Sportsbook.com, which is headquartered in London, England and is the main brand for Sportingbet PLC, has reported a growing trend in the online gambling community. The trend, wagering on major world tennis tournaments, became evident during the recently completed French open when record numbers of bets were placed in the last weekend of the tournament. Sportingbet, the world’s largest publicly traded online betting, gambling and gaming company, which offers, in addition to sports betting, products such as horse race betting, casino games, poker, and virtual games, is expecting there to be even more wagering on tennis tournaments because Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, the largest events in the world of tennis, are just around the corner.

The women’s final this year between Justine Henin-Hardenne of Belgium and Mary Pierce of France, generated nearly 25 percent more in wagers than the final in 2004. While the men’s final this year between Rafael Nadal of Spain and Marianno Puerta of Argentina, did exhibit a slightly higher amount of money wagered than the previous year, the real surprise was the increased amount of betting on the men’s semi-finals. Betting on the semi-finals increased this year by an amazing 48 percent compared to the amount of money bet on last year’s men’s semi-finals.

Another indicator of the increase in betting is the dollar amount of the average bet wagered. In this year’s men’s semi-finals, the average bet placed was almost fifteen percent higher than it was in 2004 and the average bet placed on the men’s final was twelve percent higher this year than the previous year.

“We’re seeing a steady and consistent growth in the popularity of gambling on tennis”, said Alex Czajkowski, Marketing Director of Sportsbook.com. “What’s encouraging about the numbers is that it has been an off year for American stars like Agassi, Roddick and the Williams sisters. The US stars should do better at Wimbledon and the US Open and that means fan interest will increase. There’s no reason to expect the betting numbers to go anywhere but up this summer”.

The growing parity in both the men and women’s games contributes to the excitement of betting on the tournaments, as well. In the past, it was much easier to predict who would be the winner, but now the competition is much stiffer making betting much more interesting.

“Sportsbook.com’ odds makers work very hard to break down the entire field before coming up with their odds,” added Czajkowski. “We can not longer rely on just looking at the top players. We look at every player and offer our fans the best odds anywhere in the world.”