Tennis betting is a high-risk investment where winning is never guaranteed regardless of your knowledge or expertise. Being a game of chance, your goal is to get the best value from your bets to maximize your chances of winning in the long run. One way to do it is to know the most common tennis betting mistakes that bettors do and what you can do to avoid them.
Before we get in more details, we want to make one thing clear. If you are starting your tennis betting adventure, you will make mistakes from time to time. No tennis bettor is perfect, especially if you are still learning. However, your chances of making mistakes will be significantly lower if you know the most common mistakes that tennis bettors do.
Below we will look at the most common tennis betting mistakes and strategies that you can use to avoid them. Makes sure you take note of all of them, as this can save you some money when placing your tennis bets.
So, which are the most common tennis betting mistakes?
- Not Knowing the Players in Detail
- Using only one Sportsbook
- Not Looking for the Best Odds
- No Bankroll Management
- Chasing Losses
- Waiting for Odds to Analyse a Match
- Not Checking Schedule of Play
- Ignore Specific Conditions of Each Tournament
- Betting Based on Statistics
- Not Learning from previous mistakes
- FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions
Not Knowing the Players in Detail
If you want to be successful in tennis betting, you need to know the players in detail before placing your bets. Tennis is an individual sport where each player has its own unique style, which makes it essential to know how they play, their strengths and weaknesses.
One common mistake we see in tennis betting is picking players based purely on their ranking. The ranking is a reflection of the player’s result over the last 12 months but it doesn’t tell you how well they have been playing recently.
Bettors who know how to bet on tennis rarely look at the rankings, as those are often irrelevant. All they care about is the player’s recent form, how well they play on those specific game conditions and the matchup against their opponent.
We understand that knowing every player in detail is difficult, as there are hundreds of players on both ATP and WTA side. However, you don’t need to start betting on all players at once. Pick a couple to get to know them and just bet on their matches. With time you will get familiar with more and more players and before you know it, you can name all top 100 players.
Using only one Sportsbook
We like to joke that many people seemed to have entered a monogamous relationship with a sportsbook when they start betting. The pick one tennis betting site and that’s it, they will use that site only for the rest of their life.
We know it’s a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the idea. Many bettors stick to just one tennis betting site when placing their bets. The problem with this is that you don’t take advantage of what other sportsbooks can offer you.
Making the mistake of just using one tennis betting side prevents you from having access to other bonus, promotions or features. Most sportsbooks have a sign-up bonus for your first deposit, meaning that you can get extra money to bet on without doing anything. Of course, there are always some wagering conditions, but if you make sure the requirements are fair, this is a great way to increase your bankroll.
Another advantage of using more than one sportsbook is having access to loyalty promotions or special features. Betting sites are always looking to retain their customers, meaning that they will offer reload bonuses and other special promotions to bring you back to their site. Once again, if these have decent conditions, then it would be a mistake not to take advantage of them.
If you are looking to join more betting sites, you can check our section of the best sportsbooks for tennis betting with plenty of options available. Always make sure your local jurisdiction allows you to play on those sites, as regulations are always changing.
Not Looking for the Best Odds
This point is a continuation of the before, as looking for the best tennis betting odds requires having access to multiple sportsbooks. However, many bettors accept the odds that their regular betting site has and never look if there are better odds available for the same match. This is one of the worst mistakes that you can do in tennis betting, as this will have a huge impact on your overall performance in the long run.
Each sportsbook has their own risk strategy, meaning that they can offer different odds for the same match. Before placing a bet, you should shop around for the best prices available, to get the maximum value from your bets.
Unlike what you might think, professional tennis bettors are not always the ones who get more predictions right. What they are exceptionally good at is finding value and taking advantage of the best odds in the market, maximizing their returns.
No Bankroll Management
Not having a proper bankroll management is one of the most common tennis betting mistakes that bettors do. This is an essential requirement for anyone interested in sports betting, as you need to know exactly how much you should invest in each bet.
The first thing you need to do is define how much you want to allocate to your tennis betting. One mistake you want to avoid is betting with money that you will need for other things in your life. This is very important, as betting is a high-risk investment and you should only bet money that you can afford to lose.
Once you have established the size of your bankroll, the next step is defining a staking plan, which means how much you’re going to risk in each bet. Although each person should have their own plan, we strongly advise never to bet more than 2% of your bankroll per match.
The last step is just to stick to the plan and be consistent on your betting. A common mistake we see in tennis betting is people investing more than what they have planned and ending up losing all their money. If you stay truth to your original plan, the chances of going bankrupt will be incredibly smaller.
Chasing Losses
As mentioned in the previous tennis betting mistake, many bettors start to bet more than what they had planned. This happens mostly during losing streaks, as people start betting more to make up for the lost money.
This is called chasing losses and is one of the most dangerous tennis betting mistakes that you can do. In most cases, chasing losses will only lead to more losses and the likelihood of losing your entire bankroll is very high.
One of the keys to be a successful tennis bettor is being able to handle losing streaks. Losing is part of the game and even the best bettors in the world experience losing streaks. The difference is that they remain calm, stick to their plan and never, in any circumstance, they chase losses.
Waiting for Odds to Analyze a Match
Sportsbooks release their betting odds for a tennis match several hours before it starts, sometimes even one or two days in advance. Once they are released, the odds are always changing according to the amount of bets in each side. This is the way sportsbooks make their money and how tennis betting odds work, as the sites want to have similar exposure on both results.
Most of the times the best opportunities are available on opening odds right after sportsbooks release them. But how can you know if they have value? This is where most bettors make a mistake and don’t make their analysis before the odds are released.
To better explain this point let’s see a quick example. Let’s say that Medvedev and Zverev will face each other in the next round, as Zverev just won his match and Medvedev had won his a few hours ago. Once the matchup is defined, it will take a couple of hours for the sportsbooks to calculate and release the odds for the match.
