What is Total in Betting on Tennis?

Total is not a very popular type of tennis betting, for the simple reason that this is one of the most “lottery” elections. There is even an opinion that “totals” were invented by bookmakers solely for their own earnings. But first, let’s see what the total is in the bets, what this means and what are the main difficulties.

In tennis there are several types of total – common and individual. The total is the total number of games that were played in the match (for example, if the final score of the match is 6-3 6-4, then the total will be 6 + 3 + 6 + 4 = 19), under individual – the number of games won by a specific tennis player for the whole match (with the same score – 6 + 6 = 12 and 4 + 4 = 8). But if the first kind is offered by almost all bookmakers, then the second one is much less common. Everything is quite simple and understandable.

In live betting you can see the total and individual total in the set. It is calculated according to the same principle, but only the specified set is “set off”.

At first glance it seems that the whole task in forecasting boils down to determining whether the match will go “in one wicket” or whether there will be a serious fight. But even if you can guess the nature of the game, this does not mean that the bet wins. It seems strange, but a very difficult match can end with a trivial score of 6-4 6-4, and a match with a clear favorite can take place in three sets or with a tie-break.

Let’s give a simple example – will play two roughly equal in strength and with a similar style of tennis player, well-known with each other. It is logical that they should expect a long and difficult match from them, which, probably, will end with the total “more”. Watch the game – there is a serious struggle, “ball into the ball,” so it goes on until the end of the first set. But then one of them gets tired and starts to “fail”, giving the game for the game. In the results – like the forecast was made correctly, but the result turned out to be quite different.

In the end, one of the players can simply “give up” or get tired, and as a result – cleanly “pass” the set. The weak can suddenly give a fight to the “obvious favorite”, someone can deliberately give up the set, trying to “tighten” the match and exhaust the opponent. All this makes bets on total a kind of lottery, in which the bookmaker will often win for the simple reason that he initially has a mathematical advantage.

All strategies for betting on totals usually boil down to banal Martingale of the desired result, but even here there are certain difficulties, since the “total” value varies in every match. Accordingly, each subsequent bet turns into an absolutely random event with the corresponding result.