LowPlays Tennis Betting Guide for UK Punters
Tennis is a dynamic, fast-paced sport, and its gameplay style creates a rich palette of possible outcomes. Online bookmakers in the UK offer regular coverage of tennis events and odds on various outcomes.
Thanks to the accessibility of online bookies, you can start betting small with a £5 or £10 deposit and even qualify for a tennis bonus. LowPlays understands the appeal of casual betting on tennis and our experts dug deep to uncover low-deposit bookies with a solid track record of offering tennis odds and bonuses.
Alongside our picks, we will expand on the basics of tennis betting to help you get a foot in the door.
Betting on Tennis – Overview
Tennis is a versatile sport, opening up a range of alternative betting opportunities as part of men’s and women’s singles and doubles contests. Nonetheless, singles are by far the more popular form of tennis.
Depending on the event – ATP Tour or a Grand Slam – tennis games can be best-of-three sets or best-of-five. The former applies to ATP games, and the latter to Grand Slams. Tennis odds at UK bookmakers mainly revolve around match/tournament winners, number of sets, set winners, and proposition (prop) markets.
You can make insightful tennis bets even if you’re not an ardent fan and you don’t follow tennis events actively. All it takes to get you going is understanding the rules, learning player stats, and a good hunch for making predictions.
Top UK Betting Sites For Tennis
The online sports betting market is flooded with tennis odds. You can find odds at virtually any betting site as tennis is a major sports category with events available all year round. Our LowPlays betting experts went over quite a few operators. The following sites are, based on all parameters, among the best tennis bookies for British players.
BetMGM
18+. New customers only. 7 days to place qualifying bet of £10+ at 1/1 (2.0) to receive 4 x Free Bets: 2 x £10 Accas, 1 x £10 Horse Racing, 1 x £10 Football. Stake not returned. Exclusions Apply. Full T&Cs apply.
With a deposit of £5, BetMGM opens up a world of tennis markets and events. If you’re a casual punter, you can start betting on a minimum budget with a £5 or £10 deposit (some banking methods have a £10 threshold). You can portion your budget with bets as low as £0.10 and upwards for singles and combined tickets.
The bet slip is quite handy. It provides real-time odds changes on your tennis selections before you confirm your bet. You can accept the odds or remove the selection with the changed odds. BetMGM is actively providing odds for all international tennis events worth considering, including IFT men’s and women’s, Challenger and ATP tours, and more.
The choice of bet types may be limited for smaller matches and competitions. Where BetMGM differs from most competitors is the availability of live streams for featured tennis games.
Ladbrokes
18+ New UK+IRE Customers only. Certain deposit methods & bet types excl. Min first £5 bet within 14 days of account reg at min odds 1/2 to get 4x £5 free bets. Free bets available to use on selected sportsbook markets only. Free bets valid for 7 days, stake not returned. Restrictions + T&Cs apply.
Alongside allowing smooth navigation between match-winner odds, outrights, and alternative markets, Ladbrokes allows you to stay in tune with events occurring within 24-48 hours. While this feature seems simple, not all tennis bookmakers have it.
Singles and combined bets start at £0.10 per leg or for multiples with 2 or more selections. The betting market variety is where we, at LowPlays, found Ladbrokes to excel the most. There are literally dozens of betting markets for match and set outcomes, with some player props and odds. You can even place correct set scores – an option only some tennis bookmakers offer.
If you decide to place a (relatively) high first bet of £5 or £10, you become eligible for Ladbrokes’ sports promos. Most promos apply to all sports, including tennis, unless it’s an offer specifically for hockey, football, or another sport.
Betway
Betway’s tennis book is among the best of all UK betting sites. There’s more than one reason why we rank Betway so highly for tennis betting. It offers live odds for every professional tennis match anywhere in the world. The live odds are coupled with live streams – a feature still neglected by some online bookies.
A £5 or £10 minimum deposit applies. Whether the minimum is £5 or £10 depends on the payment method. Low-cost free bet bonuses and other sports offers applicable to tennis (and other sports) are promoted regularly. Alongside great tennis coverage, Betway offers invaluable match and set statistics. You can also see stats related to head-to-head games, player form, and current standings.