Most bettors will now wait for the odds to be released to see the prices and make their analysis. However, this is a big mistake, as they could have done their analysis before and be ready to place a bet once the odds are released. If you know the matchup, you can make your own analysis and calculate the fair probability for each of the players.
If, on this example, you calculated that Zverev has a 60% chance of winning and Medvedev 40%, this means that the fair odds are the following:
- Zverev: 1.67 (-149)
- Medvedev: 2.50 (+150)
With this information, you know that you have a value opportunity to bet on any of the players if the odds are above 1.67 (-149) for Zverev or above 2.50 (+150) for Medvedev. This way, you do your analysis before the odds are released and avoid this common tennis betting mistake. We can guarantee that you will get much more value from your bets by taking advantage of those mistakes that sportsbooks do on their opening odds.
Not Checking the Schedule of Play
When compared to other sports, tennis has a unique scheduling system. Each tournament takes place over a week, or more, with matches being played every day. Moreover, matches can be played not only during the day, but also at night, as more and more events start adding night sessions to their schedule.
However, few are the people who look at the schedule of play before placing a bet. This is a common tennis betting mistake, as bettors don’t realize how important this factor is in the outcome of a match.
The most obvious one is related to the time that a player had to recover from the previous match. In most tournaments player compete almost every day, meaning that recovery time is a very important aspect to consider when placing your bets.
Let’s say, for example, that a player finished his match at 11 pm after 3 hours on court and is schedule to play the next day at 4 pm. This only gives him 17 hours between matches, but if you consider that after the match he still needs to go to press conference and do his recovery, then it’s likely that he will only get to bet at 3 or 4 am. With such little time to recover between matches, many players struggle to produce their best tennis in the following encounter.
Besides the recovery time, there are other variables to consider when looking at the schedule of play. Playing during the day or at night is completely different, as the weather conditions affect tennis betting and shouldn’t be ignored.
During the day the conditions are usually faster, as the sun and higher temperatures have a significant impact on the ball speed. On the other hand, game conditions are significantly slower at night, making it much harder for players to hit aces and winners.
If you follow tennis, for sure you’ve heard players talking about “heavy conditions” and how difficult it is to hit winners at night. This means that, when analyzing a tennis bet, you always need to consider the schedule of play, as this will give you an edge over the sportsbooks and you will avoid this common mistake that bettors do.
Ignore Specific Conditions of Each Tournament
Each tournament presents unique conditions to the players, but most bettors fail to consider this when placing their tennis bets. Knowing the surface where a tournament is played is far from enough, as conditions can be very different in events with the same surface of play.
One good example of specific conditions to consider is altitude, since some tournaments are played in places at very high altitude. When betting on tennis in altitude, the ball flies very differently through the air and not all players adjust to these conditions. Some players are known for having great success on altitude, while others struggle to find their best tennis.
Some of the most popular tournaments in altitude are the WTA events in Bogota and Granby. Both are played at around 8,000ft (2,500m) of altitude, making the conditions extremely different for the players.
Besides altitude, other variables can be specific to an event. Some tournaments are famous for having very windy conditions, such as the ATP Estoril, while others are played in very humid places like the Miami Masters.
That said, you should always consider the specific conditions of each tournament, as this information will be very useful when placing your tennis bets and avoid this common mistake.
Betting Based on Statistics
Some sports bettors are obsessed with statistics and can’t place a bet without them. While having numbers and data is a good thing, betting purely based on statistics is usually a mistake, especially in a sport like tennis.
The main difference from tennis and other sports is that tennis is an individual sport. This means that, even if you have all the statistics in the world, you’re still missing the most important part, the human side of the player.
Betting in tennis is more than just picking a team to win, you are betting on one individual and it’s important to understand them. Knowing if the player is motivated to play on that tournament or if he’s having some known problems of court are two variables that statistics won’t ever consider.
This makes tennis betting so unique and interesting, as you need to consider the psychology of the player. For that reason, we strongly advise that you never place your tennis bets purely based on statistics, as this is a very common mistake and will cost you a good amount of money in the long run.
Not Learning from Previous Mistakes
This is a point that applies not only to tennis betting, but to life overall. Making mistakes is normal, as we are all human. However, not learning from previous mistakes and repeating them is the worst mistake you can do.
One suggestion to help you learn from previous mistakes is having a detailed betting record sheet with all your activity. Make sure you record all possible details, not only the information of the bet but also the rationale behind your decision. We can guarantee that analyzing this information will give you plenty of useful information to help you learn from your mistakes.
Make sure you dedicate time to analyze your performance in tennis betting. Many bettors don’t care about looking to the past, but this can give you a good idea of recurring mistakes you might be doing with your bets.
Finally, don’t be afraid to accept that you’re doing mistakes. We all do them, even the most experienced and profitable bettors. The key is to learn from them and try not to repeat them in order to maximize your returns.
FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions
Which are the Most Common Tennis Betting Mistakes?
The most common tennis betting mistakes that bettors do is not knowing the players in detail, not checking for the best odds available and chasing losses.
Which are the Best Strategies for Tennis Betting?
The best strategies for tennis betting are having a good bankroll management, knowing every player in detail and consider the game conditions in every tournament.
How to Avoid Tennis Betting Mistakes?
The first thing you need to do to avoid the most common tennis betting mistakes is knowing them. After that, you should create a betting record and constantly analyze your past performance, as this will give you a good idea of your mistakes and how you can avoid repeating them.
Is Using Multiple Sportsbooks a Good Idea?
Yes! We strongly encourage you to use multiple of the best sportsbooks for tennis betting, as this will give you access to better odds, more promotions and features, increasing your chances of winning money with your bets.
