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.

FAQ articles

Can beginners learn Tennis Trading?

Why tennis trading is lower risk than betting

Why Trading Isn’t The Same As Betting

How To Manage Risk When Trading Tennis

What Makes A Good Tennis Trading Opportunity?

How Do I Know When To Exit A Trade?

When There Are Lots Of Matches, How Do I Choose Which One To Trade?

I’m Not A Great Fan Of Tennis. Is That A Problem?

Tennis Matches Can Last For Hours. Do I Have To Sit At The PC All Day?

How Much Profit Can I Make With A £2,000 Trading Bank?

Can You Really Make Money Trading Tennis?

This is a question I’ve been asked many times over the years:

“If I start with a £2,000 trading bank, how much profit can I expect to make?”

Unfortunately, there isn’t a figure I can give you.

The size of your trading bank doesn’t determine how much profit you’ll make.

What you do with it does.

Two people could both start with £2,000 and have completely different results. One might steadily grow their bank while the other could lose a significant part of theirs.

The difference isn’t the amount they started with. It’s how they trade.

The Question Is Usually The Wrong Question

I understand why people ask it.

They’re trying to decide whether tennis trading is worth their time.

But asking how much you can make from a £2,000 bank is a little like asking how much somebody can earn from a business simply by knowing how much money they invested in it.

There are too many other variables.

Your experience, strategies, staking, risk management, discipline and the quality of your trading decisions will all affect your results.

Your Bank Determines What You Can Risk, Not What You Will Earn

A trading bank gives you the capital you need to trade.

It doesn’t guarantee a return.

If two traders both have £2,000 but one risks £10 on a typical trade while the other risks £100, their potential profits will obviously be very different.

So will their potential losses.

Simply increasing your stakes doesn’t make you a better or more profitable trader. In fact, increasing your stakes too quickly can wreck your confidence. If you lose confidence, you make poorer decisions.

Poor decisions will soon eat through that £2,000.

Percentage Returns Are More Useful Than Pounds

When you’re learning, I think it’s more useful to think about the performance of your trading bank than a particular monthly income.

For example, somebody making £100 from a £1,000 bank and somebody making £1,000 from a £10,000 bank have produced the same percentage return.

The monetary figures look very different, but the performance is identical.

That’s one reason comparing your profits with another trader’s screenshots isn’t particularly useful unless you know how much capital and risk were involved.

Don’t Set A Profit Target That Forces You To Trade

There’s another problem with deciding beforehand that your £2,000 bank must make a certain amount every month.

What happens when the opportunities aren’t there?

If you’ve decided you need to make £500 this month, it’s very easy to start looking for trades simply because you’re behind your target.

You trade matches you would normally leave alone.

You increase your stakes.

You stay in trades longer hoping to squeeze out a little more profit.

Suddenly your profit target is influencing your trading decisions.

I prefer to take what the markets give me rather than trying to force the markets to give me what I want.

Having said that, I always found it useful to be able to gauge the day’s results. So, if I made a profit equal to my normal stake, I was happy with that.

A Bigger Bank Doesn’t Fix Bad Trading

This sounds obvious, but it’s worth saying.

If somebody can’t trade consistently with a £500 bank, giving them £2,000 isn’t going to solve the problem.

Likewise, if you’re learning with small stakes and consistently making sensible decisions, increasing your bank later allows those same decisions to be made with larger amounts.

That’s the point at which bank size becomes useful.

The skill should come first.

Protecting The Bank Matters

When people ask how much they can make from a trading bank, they’re usually thinking entirely about the upside.

I think the downside deserves just as much attention.

Your trading bank is the tool that allows you to trade.

Protecting it means controlling your liability, accepting losing trades and avoiding the temptation to dramatically increase stakes after a bad result.

A £2,000 bank that is managed sensibly gives you room to trade and learn.

A £2,000 bank that is treated as £2,000 you can afford to gamble can disappear remarkably quickly.

Your Results Will Change As You Gain Experience

A beginner shouldn’t expect to produce the same results as somebody who has traded thousands of matches.

That’s not realistic.

As you gain experience, you’ll become better at selecting matches, identifying opportunities, managing positions and recognising when a trade isn’t developing as expected.

You may then decide to increase your stakes. Gradually.

That’s a much healthier way to grow than starting with a financial target and working backwards to calculate how much you need to risk to achieve it.

So How Much Can You Make With £2,000?

Of course, you can make money with a £2,000 trading bank.

But nobody can responsibly tell you how much.

If someone tells you that a £2,000 bank should make £X per week or £Y per month, I’d want to know a lot more about the assumptions behind those figures.

The better question is:

“Can I learn to trade this bank consistently while controlling my risk?”

If the answer eventually becomes yes, the size of your trading bank can grow alongside your experience.

I’ve been trading tennis since 2008 and have traded professionally full-time since July 2010. My TradeShark Tennis Trading Course focuses on the strategies, risk management and decision-making that I’ve developed during that time rather than promising a particular return from a particular bank.

FAQ articles

Can beginners learn Tennis Trading?

Why tennis trading is lower risk than betting

Why Trading Isn’t The Same As Betting

How To Manage Risk When Trading Tennis

What Makes A Good Tennis Trading Opportunity?

How Do I Know When To Exit A Trade?

When There Are Lots Of Matches, How Do I Choose Which One To Trade?

I’m Not A Great Fan Of Tennis. Is That A Problem?

Tennis Matches Can Last For Hours. Do I Have To Sit At The PC All Day?