With the Australian Open set to begin, this guide is designed to give beginners a brief overview of tactics and strategies used to bet on the Australian Open, as well as provide seasoned bettors with some tips and reminders of things they should be focused on.
Let’s dive right in and get you on the path to making winning tennis picks.
Types of Wagers
There are two main ways to bet on the Australian Open. You can bet a futures ticket, before the tournament starts, or even during the tournament. You can also bet the individual matches. These can sometimes be correlated if you want to double down on a big edge, or hedge against a Futures ticket to guarantee profit.
When we’re looking at futures, obviously, the price is the most important. After that, things we should consider would be form and previous success at the tournament.
Things to Consider While Betting on The Australian Open
Form is less of a consideration at this time of the year since the season has only been going on for 2 weeks. Still, we can see which players worked in the offseason, and which players enjoyed vacations by checking out the results of the warm-up tournaments going on last week and this week.
So while form is not as important as it will be in the middle of the year, it will still be an important guide towards us finding the right pick.
Previous success in Australia
Playing in Australia can be a shock for some players. It is the middle of summer in Australia, and many players are coming from Winter climates in their home countries. Many players who grow up in cooler climates have problems adjusting to the weather. Other players who grew up in hot climates thrive in these conditions. Previous success can be a solid indicator of a player’s ability to acclimate to the conditions.
Australia is also one of the quicker hard courts of the year. Quick hard courts favor power players. Therefore you can see which players did well on the quicker surface of Australia as opposed to some of the slower hard courts that are found in the tennis season.
Individual Matches
The two most popular ways to bet on a tennis match is by choosing a side or a total. When choosing a side, you have the choice of playing the money line, which means the player needs to win straight up, or you can play the game spread, in which a player needs to win the total number of games by a certain amount. Both ways are equally popular among seasoned tennis bettors.
In matches that are closer, the money line is quite popular rather than laying the games because of the volatility of the set structure.
For example, a player ahead on sets that falls behind a break, especially on the men’s side, may choose to completely punt a set and rest up to finish their opponent off in the next set. While this is a sound strategy for the player to win the match, it can oftentimes ruin a game spread.
This is why playing the moneyline is sometimes more popular, especially when backing players who are known to employ this strategy.
Totals
As well as trying to choose the winner, you can predict whether or not you believe a match will be close. If you’re on the fence about choosing a winner, sometimes the over is a better play. Between two evenly matched players, sometimes it is easy to predict that a match will go down to the wire.
In this case, you can bet the over, win early, and enjoy the rest of the match as a fan. Sometimes you know one player is going to defeat another one soundly. In this case, betting the total oftentimes gives more of an edge than laying the game spread.
Make sure to look at how the game spread and the total are correlated to see which one is the more advantageous play.
Derivative Markets
You can also bet totals or game spreads for individual sets. First-set betting is quite popular.
For example, often times an up-and-coming player can play their world-class opponent tight for a set, but things start to unravel, especially if they lose a very close first set. In this case, sometimes just betting the first set over is wiser than the full match over.
The world’s elite players will often figure out their opponents, and after a troublesome first set, will dominate the second set and the match will not go over the total. Look to identify cases with young players that can get out to a quick start and choose the first set over instead of the full match over.
Number of Aces Hit
This is one of the most fun proposition bets to player can make. Looking at a player’s Ace account, and the number of Aces their opponent gives up, it is easy to find edges in this market.
Big-serving opponents can dial up the Aces here. Be aware though, because strong returners can get a racket on even the biggest serves and prevent an Ace from being tallied.
Keeping an eye on these statistics can lead you to find an edge, and it is also a fun bet to make. After all who doesn’t like rooting for an ace?
Conclusion
Using form and previous success, and by looking at the draw, you should be able to find a couple of Futures to back in which you can put a small amount of money for a big return to start the tournament.
After that, watch individual matches, and maybe hone in on a particular section of the draw to get a good feel for the players’ current form and fitness.
Futures bets can provide a lucrative payout. Betting individual matches can be a grind that will be profitable by the end of the tournament. Combine these two types of wagers and you can find plenty of success.
