The worlds greatest tennis players will be serving up their best on the only clay-court Grand Slam tennis tournament which takes place at Rolland-Garros in Paris.
The French Open qualifying rounds begin this week with players hoping to win their way into the tournament that starts on Sunday.
The French Open is certainly not a West Virginia event, but as one of the biggest tennis tournaments of the year, certainly, there WV sportsbooks will be busy accepting bets from sports bettors who will be putting their money on their favorite players.
This year’s tournament will have the usual big names on the men’s side such as:
- Rafael Nadal
- Roger Federer
- Novak Djokovic
While the women’s draw will attract:
- Naomi Osaka
- Serena Williamson
- Simona Halep
The French Open is the second of the four biggest tennis tournaments of the year.
The Grand Slam tennis tournaments include:
- Australian Open (January)
- French Open (May and June)
- Wimbledon (June and July)
- US Open (August and September)
How to watch the 2019 French Open
Dates: May 26 – June 9
Location: Roland Garros Stadium, Paris, France
TV Networks: NBC and Tennis Channel
The Women’s Final is on Saturday, June 8, and the Men’s Final is on Sunday, June 9. Both will be aired on NBC. Undoubtedly, WV sportsbooks will be airing French Open action throughout the entire two weeks of the tournament.
Betting the French Open at WV sportsbooks
West Virginia sports betting is still shy a couple of sportsbooks. Even, so the state still has legal sports betting options for the French Open.
Unfortunately, sports betting apps in WV are not available just yet. However, The West Virginia Lottery indicated DraftKings WV Sportsbook could launch as early as next week.
For now, though, bettors must head to one of the three active WV sportsbooks:
- Hollywood Casino Sportsbook
- Mountaineer Sportsbook
- The FanDuel Sportsbook at Greenbrier
How to bet on the 2019 French Open in WV
Because tennis is not a team sport, betting is a little different than betting on other sports. Below are some of the more common options for placing a bet on this year’s French Open.
Futures
Futures are the most common type of wager. It is simple to understand, and done in a similar way as other sports.
A bettor makes a bet before play begins on the tennis player he or she believes will win the tournament. If that player wins the title, the bet wins and bettor collects his or her money. Easy game.
What’s nice about a futures bet in tennis is that the field of players is so large. The 2019 French Open has 128 men and 128 women in the draw.
So, even though the top players often emerge as the winners, there is a lot of room for a long-shot player to win.
Odds for this year’s tournament in the men’s and women’s draw favor the top player in each:
- Rafael Nadal +110
- Simone Halep +450
Moneyline
A moneyline bet is also simple to understand and place. In a head-to-head match, a bet is placed on a particular player to beat another player. The two players in the bet receive a moneyline which represents the odds of one of the players beating the other.
Head-to-head matchup odds in tennis can have a wide range. For instance, take Nadal, with 11 wins under his belt, still playing strong. He is favored to win the tournament.
He obviously has to play someone in the first round and you can bet that someone is going to have pretty terrible odds to win. But tennis is also known for its upsets. As the tournament moves forward odds start to level out.
Tennis spreads
The scoring system in tennis is unique with games and sets. So, it has different spreads than other sports such as basketball and football. Tennis has game spreads and set spreads.
Game spreads look at how many games a player will win by, in a specific match.
Set spreads are similar to game spreads. The spread look at how many sets a player has to win by to win the match. Set spreads are much smaller than game spreads because there are far fewer sets played in a match.
For instance, if in the men’s draw a player wins 6-4, 6-4, 6-4, he has won three sets and wins the match and he has won the match by a total of 6 games.
Totals
Similar to other sports, a bettor can bet on totals in tennis. With totals in tennis, the bettor wagers on the total number of games or set that will occur in a particular match.
Props
Betting props let a bettor choose a specific number of games, sets, or tiebreakers for a specific match. These types of bets allow the bettor to get detailed, betting on which player will win each set or how many sets each player will win.
This can also be done with tiebreakers. However, with tiebreakers, it is usually just a bet on whether or not a tiebreaker will occur or not.
These are just the basics of betting on tennis. As you get better at understanding how it works you can look at more unique and interesting betting options which are offered for tennis.
