Tennis Betting Rules

You can’t hope to achieve much success in betting on tennis without thorough preparation. That preparation begins with understanding both X’s and O’s of tennis and, more importantly, the tennis betting rules and how different bookmakers settle the markets. Bookies operate on various levels and regulations that might not work to your advantage, so you have to be extra careful when choosing the right one. Luckily for you, our goal is to provide you with the best bookmakers for tennis that suit your style and on which your stakes will be secure at all times.

Bookmakers’ Main Tennis Betting Rules

Starting to learn how to bet on tennis and win, the most common market you can wager and make money in is the Match Winner one. The match-winner can occur when one of the players retires due to various circumstances. These include a debilitating injury sustained during the match. When such an event unfolds, online bookmakers resort to the following settlement rules:

⏩ Ball Served
This rule can also be seen as “First ball”, “1 ball”, 1 ball served”, “One serve played”, “One point played”, or “First serve,” but refers to the same thing. The rule is essential for all match winners or money line markets, as the bet will stand if one ball is served in a match. So, if the player you wagered on retired from the game, you would lose your stake. On the other hand, punters who placed their bets on the remaining player, that was the winner, would win the bet.

⏩ 1 Set Completed
Some bookmakers have specific tennis set rules that require the entire first set to be played in a match before the bets could stand. This rule is also found in forms such as “One set”, “One set completed”, or “First set completed”. If the set hasn't finished before the player retires, the bet is void.

⏩ 2 Sets Completed
Essentially, this rule is the same as the previous one, with the only difference being that the bookmakers who follow it require at least 2 sets to be completed before bets stand. The rule can also bear names such as “Two sets”, “Two sets completed”, or “Second set completed”.

⏩ Match Completed
This rule stipulates that the entire match needs to reach a natural conclusion before all sorts of bets are active. Otherwise, the wager is void. This rule can be found under the names “Full match”, “Full match completed”, or “Whole match completed”, depending on the bookmaker.

All bets that have been made on other tennis betting markets (such as over/under, game handicaps etc.) will not count unless their outcome has been decided before retirement, in which case, they can be either won or lost.

Tennis Retirement Rules

As indicated in the introductory segment, we will categorize the bookmakers according to how they settle the players’ bets and which tennis retirement rules they follow. Remember that all tennis betting promotions can be affected by this factor. Recently, bookmakers need at least one set to be played before settling a bet. Therefore, no bookmakers require at least one point to be played (Ball served) before a bet settlement.

Next in line are the bookmakers who abide by the rules stipulating that the entire set has to be completed (1 Set completed) before the bets can be considered active. These bookmakers are:

There are no bookmakers that demand at least two sets to be completed (2 Sets completed) before they settle a bet, so let's move to those that call for the entire match to be completed, which are quite a few:

Tennis Betting Rules for Interruption Scenarios

Various other scenarios can affect a Match Winner bet and tennis handicap betting apart from a player’s retirement. For example, if a match gets interrupted or is abandoned for some reason, other rules come into play. We bet that you would like to know what happens to your wager in that case. Here, we present you with the most common scenarios.

Walkover: A walkover is used in many sports and is quite frequent in tennis. A tennis walkover is a situation in which a player is awarded a victory because the opponent is unable to compete and therefore has to forfeit. Since tennis competitions most commonly have the form of a tournament, the standing player will go directly into the next round. In this case, all bets for the match are called off and considered void.

Weather Conditions/ Darkness/ Technical Issues: Matches can also be suspended and postponed to a later time due to technical reasons and weather conditions, like darkness and rain. For example, we have seen a number of matches in the 2019 French Open suspended due to severe rain and wind. If this happens, all bets regarding that particular match remain open until the game finishes on another day or another time.

Player Withdrawal or Disqualification: Instances where a tennis player gets injured during the game or disqualified by the umpire due to bad behaviour are more frequently seen in tennis nowadays. In such cases, the bets are settled as described in the retirement section above.

Elite Tournaments' Tennis Betting Rules

When it comes to betting on tennis, you should find who leads the field. There are millions of fans and bettors searching for the highest odds for Grand Slams and elite tournaments, but also for clear betting rules to settle their bets. It's optimal for your wagering activity to read our guides for the biggest tennis competitions worldwide, learning when your bet is a winner or not.

⏩ US Open Bookmakers

⏩ Rolland Garros Bookmakers

⏩ Wimbledon Bookmakers

⏩ ATP Finals Betting Sites

Best Bookies for Tennis

It is always good to become acquainted with the rules of tennis in their general sense and how they impact the betting options you get from the bookmakers. Moreover, it is even more important to know some critical tennis betting rules deriving from the following operators that we singled out.