Tennis Betting Advice - February 2024
I've been wrong so far...
Friday 2nd February 2024
I’m writing to you on a Friday morning - and that means we’ve got Ones to Watch players through to the quarter finals…
We’ve backed two upcoming youngsters at the ATP Montpellier indoor hard-court event this week - original advice here...
With 23-year-old Alexander Shevchenko (16/1)...
And 21-year-old French prospect Harold Mayot (33/1)...
Those prices have both come down a little now, to 9/1 and 25/1 in general.
With firms now only offering reduced place terms of 1/3 odds for reaching the final - whereas we’re on at 1/2 odds Each Way.
Our boys are both the underdogs going into this afternoon’s Montpellier quarter finals. But backing outsiders is what we do here at Ones to Watch…
Play starts from 1.30pm, UK time.
I’ve been wrong so far…
I would say that you can watch those Montpellier matches live on Sky Sports. But I wouldn’t bank on it…
So far, Sky’s big 2024 announcement that they are the new ‘home of tennis’ has fallen a bit flat. And maybe I was wrong to get so excited back in December.
To fans and viewers, it feels like Sky underestimated what modern-day sports followers expect…
In recent seasons, previous broadcast-rights holder Amazon Prime allowed you to watch pretty much any match during the weekly ATP & WTA tournaments - live, and on replays. With multi-court coverage. It’s all about choice…
The new season has started as a damp squib on Sky Sports. Very disappointing. Fans and viewers have complained that Sky are just using the tennis as ‘filler’... with an hour or two broadcast here and then, cutting some matches short, not showing the advertised players/ matches/ events. And giving the paying viewer no option at all to select which match they want to watch.
But - thankfully - there is hope…
Seeing as they didn’t have the rights to January’s Australian Open, it looks like the suits at Sky Sports (don’t these people actually follow sport?!) decided in their infinite wisdom that, as far as they were concerned, the 2024 tennis season would begin in March, with the first two high-profile joint 1000 ‘Masters’ events of the year, Indian Wells and Miami…
March was being whispered about online as the launch date for the promised land: a dedicated Sky Sports Tennis channel - and multi-court coverage via the red button and apps.
I’m sure they won’t admit it, but the online grumblings on Sky forums must have finally reached someone high up at Sky HQ…
As this week, the glitzy broadcaster put out a fanfare press release - announcing that the Sky Sports Tennis channel plus extra-court live options would now be launching on 11th February.
That’s a positive. But given Sky’s dropping of the ball so far (some would even call it showing a lack of respect to tennis, and to their tennis-loving subscribers). This time I think I should reserve judgement before getting too excited. After all, it’s not like a Sky Sports membership is cheap. I’ll keep you posted.
Married bliss?
Alexander Shevchenko’s wife is also playing in a quarter final this afternoon…
Anastasia Potapova saved match points at WTA Linz last night, and the reigning Linz champ has significant rankings points to defend in Austria this week.
Her husband Alexander is searching for his first ATP title…
Coming up…
The tours continue with no fewer than five tournaments for us next week. I’ll be back then with more youngsters and big-price outsiders to follow…
Enjoy the tennis…
Best wishes,
Oliver Upstone