Understanding Tennis Odds and Improving Your Wagering Strategy
If you are currently looking for ways to improve your tennis wagering strategy, or if you are new to wagering on tennis and want to know how to get started, you’ve come to the right place.
On this page, we will be discussing various important things that can help you make better tennis wagering decisions and, hopefully, turn those losing wagers into winning wagers.
It helps to have a good understanding of tennis and the strengths and weaknesses of today’s best tennis players that you want to wager on. You should also familiarize yourself with the various wager types/markets that are typically available in your average tennis match and try to understand what the odds for any given event are trying to convey to you.
With that said, here are a few simple and effective tennis wagering strategies that everyone who is going to wager on tennis events in 2025, like the Miami Open or Wimbledon, should know about.
What are Odds, and How Can They Help Me Decide What to Wager On?
Whether you are a seasoned pro or new to wagering on tennis matches, here are several things you might like to try to improve your wagering strategy. First of all, it helps to understand what the odds are trying to tell you about the most likely outcome of that event.
On most sites, you can choose how the odds are displayed, which is fantastic for people in specific regions.
The three main odds formats are American/moneyline odds, which are typically used in North America (mainly the US, but also in parts of Canada); fractional odds, which are mainly used in the United Kingdom and other UK territories; and decimal odds, which are used pretty much everywhere else.
The odds are essentially the ratio between the amount staked by the bookies and the wagerer. They tell us how likely an outcome will occur, which is also called the implied probability rate (IPR). The odds also tell us how much money we will win if our wager is correct.
On many of today’s safest online sports wagering websites, especially on the newest bookmakers with some of the iGaming industry’s most highly competitive odds, you can click or tap on the ‘odds format’ button to toggle which format you would prefer the odds displayed in.
Having the odds displayed in your preferred format can make things much easier for you, rather than trying to understand an odds format you aren’t too familiar with.
Let’s take a quick look at a few examples of how this works
- If a wagering market you have had your eye on is priced at, say, 1/100 in the UK fractional odds format, it’s the same as saying -10,000 in the American/moneyline format and 1.01 in the decimal odds format. In other words, the IPR (implied probability rate) of this outcome occurring is a whopping 99.00%—SO IT WILL MOST LIKELY OCCUR.
- If something is priced at 1/3 (fractional odds), it means -333.33 (American/moneyline odds) and 1.30 (decimal odds) with a 76.90% IPR.
- If something is priced at 8/13 (fractional odds), it means -162.5 (American/moneyline odds) and 1.62 (decimal odds) with a 61.90% IPR.
- If something is priced at 1/1 (fractional odds), also called EVENS, it means +100 (American/moneyline odds) and 2.00 (decimal odds) with a 50.00% IPR—in other words, there’s a 50/50 chance of this happening.
- If something is priced at 9/4 (fractional odds), it means +225 (American/moneyline odds) and +3.25 (decimal odds) with a 30.80% IPR.
- If something is priced at 100/1 (fractional odds), it means +10,000 (American/moneyline odds) and 101.00 (decimal odds) with only a 1.00% IPR—LEAST LIKELY TO OCCUR.
Therefore, try to look for odds with high implied probability rates and try to avoid placing wagers with long odds and low IPRs. No matter how tempting the payout may seem with long odds, try not to wager on the outsiders/underdogs too often because they rarely win.
The odds-on favorites stand a greater chance of winning, although the profit margin is much lower. However, with that said, it still doesn’t mean that your wagers are guaranteed to win every time you place wagers on the favorites.
Sometimes, things can happen in sports to upset the odds, meaning the favorites don’t always win, and even the underdogs can shock everyone and win their respective events. It just doesn’t happen very often.
Once you have learned how sports wagering markets are priced, this can help you place more informed wagers.
How can I Improve My Wagering Strategy on Today’s Safest Online Sports Wagering Sites?
It also helps to arm yourself with as much relevant data and statistics as possible to improve your tennis wagering strategies.
For example, before wagering on any upcoming tennis matches, conduct as much research as possible about the players you wish to wager on and stay on top of the latest tennis news.
Finding out other key pieces of information, such as the historical form between those two players (what the results are when they usually face each other in head-to-head matches), recent player form (for at least their latest three to five matches), serve and return statistics, and injury updates.
It also helps to find out what type of court surface the match will be played on (e.g. clay, grass, or hard courts) because some tennis players perform much better than others on specific surfaces. Similarly, finding out what the weather will be like on the day, and whether the match will be indoors or outdoors, can also help you place more strategic wagers.
Additionally, you should also try to find out the importance of the match, how far the players have had to travel to play in that tournament, and whether they have a new coach. It all helps.
Some experienced wagerers also like to find out what the expert tipsters are saying and regularly use their advice to place more informed tennis wagers.
What are the Biggest Tennis Tournaments Still to Come in 2025?
If you want to wager on a major tennis tournament in 2025, some of the biggest upcoming events include Grand Slam tournaments, such as the French Open, the US Open, Wimbledon, and the Australian Open.
You also have the ATP Masters 1000, the Billie Jean Cup, the ATP Finals, and the Summer Games Tennis Tournament, to name just a few.
Conclusion
Now that you understand how important it is to gather as much information as possible and to understand what the odds are trying to tell you, this should help improve your tennis wagering strategy.
The other important thing to mention is about responsible gambling. To ensure you never spend more money than you can afford, most seasoned pros suggest setting a sensible spending budget before depositing.
Also, where possible, try to take advantage of various safer gambling tools—such as deposit limits, session time reminders, and win/loss limits—and only ever place wagers on tennis on fully licensed and regulated online sportsbooks that are known to be controlled by reputable companies. Never sign up to wager on unlicensed/unregulated iGaming sites.