Midnite
18+ New UK customers. Bet £10 on accas with 4+ legs, min odds 3/1 (4.0). Get 4x £5 Free Bets and 50 Free Spins, valid for 7 days on selected bets and games only. T&Cs apply.
Midnite will likely be your best choice if you’re partial to live betting. Midnite’s live betting tennis coverage is diverse and broad, without overlooking any major or minor professional tournament.
There are three tabs allowing you to separate Matches, Outrights, Competitions, and In-Play odds. Five GBP (£5) is the lowest you can deposit, but only some payment methods accept £5 deposits. The average minimum is £10. However, we liked that Midnite allows you to place extremely small bets to support your recreational betting style. You can bet a minimum of £0.10 per single selection or for combined bets including doubles, trebles, and 4+ accas.
bet365
18+. For new customers at bet365. Min deposit requirement. Free Bets are paid as Bet Credits and are available for use upon settlement of bets to value of qualifying deposit. Min odds, bet and payment method exclusions apply. Returns exclude Bet Credits stake. Time limits and T&Cs apply. Registration required.
bet365 is a site with a wide assortment of sports and markets. Tennis is a major section of its book, covering both men’s and women’s events. The ‘Tennis’ section is well-organized, separating tennis betting markets and events into separate tabs to make navigation easier.
The coverage of tennis competitions is excellent, ranging from the ATP Tour to the WTA Tour, IFT Men, IFT Women, and even virtual tennis. You can start building your bank with a deposit as low as £5, but depending on the payment method, you may need to place a £10 deposit.
What impressed us at LowPlays even more is the broad offer of betting markets. Tap the ‘Tennis’ category, then select the Markets tab and explore dozens of tennis odds for player performance, games, sets, and popular markets. The bet boosts, and accumulator (acca) boosts can further stimulate the betting experience.
Tennis Betting Markets at UK Bookmakers
Even though tennis is (mainly) a singles sport, handicappers create separate match and player odds covering an extensive selection of possible outcomes. Below we look at and explain a few common types of bets.
Match Winner
It doesn’t get simpler than a match-winner. You simply predict which of the two (four) players will win the match. Select the box with the match-winner (moneyline) odds on the betting site and the selection will be included in your bet slip. You can bet on singles or create acca tickets with match-winner odds.
Outright winner (Futures)
Futures markets are released months or weeks before the start of a certain tennis tour. The idea of futures is to allow bettors to lock onto high odds early on before they change, and they will change as the event closes in. Futures markets offer odds for the outright winner of an entire tennis competition.
Set betting
Set betting comprises an entire sub-category of markets. The options are manifold, from set winners to total sets in a game. Depending on the bookie, you can also find specific set markets, such as set spread, moneyline 1st set (1st set winner), moneyline 2nd set (2nd set winner), and set to finish 6-0, and much more.
Over/Under
Totals (over/under) odds in tennis relate mainly to total sets or total games played in the course of a match. Usually, bookies set the over/under number at 20 or 21, but it can also be 22.5, or 20.5.
If a best-of-three match ends 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, then the total number of games is 26, meaning it’s over 20, 21, or 22, depending on the totals set by the bookie. As for sets, bookies usually set the over/under odds at 2.5.
In-play Tennis Bets
Live bets encompass a wide category of markets. Live odds are created for both individual player performances, such as scoring the next ace, or match-related odds, like for the ongoing or upcoming game to go to deuce. Some bookies allow you to bet on the total number of points during an ongoing game, or in the upcoming one.
Tennis Prop Bets
Bookies usually provide player props and match props. An example of a match prop is whether a set will go into a tiebreak and total number of aces (over/under), while player markets can offer odds for a player to win a game or a set or commit over/under to a specific number of faults.
Brief History of Tennis
If we trace it to its earliest beginnings, tennis is a centuries-old sport, originating somewhere in the courts of 12th-century France. It is accepted that King Louis X of France was partial to playing a ‘game of the palm,’ which is seen as the progenitor of modern tennis.
