In-Play betting on Murray v Nadal at the Australian Open with bet365

On Wednesday morning, we visited bet365 (one of our favourite bookmakers) to check out their Australian Open tennis coverage. The prospect of being able to watch the quarter final between Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal made lots of appeal, especially as the streaming would be accompanied by a wide range of In-Play markets.

There are two ways to watch the live streaming of sporting events at bet365. You can either

1) Click through from the homepage and have the In-Play odds accompanied by the action in a small window

OR

2) You can visit their ‘Extra’ section and watch the game using a standalone format.

Naturally, if you’re placing live bets, then you’ll want to choose the former. While bet365’s live streaming is generally free to watch, requiring you simply to have signed up (but with no deposit require), a 10 Euro bet is required to watch this Grand Slam tennis event. Once you have placed this wager, then you can watch every single game being shown and bet365 will also add 10 Euros to your free bet balance.

Although the contest was over in three sets, the bookmaker were struggling to separate Murray and Nadal ahead of Wednesday’s match. They provisionally made the former favourite at 5/6, with the Spaniard at even money, although after the world number two won the first rally, the prices changed to 10/11 for both players! Such is the volatile nature of In-Play betting on tennis.

In addition to the match winner market, the In-Play customer is spoilt for choice at bet365. They can bet on markets like:

Current Set Winner
Point Betting (where the player serving is roughly 4/9 compared to the 7/4 about the receiver)
Next Game (where the server is usually around 1/7 compared to the 9/2 about the receiver)

In this match, neither player were proving too strong on their serve and you would have made a handsome profit from backing the non-server in every game!

If you think that’s the tip of the iceberg for bet365’s In-Play betting, think again! Live markets also include:

• Next Game to Deuce – whether a particular game will go to 40-40
• Next Game Score – eg Murray is 10/3 to win his next game to love, with 40-15 the 12/5 favourite
• Race to 2,3,4 and 5 Games – where the player serving first in the set has the obvious advantage
• Games in Current Set – where you can bet Over / Under a certain number of games, eg 9 or less is 13/8, while eleven or more is 6/4
• Current Set Score – where Murray to win 6-3 is 15/4, but Nadal is 13/5 to win 6-4.
• Total Sets – 3 sets 13/8, 4 sets 6/4, 5 sets 21/10

In the first set, it’s Murray who has the upper hand when going 4-2 up and bet365 make him 2/5 to win the match. On the set score betting, the Scot is 4/6 to win by a 6-3 scoreline and he duly obliges by serving out to take it. The world number five is slight favourite (4/5) to win the second set, with Nadal even money. At this stage, the Brit can still be backed at 21/10 with bet365 to win 3-0, with no hint that Rafael Nadal might be carrying the injury which will eventually rule him out.

At 2-3 in the second set, Murray finds himself three break points down and this time there’s no great escape. Nadal goes 4-2 and is now slashed to even money for the match on the bet365 In-Play console. Murray remains the slight 4/5 favourite. You can back the Scot at 6/1 to win the second set, with his Spanish opponent available at 1/9. All the latter needs to do is hold his serve, although Rafa isn’t serving many aces and Murray earns two break points during the seventh game. His price is provisionally cut to 4/7 (Nadal 11/8) and, once the break is achieved, the British number one is now 1/2. It’s interesting to note that Murray is still the 13/10 outsider with bet365 to win set 2, with the bookies clearly making it a big disadvantage to be serving second.

After Andy Murray wins the second set on a tie break, he is now 1/6 to win match. Many punters will be delighted that they backed Murray to win in straight sets at 10/11 before his opponent unfortunately succumbed to injury. We have discovered that bet365 offer a cutting-edge In-Play console for their customers, with tennis betting proving highly volatile and exciting!