How to trade tennis on Polymarket: step by step

To trade tennis on Polymarket you find the match market, buy shares in one player at a price in cents, and then either sell them during the match or hold them to the end. Winning shares pay $1 each, losing shares pay nothing. The whole thing takes a few taps, but the details matter, so here's the full process with the costs and the catches.

I'll assume you already have a Polymarket account with some money in it. I won't cover deposits, because that depends on where you live and how you fund it. If you've never done any of this, the safest way to start is on the 77 Tennis demo, which uses the same prices with play money. More on that at the end.

Step 1: find the match

Polymarket lists tennis under its sports section, and there's a lot of it. When I checked in October 2026 there were several hundred open match markets, from the main tour down to small ITF events. The easiest way to find a match is to search for a player's surname. Each match has its own market with two outcomes, one per player.

Check three things before you go further. First, that it's the right match: the same two players can meet more than once in a season, and the market description gives the tournament and the scheduled start. Second, that it's a singles match, if that's what you want. Third, how much has been traded. A big ATP match might have hundreds of thousands of dollars behind it. A small ITF match might have very little, which makes it harder to get in and out at a fair price.

Step 2: read the price

Each player has a price between 1¢ and 99¢. That price is the market's view of their chance of winning. A player at 62¢ is being given about a 62% chance. The two prices add up to about $1, because exactly one of them will pay out. If you want the full explanation, read how tennis prices work.

You'll actually see two numbers for each player: a price to buy at and a slightly lower price to sell at. The gap between them is the spread. On a busy match it might be 1¢. On a quiet one it can be 5¢ or more, and that gap is a cost you pay the moment you trade.

Step 3: buy

Pick the player you want, choose how much to spend, and place the order. Your shares are your money divided by the price. $31 at 62¢ buys 50 shares. There's a minimum of 5 shares per order on the markets I checked, so at 62¢ the smallest trade is about $3.10.

You have two ways to buy. A market order fills straight away at the best price on offer. A limit order names your price and waits until someone takes it. This matters for fees. On Polymarket's tennis markets, only orders that fill immediately against the order book pay a fee. An order that sits on the book and gets filled later pays nothing. The fee is small, but it's real, and I explain it in the worked example below.

Don't put your whole balance on one match. A sensible first trade is one you'd be fine losing entirely, because that can happen.

Step 4: watch

Once you own shares, the price moves with the match. Most points barely move it. A break of serve moves it a lot, and a break late in a deciding set moves it most of all. I wrote up the numbers in why the price jumps on a break of serve.

Polymarket shows you the price, but not the score. You need the score from somewhere else, and it's worth knowing that any feed you use has a delay. Prices often react before a public scoreboard does, because some traders are watching the match live. If a price moves and you can't see why, assume the market knows something you don't yet.

Step 5: sell, or hold

You can sell your shares any time before the match ends, at the current sell price. That's what makes this trading rather than betting. If your player goes a break up and the price rises from 62¢ to 72¢, you can take the gain right there. If they're broken and the price falls, you can get out before it falls further.

Or you can hold to the end. Then the market settles: each winning share pays $1 and each losing share pays $0. Most people do a mix. They hold when they like the position and sell when the match starts going the wrong way. Decide your exit before you buy. The guide to take-profit and stop-loss covers how.

Step 6: what happens at the end

When the match finishes, Polymarket resolves the market from the official result and pays out. The rules on its tennis markets, as written in the market descriptions I checked, are these:

• If a player retires, defaults or is disqualified after the match has started, the player who advances wins the market. One point played is enough.
• If a player withdraws before the match starts, it's a walkover, and the market resolves 50-50. Every share pays 50¢.
• If the match is cancelled, or no winner is decided within 14 days of the scheduled start, it also resolves 50-50.

The walkover rule catches people. If you buy a strong favourite at 85¢ and they pull out before the first point, you get 50¢ back per share and lose 35¢ on each. I cover this in what happens if a player retires.

The costs, all in one place

• The fee. 5% of your shares, scaled by price × (1 minus price), on orders that fill immediately. It's biggest near 50¢ and shrinks toward the extremes. At 50¢, 100 shares cost $1.25 in fees. Fees change, so check Polymarket's fee page before you rely on a number. I go through the sums in Polymarket tennis fees explained.
• The spread. You buy at the higher price and sell at the lower one. On thin markets it can cost more than the fee.
• Slippage. A large market order can use up the shares on offer at the best price and fill the rest at worse prices.
• Your time. Live trading needs attention. A match can turn while you're making coffee.

The risks, plainly

You can lose everything you put on a match. Prices move fast and sometimes before you can react. Thin markets can leave you unable to sell at a fair price. The score feed you're watching is behind the market. Rules on retirements and walkovers can settle a market in a way you didn't expect. And prediction markets aren't legal everywhere, so check the rules where you live before you deposit anything.

None of that means you shouldn't do it. It means you should start small and know the rules first.

Practise first, for free

The 77 Tennis demo shows the same Polymarket prices next to live scores, and gives you $1,000 of play money to trade with. It skips the fee and the spread, so real results would be a little worse than demo results, but every other part of the process is the same: pick a player, buy, watch, sell or hold, and see how it settles. Ten demo trades will teach you more about how prices move than any article, including this one. The beginner's guide has a simple plan for your first week.

FAQ

How much money do I need to start trading tennis on Polymarket?

The markets I checked had a minimum order of 5 shares, so a few dollars is enough for one trade. Start with an amount you'd be fine losing. Many people never need to go above $10 or $20 a trade.

Can I sell before the match ends?

Yes, any time, at the current sell price. That's the main difference from a bet. You don't have to wait for the result.

What fee does Polymarket charge on tennis?

When I checked in October 2026, orders that fill straight away paid shares × 5% × price × (1 minus price). Orders that sit on the order book paid nothing. Check Polymarket's fee page for current rates.

Do I need a crypto wallet?

Polymarket runs on crypto rails, and how you fund an account depends on where you live. The 77 Tennis demo needs only an email address, because nothing real is traded there.

Where do I see the score?

Not on Polymarket itself. You need a scores app or site, and all of them are a little behind the live market. The 77 Tennis demo shows prices and scores on one screen.