tennis betting bonus

Betting Online on WTA tennis tournaments

The WTA (Women's Tennis Association) was founded in 1973 by Billie Jean King. The association was designed to govern women's professional tennis around the world by hosting a number of ranking tournaments, providing a fair ranking system and to separate the professional and amateur formats of the game. The WTA was founded on the back of the success of the ATP, which is the men's official governing body for the sport.

Over the years the WTA has continued to grow from its original 9 members who were paid a mere $1 each to sign exclusively with the governing body. The association now hosts more than 2,500 members who play in venues around the world for a cumulative prize pool which surpasses $100 million. One of the biggest merits of the WTA is the fact that nowadays female pros are making the same kind of money as the ATP pros do.

WTA Tournaments

The highlight of the WTA tour calendar comes at the season finale with the WTA Tour Championships. This tournament includes the top 8 players in the world who will be split into two groups of four before progressing to semi-finals and finals. The prize pool for the tournament reached almost $5million in 2011 and it the biggest women's tennis tournament outside the four majors.

Next we have the Premier Tournament series. This series is relatively new in the women's tennis calendar after its introduction in 2009. They are split into three sections; Premier Mandatory, Premier Five and Premier. The Premier Mandatory competitions include prize pools of $4.5 Million each for the male and female competitors in the competition. There are only four of these hosted around the worlds in cities such as Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid and Beijing.

The Premier Five tournaments are 5 competitions held in Dubai, Rome, Cincinnati, Toronto and Tokyo. Unlike the Premier Mandatory, the prize pool of $2 million is exclusively for the women's matches. The Premier events include 10 more tournaments held around the world with prize money ranging from $600,000 to $1million, depending on sponsors.

There are two more tournament series which have a wider following but less exclusivity; these are the International tournaments (31 tournaments worldwide with prize money being a fixed $225,000 per event) and the Challenger Tournaments (3 tournaments with a fixed prize pool of £125,000).

Best WTA Betting Sites

Bet365 – Non US

Bet365 is definitely the best place to bet on the WTA. They not only provide every tournament from the Premier Tournament series, but their coverage of the International Tournaments and the Challenger tour is also excellent. On top of that they often provide live streaming for many of the bigger matches, meaning you can watch and bet in-play as the game takes place. Use this link to sign up.

Intertops – US Friendly

Intertops is one of the biggest US friendly betting sites and it will be of little surprise to hear that they are one of the best for coverage of the WTA. Whilst market coverage isn't as large as Bet365, they do provide a good variety of tournaments and matches to bet on throughout the season. Also, there are many events during an ongoing match that you can place a bet on.

Upon registering a new account at Intertops via this bonus link, you can take advantage of a $200 bonus, equating to 100% of your initial deposit amount.