What happens to a tennis wager once a player retires is a common query we receive from followers and friends. Similar inquiries are also made when games are postponed for several days due to bad weather.
They are excellent questions, but it is quite challenging to respond to because tennis betting is very different from other big sports, which often have uniform rules across all sportsbooks.
Because of this, we usually always reply that it depends. Make sure you are familiar with the regulations of your bookies. We will examine various case studies while outlining the policies of several major sportsbooks, among which are betting sites in Brazil.
Let us start by looking at what occurs when a moneyline wager fails in various scenarios.
Rules for Tennis Betting
Walkovers
A player advances when their opponent withdraws from a competition before a match, known as a walkover win.
All wagers would be void because the game never ever began. This is essentially a universal law.
What Happens If a Player Withdraws?
When an opponent leaves a game in the middle of it, a player progresses after them. The main cause of this would be injuries. This was seen, say, at the 2019 French Open when Benoît Paire won after Pablo Carreño Busta retired with a set deficit of 1-2. You also witness a lot of these when athletes want to compete for a payday but are not physically prepared for Australia Open’s and the U.S. Open’s heat.
With retirements, moneyline regulations become a little bit difficult because different bookmakers will have distinct regulations. The four most likely scenarios are as follows:
- All moneyline wagers are settled when the first ball is thrown. As a result, you lose your moneyline wager if you backed a player who quit during the first game.
- One set – Before moneyline bets are considered action at some sportsbooks, such as FanDuel, a minimum of one set must be finished. One set of rules for ATP competitions and majors and a full match for WTA tournaments are now the norms at DraftKings.
- The same guidelines as previously apply to two sets, but with two complete sets.
- No moneyline has been deemed an action until the entire match has been played.
Remember that sportsbooks typically assign a grade to the player who did not retire or the winner announced by the umpire. As a result, you risk losing moneyline bets on players who decide to quit despite being up on the scoreboard.
For example, a novel setup for DraftKings has gone online in time for the 2023 French Open. Claims on the trailing player are void if a player retires following the first set in an ATP (men’s) moneyline wager. But if you wager on his/her rival, you will still come out on top.
Advice: If you have the option to wager at numerous sportsbooks and are fading a player because of exhaustion or an injury, you should undoubtedly pick the bookie with the fewest stringent moneyline restrictions. Additionally, make sure they follow the same regulations if you are seeking to scalp the market by taking both sides of an arbitrage chance to lock in a profit at different bookmakers. In the scenario of retirement, you do not want to wind up losing one party and supporting the other.
Last but not least, there might be different rules if a player (presumably Nick Kyrgios) is disqualified as opposed to retiring. We will repeat myself throughout, but check your bookmaker! These circumstances will typically be classed as retirements, however, it’s not always the case.
Delays in Connection with Weather
Your wager is typically still good if rain (or nightfall) compels it to postpone (or complete) the next day. Tennis differs from baseball in that you do not need to place a new wager if the same pitchers are scheduled to face off the following day. In other sportsbooks, the game must be finished within 48 hours or one week (Caesars) after the specified start time in order for it to be called action.
The location can change due to the weather. Players might relocate to a court with a roof in case of rain. Alternatively, if the court has a roof, they can simply decide to temporarily postpone the game. That might alter the circumstances and possibly favor one particular player, but your wager will hold.
Overs/Unders
Unless it already hit the over, bets on the complete match over/under will often be invalid. It is void if not.
For instance, most renowned bookies will classify the totals on the contest as action as the result was already determined if you bet on the match to have more than 21 total games and one quit at 7-6, 5-4. Baseball would never allow something like this to occur, however, check your individual bookmaker for the regulations because there may be changes.
Additionally, as long as the players complete the first set, your over/under wager should stand if you just bet on it for the first set. The majority of significant sportsbooks follow this rule: Graded if the number achieved, void otherwise.
Spreads
The majority of the time, sportsbooks will use the same guidelines for totals and spreads. But if you place a wager using a bookie that treats this as a void regulation, things could get very bad for you.
Say you wager on Eugenie Bouchard to win by +1.5 sets over Angelique Kerber. Bouchard is up 6-3, 5-0, thus your wager cannot lose. Your wager would be returned, though, if Kerber later decides to retire. Oh, and that scenario actually happened five years ago. “Our” Eugenie was a losing bet.
Live Betting
While live betting (totals, moneyline, etc.) occasionally necessitates the completion of a game, most sportsbooks with a good reputation uphold the same regulations as they would for moneyline wagers placed before to the game. This implies that if a player retires after you place a live moneyline wager past the second set, your stake will still stand and be graded according to the official outcome.
The most lenient policy in this situation is offered by FanDuel, which will nullify losing live moneyline bets and grade winning ones via retirements after the first set. If you wager on a player in the live market to prevail in a given set or game, your wager should stand as long as they finish that particular set or game.
At the risk of repeating ourselves, be sure that your bookmaker adheres to that criteria. Each sportsbook conducts live withdrawals in accordance with its own set of rules. When a proviso is absent for live betting, you will abide by their moneyline regulations.
Futures
If your player withdraws from the tournament after you place a tennis future wager, you may receive a full refund, or a partial refund, or the wager will be recorded as a loss. Even though we would have liked our Kiki Bertens 2019 French Open future to be refunded, those are the breaks although it is conceivable that certain bookies will reimburse you if a player never touches a ball.
You are aware of what we will say, and it can pose the ultimate piece of advice: VERIFY THE RULES OF YOUR BOOKIE…