A Guide to Betting on the US Open

The court is classified by the International Tennis Federation as a medium fast surface. Since 2005, the court in the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center along with the other US Open Series courts have been painted blue to make visibility easier. The US Open was created and has been organised by the United States Tennis Association (USTA), a non-profit organisation that donates the proceeds from ticket sales, television contracts and sponsorships to invest in tennis clubs and facilities in the US.

The tournament has five major events, the men's and women's singles, men's and women's doubles and the mixed doubles event, which are played simultaneously during the US Open. Both men's and women's singles tournaments have three qualifying rounds, before the round of 128, 64, 32 and 16. These rounds are followed by the quarter finals, semi-finals and finals, the US Open has an overall prize pool of over $57 million, with $2.5 million going to the winners of each of the singles tournaments.

The US Open has a unique history, in addition to being run by a non-profit organisation, the tournament was exclusively for amateur players until 1968. It was the second of the Grand Slam events to include women's singles and doubles in 1887, six years after its inauguration and three years after Wimbledon held the first women's singles and doubles event. The US Open however, was the first Grand Slam to offer equal prize money to the winners of the men's and women's singles event, in 1973.

How to Bet on the US Open

The US Open is a widely televised event that many tennis fans and sports fans watch each year. Tennis matches are usually packed with action and when each match is broken down into statistics, there are many different sports bets that can be placed.

To Win

The most direct bet is to win, where a bet can be placed on which player or team will win the match. This is a two way bet that can be placed on either player or team, and if your chosen player/team wins, then you win the bet.

Overall Games or Sets Winner with Handicaps

Beside the straight to win bets, there is the overall games and sets winner bet, which can be set with handicaps. For either of these bets, handicaps can be set which can increase the odds, or reduce the risk level on a bet against the favourite. Putting a negative handicap, such as -4.5 on the favourite to win the most games will mean that the player has to win the most games by at least 5 games. If the favourite wins the match in four sets by 6-4, 6-3, 2-6 and 6-4, they have won 20 games to the opponents 17, which is not enough to win the bet.

The overall set winner has the same structure, although the handicaps will be far lower, such as -1.5 or +1.5.

Bet on Sets

Betting on the number of sets won by each player or team is tricky but it can offer huge odds. The US Open is played in best of five, which means that there are a limited number of possible results, though guessing the correct set scores at the end of the game is not easy. There will be options such as 3-0. 3-1 3-2, 2-3, 1-3 and 0-3.

Winner of Each Set

These bets are similar to the win bets, but are on a specific set. These are also two way bets, on either player or team, though they may be easier to predict because they are played in a shorter amount of time. Before placing a bet, bettors can research things such as which players or teams tend to start off well, or which players or teams usually lose the first set but can come from behind.

Over/Under bets

Fans who have a good understanding of the game and have a lot of knowledge of each of the players or teams in the match can try out the over/under market. Each bet is based on match statistics such as number of games played, number of sets played, number of sets won by a player or team, and more. Each bet will have a value, for the number of games for example, and a bet for whether there will be more games in the match and a bet for whether there will be less games in the match.

There are multiple values for each of the over/under bets, meaning fans will be able to choose which bet has the best odds or which bet is the most realistic.

Many more bets

There are many more bets that can be placed on each match in the US Open. These bets are more difficult to predict, but can be a good way of bringing action into even the smaller details in each match. There are bets such as a player or team to lose the first set but win the match, will there be an even or odd amount of games in a set, whether a player or team will win one set or not and more.