There are stacks of different ways to bet on tennis matches, although the options are a little thinner on the ground in contests where you believe one player is going to enjoy easy work against a lower-ranked opponent.
Are you going to back them with a handicap? A correct set score punt? Maybe you will simply wager on them to win by any means at odds in the region of 1/3 or shorter.
There is, perhaps, another way to make the bet worthwhile. Some bookmakers offer unique match dominance and serve dominance markets, which can be used to maximise your advantage when your chosen player obliges with a comfortable victory.
But what are these bet types and when should you use them?
What Is Match Dominance?
When you back a player in the match dominance market, you will enjoy longer odds but take the risk of them winning in quite a specific way.
First things first, your chosen player must win in straight sets – so 2-0 in standard tournament play or 3-0 if it’s a men’s Grand Slam encounter.
But not only that, they must also win each of those sets by a 6-0, 6-1 or 6-2 margin – no other score line is accepted.
And so, if your backed player doesn’t win in straight sets – or they leak three or more games within one of those sets – your bet will be settled as a loss.
So, as you can tell, there is plenty of risk to taking on match dominance bets – in some sets, your player will have to break their opponent’s serve three times just to give you a chance, but in matches you expect to be completely one-sided this is a way in which you can maximise your edge when your pick enjoys total domination.
What Is Match Supremacy?
On a side note, there’s another tennis match betting market that can be categorised in a similar way.
In match supremacy betting, you are backing a player to win in straight sets – however, each set must end in either a 6-3 or 6-4 score line. Any other results will see your bet settled as a loss.
This is a strange bet type with very specific parameters, and so you should think twice about betting on match supremacy betting when either of the domination markets already mentioned are, realistically, better options – especially when punting on one-sided encounters which feature a big serving, odds-on favourite.
What Is Set Dominance?
If you want to lessen your risk somewhat, or are backing the best servers in world tennis, you might also want to consider the set domination market.
There are two general types of set dominance bets you can make, although they are both essentially the same. You’re betting on a player you believe will win the match and not have their serve broken, or alternatively in some cases you can back your pick to win and not face a single break point in their service games.
This is a system that can only work when you are backing quality servers, and particularly on the faster surfaces such as grass or hard courts in warmer countries. Alternatively, you can bet against weak returners, or take advantage of head-to-head results in which one player has enjoyed complete dominance over their opponent historically.