The unmistakable sound of a tennis racket colliding with ball and echoing out through an open-top arena is, to many, the sound of the summer. Sandwiched in-between the Australian Open and Wimbledon, the French Open represents the start of the summer season of tennis that draws in millions of sports fans globally year-on-year.
Often viewed as something of a Wimbledon warm-up, the French Open – or Roland Garros – this year, at least, built to a finale that will go down in history as one of the very best, with a phenomenal display of talent on show. Indeed, the matchup between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner may well end up being the game of the year, as the tenacious resilience of both players resulted in what was the longest French Open Final of all time. Indeed, some have been brave enough to say that the match could be one of the best ever played in the history of the sport.
This, then, is the perfect place to start for our data deep-dive.
A showstopping finale
Contextually, after just shy of five-and-a-half hours, Alcaraz managed to overcome his worthy adversary and rising star in the Italian Sinner, placing this year’s Roland Garros Final as the second-longest major final ever played. Evidently, this provides plenty of time within which the probable outcome of a match can change – and change again (and again, and again).
Perhaps this is why then, in a rare turn of events, the data evidenced below reflects a higher amount of betting activity recorded during the match, with live bets accounting for a total 58.18% of all bets placed. Moreover, it would appear that the bettors were becoming more confident – or at the very least more brave – in their predictions as the match was being played, as live turnover accounted for 54.87% of all recorded turnover.
Interestingly, this trend was reflected across the entire men’s tournament – in which live bets accounted for a total of 57.9% of all bets placed, somewhat comfortably outpacing prematch. The most accentuated example of live turnover was represented across the entirety of the men’s tournament, with some 62.6% of turnover being accounted for by live bets, showing that players weren’t afraid to bet a little bigger during games this year.
Drawing focus back to the men’s final, established world number one Alcaraz was the focal point of the punters' attention both before and during the game, making up 53.58% of all bets placed. Despite this, more money was being placed on his opponent, Sinner, with the turnover from his bets slightly outpacing Alcaraz’ by 51.46%.
Naturally, the match winner market was by far the most popular wagering vertical – making up 48.34% of bets and 60.8% of turnover, trailed by set winner and set game winner. Also unsurprisingly – and as evidenced below – much less was being wagered on the less popular verticals, with the steadily declining turnover moving in tandem with the lesser accessed markets.
Conversely, over the course of the whole men’s tournament, while match winner remained the most popular vertical – making up 41.76% of bets and 42.29% of turnover – set winner held a slightly weightier relative presence with 19.36% of overall turnover coming from 15.73% of bets.
With regard to player markets over the full tournament, specifically, the total breaks market – which predicts how many times one player break’s the other’s serve, a crucial deciding factor in any game – reigned supreme – accounting for 80.95% of bets. Intriguingly, this market only accounted for 69.95% of turnover, with player breaks 1x2 – which relates to which player will break next – proving a lucrative market, accounting for 28.2% of turnover from just 14.29% of bets.
Gauff takes the plaudits
In the women’s final, juxtaposing the men’s, live bets were limited to a smaller share of the overall bets placed, making up 44.33% and accounting for 40.49% of turnover – highlighting that those betting before the match were placing more on their markets.
The final saw the American Coco Gauff recover from the disappointing loss of a lengthy, hard-fought first set by cruising through the next two sets 6-2 and 6-4 to lift the French Open Trophy – defeating the Belarusian World number 1 Aryna Sabalenka.
Indeed, Sabalenka remained the focal point of the affair, with 66.23% of bets being placed on her – accounting for 52.49% of turnover. On the other side of the court, Gauff's impressive turnover percentile of 47.51% coming from just 33.77% of bets placed – showing faith from the punters in placing larger sums on the player.
Similarly to the men’s matchup, match winner was by far and away the most popular market as evidenced below. However, 18.23% of turnover came from those betting on the set winner vertical, despite it only accounting for 10.26% of overall bets. Also interestingly, bettors were clearly going low when betting on the number of games per set, as this market only made up 1.69% of turnover from 6.29% of bets – with similar being true for total number of games and set game winner.
Live bets reign supreme
Over the course of the rest of the tournament, and much like on the men’s side, live bets accounted for the bulk of the action, making up 59.14% of turnover from an almost identical 59.12% of bets.
Regarding players – and again much like in the final of the women’s event – Sabalenka was the main focal point of the tournament for the punters, as she accounted for 8.65% of all bets placed, alongside 11.18% of turnover. Again, Gauff punched above her weight with regard to the amount wagered on her – as she accounted for 10.04% of all turnover from just 6.71% of overall bets. Indeed, similar can be said for the Chinese Qinwen Zheng, who saw just 2.83% of bets placed on her – but accounted for 4.2% of overall turnover.
As always, the winner market remained the most popular as evidenced below, with bettors going larger over the course of the tournament, as the market made up 60.76% of turnover from 50.34% of bets.
Elsewhere, the punters were playing a little safer on the set winner vertical – which accounted for a near identical percentile of bets and turnover at 13.86% and 13.96%, respectively. Even more safe was the set game winner vertical – which saw just 4.83% of turnover being generated from 8.24% of bets, with total games within a set also accounting for just 2.39% of turnover, despite making up 5.29% of all bets placed.
