The Grand Slams are the four most prestigious tournaments in tennis. They are the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. Each of the individual tournaments has its unique characteristics, like the playing surface and time of year that the Slam is held.
Those differences, which are a rich part of the fan experience, can also present different challenges for bettors. But hand in hand with those challenges comes opportunities in tennis Grand Slam betting.
What are some key factors about betting on the Grand Slams besides finding the best tennis betting sites with the strongest odds? Let’s jump straight in and investigate.
Live Betting
Tennis is set up perfectly for live in-play betting. All the natural breaks in the sport that occur between points, games and sets, give punters time to strike live bets on a fixture.
As the Grand Slams are broadcast by major networks and are easily accessible to view, punters can pick their bets while matches are in progress. There are natural advantages to be gained by watching and betting.
It is easy to study momentum shifts in a match, and to gauge with your own eyes whether a player is playing as well as expected or not. You can then capitalise on the unfolding action with live betting selections.
There is, generally, better odds value around in live markets than in pre-match ones. The changing odds also provide opportunities to exploit some live options and to even hedge a pre-match selection.
Value Bets
Value bets can create some excellent opportunities in tennis betting, and they are important because they rely on a player’s betting skills. A value bet can’t really happen unless the bettor understands certain factors like odds and implied probability.
The more understanding of tennis and its markets there is, the stronger all your Grand Slam selections, including value bets are likely to be. A value bet is a wager that has a better probability of actually happening than what the bookmaker’s odds suggest.
It’s not to the point of extreme odds discrepancies. But if you see Carlos Alcaraz going into a match and you think he has a 60% chance of winning, but then his odds are at 2.00 instead of the 1.67 you would expect them to be, then that’s extra value on the selection.
Alternative Markets
Looking at Grand Slam tennis, especially in the early rounds, you will see a lot of lopsided match outright winner markets, where there is a strong favourite expected to easily beat a qualifier, for example.
So knowledge of, and exploring alternative tennis betting markets is necessary to circumvent poor match outright market situations. It could be dipping into Winning Margins, Game Handicaps, Set Handicap and Match Totals.
Accas an Option?
An interesting alternative approach to tennis betting on the Grand Slams can be found through accumulator bets. Again, this is going to be an approach that is focused on the early rounds of play at a tennis Grand Slam.
If there are a prominent amount of odds-on favourites in matches for the day, perhaps a play to accommodate a small selection of those in an accumulator bet, therefore boosting the odds, could be an option with a small stake.
In Conclusion
There are different ways to approach betting on Grand Slam tennis. They are the biggest events of the calendar year, with the most prestigious titles in the sport up for grabs. The one thing that has to be included for any betting on them is research.
Get a deeper understanding of the sport and betting markets before jumping in. Study areas like current form, previous tournament form, head-to-head records and even scheduling. For the Grand Slams, pay particular attention to the type of court in use and a player’s record on that surface.
It is from information like that, that you will likely spot trends to put together a betting strategy. Try to focus the stats research towards the markets that you find the most value in, and tie it all together while watching the best tennis players in the business fight for those titles.