With the Olympics beginning this week, there’s about to be a whole lineup of action for tennis fans to bet on. From men’s and women’s singles, through to doubles and even mixed doubles, opportunities abound for those looking to do some betting.
But what are the best betting markets for Olympics tennis in 2024? And where can the best odds be found?
Key Information About Betting on Olympics Tennis in 2024
Before getting into details about which betting markets are best, there are three important things to know about betting on the Olympics.
First, all events are played on clay. This is the slowest bouncing surface in tennis, making it prone to longer, more physical matches, favoring those with high fitness levels and strong topspin on their shots. It’s also a much different surface movement-wise to hard and grass courts.
Second, singles matches are best of three sets, while doubles are the same, but with a deciding tiebreak in place of a third set. This means that matches are far more prone to upsets, as there’s less time for players to recover in a shorter format.
Thirdly, many players are competing that usually wouldn’t be. Because of the way the singles qualification works, the draw will feature more mismatches than usual early on. In the doubles, pairings are disrupted by both players needing to be from the same country, as well as highly ranked singles players entering when they usually wouldn’t.
Want to bet on the matches? We recommend PariMatch for UK bettors.
Want to bet on the matches? We recommend FanDuel fur US bettors.
The 5 Best Betting Markets for Tennis at the Olympics
Based on the unique circumstances above, here are the five betting markets that we recommend focusing your bets around at the Olympics:
- Game Handicap
In the opening rounds of the Olympics tennis events, there will be some very one-sided matches. Betting on the outright winner of these will clashes is redundant, given the low odds bookmakers will be offering.
Take world No 3 Carlos Alcaraz, who comes up against Lebanon’s Hady Habib, currently ranked No 275 in the world. Tennis bookies are only offering odds of 1.006 (-16667) for Alcaraz to win. That means if you bet $1000 on the Spaniard, you’d still only make $6 profit.
However, betting on the game handicap in a match like this is far more rewarding. Say Alcaraz is given a handicap of -9.5, paying odds of 1.91 (-110). This is a much tighter bet, with Alcaraz needing to defeat Habib for the loss of just two games for this bet to pay. However, the return of $91 on a $100 bet is far more lucrative as well.
- To Win From Behind
Generally speaking, across the duration of the tennis at the Olympics, the ‘win from behind’ market will be one of the best betting markets to wager on. This is because of the surface that the event is played on.
Matches played on clay tend to go much longer than those on grass or hard courts. Not necessarily in terms of number of games, but the actual length of matches. When matches become extended arm wrestles, they swing in favor of fitter players.
However, fitter players are usually less aggressive as well. This makes the likelihood of a player dropping the first set on clay but going on to win the match reasonably high.
Just take Alexander Zverev, for example–he dropped the first set on three occasions at this year’s French Open yet went on to win the match.
- Breaks of Serve
The recent grass court season has seen plenty of serve-dominated matches, but don’t expect that to be the case at the Olympics.
Serving on clay is much more challenging, as the ball grips onto the surface, slowing down and sitting up upon impact. Naturally, this mutes the main weapon of players with big, fast serves. As a result, far more breaks of serve occur on clay.
Even Rafael Nadal fell victim to this, with his recent match against Mariano Navone in Bastad featuring an incredible 18 breaks across three sets!
- Unseeded Finalist
Looking at some outright betting options, getting a wager in early on an unseeded finalist is a smart idea at the Olympics, particularly in some of the doubles events.
Many of the seedings are not accurate reflections of ability in the doubles. This is because a high percentage of singles players are participating in doubles at the Olympics, and do not have strong doubles rankings. Add in the fact that doubles is just the best of three sets with a match tiebreaker, and the scene is set for some upsets.
It would be entirely possible for a pairing such as Alex de Minaur and Alexei Popyrin to make the final, or Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz, neither of which are seeded in the men’s doubles.
- Stage of Elimination
Another excellent outright betting market to target in the Olympics tennis is the stage of elimination. Because of the imbalanced draw, some players have openings to go deeper in the Olympics than their ranking or ability would usually allow.
While these players are still unlikely to win a medal, betting on someone like Stan Wawrinka to make the third round could be a lucrative wager. This market allows you to analyze the draw of a particular event and make your own predictions of where upsets might occur, and then profit if those predictions are correct.
Where to Find the Best Odds for Tennis at the Olympics
Here at Tennisnerd, we’re experts when it comes to betting on tennis. We know bookmakers like the back of our hand, and understand that some of them are better than others.
Based on competitiveness of odds, availability of betting markets, and all round customer experience, these are the two bookmakers we recommend using for your Olympic tennis betting:
- Cloudbet. This bookie offers very competitive odds compared to other betting sites, and is excellent for those interested in betting using crypto only.
- PariMatch. Our recommended betting site for UK bettors, offers a lot of tennis odds and live betting.
Which betting markets will you be betting at the 2024 Olympics? Let us know in the comments below.
