Football is by far the more popular of the two sports in the UK, so it’s understandable that many people interested in sports trading start there.

I’ve traded football myself, but tennis has always been my preferred sport for trading.

That’s not because you can’t successfully trade football. Plenty of people do.

I simply think the structure of a tennis match provides the type of opportunities that suit the way I like to trade.

Tennis Gives Me More Opportunities To React

One of the biggest differences between football and tennis is the number of significant events during the match.

In football, the significant events are:
A goal
A penalty
A sending off.

You can have long periods of a match where there are no significant events. You can even have full matches where there are zero significant events.

If nothing significant happens, the price still moves

Tennis is different.

The players’ prices move based on who won the last point. The size of the price move is based on how significant the last point was to the outcome of the match.

That creates a constant flow of information and regular movement in the prices.

For a trader, those movements create opportunities.

A Set Down Doesn’t Mean The Match Is Over

This is one of the things I particularly like about tennis.

A player can lose the first set and still have plenty of time to recover.

They can even lose their serve early in the second set and come back to win the match.

That creates opportunities to trade players when their price has moved significantly from where it started.

In football, time is always disappearing.

If a team you’re relying on goes a goal behind, every minute that passes without an equaliser reduces the time available for your trade to recover.

There isn’t a match clock working against you in the same way in tennis.

There Are Only Two Possible Winners

The Match Odds market in tennis is very simple.

Player A or Player B.

There isn’t a draw to consider.

If one player’s chance of winning decreases, the other’s increases.

Obviously, that doesn’t make profitable trading easy. You still need to make good decisions.

But I like the simplicity of a market involving two players rather than three possible match results.

Tennis Prices Can Swing Multiple Times In A Match

This is probably one of the biggest attractions of tennis from a trading point of view.

A player can start a match as a strong favourite, fall behind and see their price increase considerably.

If you believe that player has a good chance of recovering, that movement can create an opportunity.

You don’t necessarily need them to go on and win the match.

As a trader, you’re interested in what happens to the price after you enter.

If the player recovers and their price moves in your favour, you may have the opportunity to close the trade for a profit long before the result of the match is known.

That’s a very different mindset from simply betting on somebody to win.

Prices In Football Can Also Obviously Fluctuate

The huge difference is that, as I said above, with fewer key moments in a football match, the price moves are fewer and can be very dramatic.

That’s great if you’re on the right side of the market but if you’re not, the chance to manage a market move against you is minimal.

That makes football trading feel more like betting than actual trading.

I Like Being Able To Plan My Trades

Most of my trading starts with research before the match.

I’m looking for situations where I think the market could give me an opportunity if the match develops in a particular way.

That suits me.

Rather than simply reacting to whatever happens, I can go into a match knowing what I’m looking for.

If the situation develops, I can trade it.

If it doesn’t, I leave it alone.

Tennis gives me plenty of opportunities to work this way.

There Is Almost Always More Tennis Coming

Another advantage is the amount of tennis played throughout the year.

The ATP and WTA Tours provide tournaments during most weeks of the season, often with several events taking place at the same time.

You don’t have to force a trade because you’re worried there won’t be another opportunity.

There usually will be.

That fits perfectly with one of the principles I’ve followed throughout my trading career:

You don’t need to trade just because a match is available.

Wait for the opportunities that suit you.

Football Trading Isn’t Bad — It’s Just Different

I don’t want this to sound like I’m saying tennis trading is better than football trading for everybody.

It isn’t.

Some traders will prefer football.

If you understand football well, enjoy analysing teams and have developed strategies that work for you, there’s no reason you should suddenly abandon it.

But if you’ve only ever considered football because it’s the sport you’re most familiar with, tennis trading is worth looking at.

You don’t have to be a huge tennis fan to appreciate the characteristics that make it interesting from a trading perspective.

Why Tennis Suits Me

Ultimately, I prefer tennis because it fits the way I want to trade.

I like the fact that most matches will give me multiple opportunities. I don’t need to get on every possible trade.

I like looking for value when prices move.

I like having opportunities for a trade to recover when a player falls behind.

And I like being able to close a trade without needing to predict the eventual winner of the match. You can obviously do this when trading football but with fewer significant events, your options are much more limited.

Those characteristics have allowed me to develop an approach based on patience, preparation and controlled risk rather than simply trying to predict results.

Final Thoughts

Football may attract far more attention, but popularity doesn’t necessarily make a sport better suited to your style of trading.

For me, tennis provides the combination of price movement, match structure and trading opportunities that I want.

That’s why I chose to specialise in it.

I’ve been trading tennis since 2008 and have traded professionally full-time since July 2010. My TradeShark Tennis Trading Course teaches the strategies and approach I’ve developed during that time, with a particular focus on finding opportunities while keeping risk under control.

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