Badminton Review

Introduction to Badminton Betting

Badminton is something of a niche betting sport that is dominated by players from Asia. Denmark produced the best players, but it’s China and Indonesia who now dominate the world championships. Badminton is a racket sport akin to tennis, and the objective is to score points. Matches are played over the best of three games and the first player or pairing to reach 21 points wins the game. There are fluctuations in the scoring and betting due to the serving system. If the server loses a point, the opposition serves the next point. This system prevents one side from winning a succession of points on serve, so the games are more open and conducive to betting. The sport plays in men’s and women’s singles, men’s and women’s doubles and mixed doubles.

Betting Events

The Badminton World Federation (BWF) organises global events, and there are five regional confederations. The main international team event for betting is the Sudirman Cup which brings together both genders in the five events. The biggest betting events take place at the Olympics, and there are five titles contested at the Summer Games. The BWF World Championships involve the 64 best players in the world on rankings. The Super Series is in effect a world tour which includes the All-England Championships, once seen as the official world championships of badminton. The sport is structured around four tournament levels, and there is more betting at each successive level in the structure of the sport.

Betting Types

Badminton is a head-to-head sport where there is usually a definite outcome. There are rare occasions when a player retires through injury, but the opponent progresses to the next round. Bookmakers publish rules which deal with all potential match outcomes. There are pre-match markets which fluctuate due to weight of money and injury news. Several related betting options complement the match winner market. The badminton scoring system lends itself to live betting. Games are generally close at the highest level, which means bettors can cash out to guarantee a profit or limit the loss regardless of the outcome. Bettors can place ante-post wagers of the winners of the world championship and Olympic Games.

Badminton Markets

The rules of badminton determine that the most popular betting markets are the winner, handicaps and totals. Bookmakers offer these options for the match and each game. Bettors can also back their prediction for the correct score in games and the correct score in points for each game. The World Championships and Olympics provide betting opportunities on the nationality of the champions. Betting on the progress of high-profile players also attracts some interest at the major global championships and world tour events. The number of titles won by selected nations, such as England and China, is also a popular betting market.