The most important color is Green

I think Paul Newman said it best in The Color of Money when he said "money won is twice as sweet as money earned." For most gamblers out there, they eat breath and sleep this expression. In 2003, the American Gambling Institute made more than $72 billion, and it will only get bigger. With more and more sports being incorporated into the betting scene, tennis has taken on a little of the spotlight of its own.

When it comes to tennis betting, there are a few strategies that should be followed. Bettors should follow the tournaments, player rankings, and scores carefully in order to be successful at tennis betting. A variety of bet types are available when betting on tennis as well.

Since most gamblers bet on a lot of different things, they might not have time to catch up on a few basic tennis facts. OnCourt is a piece of software that allows avid gamblers to take a look at some necessary statistics and then place their bets on gathered research rather than having them waste time researching themselves.

What's Inside

Inside you're given a few options to sift through in order to let you make your own decisions. You're able to choose between players, tours, player history, today's stats, a live chat, an update feature, rankings, and more.

Under the 'Players' tab, you're given a ton of options to work with. You can choose between top 100, top 500 players. You can choose players from specific countries and even between singles and doubles. You're given the option to choose between players who play on hard, clay or grass courts (there are also 3 more types of courts to choose from). You're able to list players by their generations and even by the type of tournaments they've been in. After all is set, you can see what their career earnings are along with their current rank and Birth date.

The 'Tour' section is listed in chronological order, along with the type of court that players are playing on. You can view the statistics and the results by just double clicking on any of the specific tournaments.

I especially liked the 'History' tab since it lets you view how many times certain players faced off. Identifying the history of each player's matches is something very significant when betting on a specific match. I mean if the #1 player in the world is facing the #999 player and in the past 10 matches, the #1 player has lost 9 out of the 10 times when facing this opponent, then gamblers might be a little hesitant to put their money on the #1 player.

Your 'Today' tab shows you the events that are going on today (the problem with the trial version is that you can't use your 'Update' tab to bring all the rankings and stats up-to-date). Your next important tab is the 'Ranking's one. For long-shot bets, it's always good to know who the recent movers of the top 500 are. It's always good to know who's been hot and who hasn't. If you choose some bets carefully, you might hit it big by betting on an underdog. You're also able to see the total prize money for each player along with a few other statistical goodies.

A great tool was the little Excel spreadsheet converter tool. For numbers freaks, this is a good way to see the final result while keeping records in your own way rather than just using the program's interface. Your 'Options' menu let you play with some personal preferences, they let you compress your database and among other things, they let you create some specific categories.

The last main part of the program would have to be your 'Links' tab. Here's where OnCourt shows you exactly where you can place your bets, along with giving you some useful statistical and official sites.

Moans and Groans

I wish that the program will soon get roll-over capabilities, the fact that I couldn't read what the little icons did was killing me. I'd have to go and click them just to find out and then lose my spot of what I was just reading.

The overall interface seems to be super packed with numbers. For statisticians, this might not be a problem, but for a beginner trying to break in the tennis gambling scene, this might seem slightly confusing (but still understandable).

The Good

For professional gamblers and novices just starting, this program can help you better choose who you're going to bet on in a certain match. It gives you top notch statistics on almost every aspect of every player's game. It includes full statistics of matches on Grand Slam tournaments (Aces, Double Faults, Unforced Errors, Fastest Serve, Total Points Won, etc.) and even a statistical prediction of forthcoming matches.

The Bad

A full scouting report wouldn't be a bad idea to include by real scouts. I wish that you could use the updater, but then no one would actually purchase the final product now would they? All I'd like to see is maybe a little cleaner interface. I know it's all numbers, but I still feel it's a bit jammed. No rollover ability might get you lost in what you're doing.

The Truth

If you're looking to gamble on tennis, this program is in no way going to hurt you. It will give you much needed statistical backing and will also allow you to see numbers, match-ups, and the bottom line, if you're serious about betting, this is a must have.

Check out the screenshots below.