As the sport began to gain traction in the royal courts of medieval Europe, rackets were eventually introduced in the 16th century. There’s an interesting correlation between the invention of the first grass mower and tennis. The invention of lawnmowers is believed to have led to the foundation of the first grass tennis courts in England, which is also home to the first tennis club. You can see where this is going.
Tennis was established as an official sport in 1874 – the year the first tennis tournament took place in Birmingham. Three years later, in 1877, the first Wimbledon was held, and the rest is history.
Top Tennis Tournaments to bet on
The top tennis tournaments attract the most spectators and betting action. We will list the top tennis tournaments and briefly discuss them. You can also find info about the exact or approximate dates these tournaments take place so you can be on the lookout for any futures markets.
Australian Open
The first of the major tournaments, the inaugural Australian Open, took place in 1905, not too long after the first Wimbledon in Melbourne. The tournament features men’s and women’s singles events, as well as doubles and junior championships. It lasts for about two weeks, starting in mid-January.
French Open (Roland Garros)
At the end of every May the French Open, popularly known as Roland-Garros, starts in Paris. Over the course of two weeks, starting in late May, the world’s top tennis players compete for the prestigious championship trophies and a sizable chunk of a multi-million dollar prize pool.
Wimbledon
The oldest, most prestigious, and only remaining major tennis tournament played on a grass surface. You can start browsing for Wimbledon futures in early June, given the tournament starts at the end of June and lasts for about two weeks into early July.
US Open
The US Open is one of the oldest tennis tournaments, first held in 1881. UK bookies actively cover the tournament’s main championships which include singles (men and women), doubles, and mixed doubles. The US Open starts on the last Monday in August and lasts two weeks.
ATP Masters 1000 and WTA 1000
The top contests of the ATP Tour and the WTA Tour, the ATP Masters 1000 and WTA 1000 are the two biggest men’s and women’s tennis tournaments outside the Grand Slams. ATP 1000 and WTA Tour events take place all year long, with the main men’s and women’s events occurring later in the calendar, usually in October until early November.
Tennis Betting Tips and Strategies
Learning statistics about players is demanding work, but can help you gain insight into their form and performance. Smart analysis of this data is invaluable for making smarter predictions. But there’s always a volatility factor that defies all data analyses. This is why experienced bettors have a well-developed hunch, which is part calculation, part feeling.
However, it’s wrong to rest your decisions on a guess or a feeling, which is where active observation of major and minor tournaments alike can help you grow as a bettor. This takes years of dedication to the sport.
For example, a top player who underperforms in a Masters tournament doesn’t necessarily have to underperform in a Grand Slam. On the other hand, a player who goes far in a smaller tournament but sustains an injury or shows patterns of repeated mistakes may stumble when confronted by a rising star in their next competition.
Our LowPlays betting experts firmly believe that every sport requires consistent study and a certain level of enthusiasm. You can memorize all relevant data, and still not be able to predict a player’s performance on a given surface or against a certain opponent if you’ve never seen both of those players in action.
FAQs
What are the Top Tennis Betting Sites in the UK?
This is a matter of personal choice. At LowPlays, we recommend some of the best tennis betting sites, allowing you to explore each suggested brand personally and make the decision yourself.
Do UK Betting Sites Offer Bonuses for Tennis?
Yes, some bookmakers offer special tennis deals, such as acca boosts or free bets, during or ahead of major tournaments.
What is the Top Tennis Betting Event?
The four Grand Slams and tournaments held as part of the ATP Tour are some of the odds-and-market-rich tennis contests at online UK betting sites.
Do Tennis Betting Sites Provide Live Streams?
Some do, some don’t. You have to personally check each site and see if there is a live stream channel for tennis matches.
How to Bet on Tennis?
Betting on tennis requires placing small, low-risk bets on probable outcomes. You have to decide for yourself which outcome is probable, and which isn’t, based on a calculated analysis.