Australian Open Betting: Your complete guide to betting on the first Slam of the year on Betfair

Australian Open Betting / Ben Caudell / 15 January 2009 / Leave a Comment

Looking forward to betting on the Australian Open? Want to know which markets are going to be available and when? Don't know your handicap markets from your total games markets? We leave you in the safe and knowledgeable hands of Ben Caudell...

This year's Australian Open hopes to be just as exciting as in 2008, with Novak Djokovic defending his maiden Grand Slam win in the men's draw, as well as a lot of ranking points. Andy Murray will be close to overtaking the Serb at number three in the rankings if Novak bows out early.

Unfortunately the 2008 women's champion Maria Sharapova will not be competing at Melbourne Park due to a shoulder injury which has kept her out of the game for a few months. Sharapova dominated the Grand Slam of Asia Pacific in 2008 producing some of the best tennis of her career, not dropping a single set on the way to her third Grand Slam. Only the most tenacious and physically fit players will succeed and Maria has been quoted as saying that 'she is not near the level she needs to be to able to compete at this year's event'.

The first Australian Open men's tournament was held in 1905 and was won by the native Rodney Heath; the women's event didn't start until 1922 and was also won by an Australian. It wasn't until 1935 that a player outside of Australia won the women's event and this happened to be the British player Dorothy Budy Cheney.

These days the Open venue, now known as Melbourne Park, attracts 90% higher attendances than it did when it was held at Kooyong in the mid-eighties. The championships now have state of the art retractable roofs, allowing the action to continue whatever the weather, which in Melbourne's case, can be pretty extreme.

In 2008 the court surface was changed from Rebound Ace to Plexicushion, a surface that now has a lower rubber content leading to firmer under foot conditions, meaning it retains less heat ( a factor that has posed problems in the past) and also achieves more consistency around the court -something the Rebound Ace surface didn't do.

So what do we need to know when betting on the Australian Open using Betfair, and what markets will we be able to bet on and when?

Australian Betting Wallet

First and foremost you don't need an Aus account to bet on Aus based events. All accounts come equipped with an Aus Wallet for betting on any event based or managed in Aus.
To bet on these events you have to transfer funds across within your account to this Aus Wallet; however as simple as it sounds to get the funds in, it can be trickier to get them out again.

Users will have needed to be KYC Certified (as opposed to a standard KYC pass) to get the funds out of this Wallet as per our Australian licence; they can fully certify in one of 3 ways:

•UK users on the electoral roll can have their details checked against public records, if successful this will fully certify their KYC status.

•All users can have copies of their standard KYC docs "certified" by a recognised community member i.e. Policeman, Teacher, Lawyer, Priest etc.

•Aus users can complete what is known as an 100 point check.

Markets available to bet on

There will be a number of different markets Betfair will offer during the course of the Australian Open that will suit every kind of punter, from the complete novice to the betting pro.

Match day Markets

Each match being played on the outside courts (courts other than the stadium ones) will have the following markets:

Match Odds -You simply bet on who you think will win the match.

Set Betting - You are betting on what the set score will be - Matches are best of five sets for men and Best of three sets for women

1st Set Correct Score - What will be the score of the first set?

Handicap - at the start of a match a player will be given a (+) handicap and the other a (-), this means that he/she will start with i.e. +5.5 Games advantage or -5.5 games disadvantage. E.g. If a player has a handicap of +5.5 games and the result is 6-2 6-2 then the player would be a loser on the handicap as the final result is 12-4. You obviously can't win 0.5 of a game in tennis but the half game is there to eliminate the possibility of a tie.

Total Games - on this market you bet on whether you think the total amount of games will either be Under or Over the stated amount e.g. under 33.5 games or over 33.5 games. Once again the half game is there to eliminate the possibility of a tie if there happened to be exactly 33 games in the match.

First Set Winner - Which player will win the first set?

Tie Break? - Will there be a tie break in this match/ Yes or No

Number of Sets? - What will be the number of sets played? 3, 4, 5 for men and 2 or 3 for women

Centre court matches will include more markets because they are usually televised, meaning that there will be a lot more liquidity (amount of money people are betting) on the markets. These matches will include additional markets such as game betting.

Game Betting is fast and furious and each game may only last one minute - you are basically betting on who you think will win or lose that particular game. Be aware that there are always punters out there with a quicker TV feed so make sure that the delay between pictures and the live action are as short as possible.

Your pictures might have Roddick 40-0 on serve; however the score might actually be 40-30 because of the varying TV delays.

The day's game betting matches can be found in the tennis coupon section on the left hand menu.

Each day will include two daily accas, one daytime acca and one evening acca. An acca is a market which includes multiple bets, you place a bet on who you think will be the winners in a series of matches i.e. Fed/Nad/Murr/Djok might be the line therefore you are backing all four players to win their matches. Remember that if just one of them loses, then you will lose on the bet placed.

Specials

There are also a number of Specials that might be of interest including; Player progress, Quarter Winners, To reach the final, Winning Nationality, Most Aces, Winning Double and many, many more. Make sure you check the rules section of each market so that you know exactly what you are betting on.

Live streaming

Live streaming is just as important as live scoreboards and it has been noted in the past that it is often faster than Sky Sports and Eurosports TV coverage. The live streaming provides users who have no access to a TV with a portal to watch live tennis matches straight from a laptop or computer. At this year's Australian Open we will witness the advancement of live streaming and enhancement of the matches covered.

One thing to take note of is that you will have to manually refresh your browser each time the streaming freezes otherwise the coverage will be delayed further.

Australian Open 2009
Melbourne, Australia
Start Date - 19th Jan
Start Times - 11am (Aus) 00:00 (UK)
Level - Grand Slam
Draw - 128 m,w
Surface - Plexicushion, Outdoor hard court
Prize Money - $10,142,240
Website - www.australianopen.com

Previous Winners - Men's

Jan 14 2008 (3)Novak Djokovic (SRB) d. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) 4-6 6-4 6-3 7-6(2)
Jan 15 2007 (1)Roger Federer (SUI) d. (10)Fernando Gonzalez (CHI) 7-6(2) 6-4 6-4
Jan 16 2006 (1)Roger Federer (SUI) d. Marcos Baghdatis (CYP) 5-7 7-5 6-0 6-2
Jan 17 2005 (4)Marat Safin (RUS) d. (3)Lleyton Hewitt (AUS) 1-6 6-3 6-4 6-4
Jan 19 2004 (2)Roger Federer (SUI) d. Marat Safin (RUS) 7-6(3) 6-4 6-2
Jan 13 2003 (2)Andre Agassi (USA) d. (31)Rainer Schuettler (GER) 6-2 6-2 6-1
Jan 14 2002 (16)Thomas Johansson (SWE) d. (9)Marat Safin (RUS) 3-6 6-4 6-4 7-6(4)
Jan 15 2001 Andre Agassi (USA) d. Arnaud Clement (FRA) 6-4 6-2 6-2
Jan 17 2000 Andre Agassi (USA) d. Yevgeny Kafelnikov (RUS) 3-6 6-3 6-2 6-4

Previous Winners - Women ng>