tennis betting strategy too. Understanding strategy and researching matches is the quickest way to boost your tennis betting winnings and potentially make profits.