Guide to Betting on the Olympic Games Tennis Tournament

Tennis at the Olympic Games

Tennis was played at the very first modern Olympic Games in 1896. At the time, tennis clubs were being formed around the world and the sport was growing in popularity, especially in Britain, the United States and in France.

Tennis tournaments featured at the Olympics until 1924, when there was a rift between the International Lawn Tennis Federation and the International Olympics committee over how players should be judged as amateur or professional. Unfortunately, this dispute completely took tennis out of the Olympics, and it was not until 1988 when the sport returned. Since then, the Olympic tennis tournament has grown enormously in popularity and is now one of the highlights of the Games. Many legendary tennis players have won Olympic medals, such as Venus and Serena Williams, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, Steffi Graf and more. Because the Olympic Games changes country with every edition, the tennis tournaments take place on different surfaces, making each one different to the last.

How to bet on the Tennis at the Olympic Games                

Outrights

Outrights are bets on the tournament as a whole. These bets will be available both before the Olympic Games start as well as at any point during the tournament, although the odds are preferable at the start of a tournament or before it begins. There will be bets for the winner of the men’s and women’s gold medals, as well bets for the gold medallist doubles partners in the men’s, women’s and mixed tournaments.

Match Win

For each match, there will be bets on which tennis player or doubles team will win. As is usual, the favourite will have the shorter odds and the underdog the longer odds.

Handicap of Games

It is possible to bet on the winner of a match but with a games handicap applied to the final score. This means that it is possible to place a negative handicap on the favourite, which means that a certain number of games will be subtracted from the score. It is also possible to place a positive handicap on the underdog, which means that a certain number of games will be added to the score.

Typical handicaps include -/+-5.5, -6.5, and -7.5. When betting on the favourite with a handicap of -5.5, the bet will only win if the player wins by at least 6 games. When betting on the underdog with a handicap of +5.5, the bet will win if the player wins the match or loses by no more than 5 games.

Set Bets

There also may be bets that focus on sets. These include bets such as which player will win the first set, which player will win the second set, will a player win in straight sets, and more.

Over/Under Games

Bettors can put their money on how many games they think will be played in a single match with the over/under games bet. There will be numerous betting lines such as 18.5, 19.5, 20.5, and so on. Bettors simply need to select a line and then bet on whether over or under that number of games will be played in the match.

Game Props

There are many more aspects of an individual tennis game that can be bet on. These include over/under bets on how many aces, deuces, double faults there may be in a match, or they can be more specific such as exact score of games in the first or second set, winning margin of games, will a player lose a set and then win the game, and many more.

Live Bets

Live bets are hugely popular markets as bettors will be able to put their money on these bets at any point during a game. This means that punters can place better-informed bets having observed the players for a while. Many of the above mentioned bets will be available and it is also possible to bet on the next thing to happen, such as which player will win the next game, will a player win the next two games, will the next game go to a deuce, and more.