Real tennis handicap tables to change for first time in 24 years
Global handicap cut to reduce singles handicaps by 1.1 points; doubles by 0.7 points
Four big changes will come to real tennis handicaps ahead of the 2026/27 season, marking the first changes to real tennis odds in 24 years, following an announcement from the International Handicap Sub-Committee (IHSC) on Tuesday. Changes will be made to singles and doubles handicap calculators, doubles familiar court advantage effective 1 August. Additionally, global singles handicaps will be cut by 1.1 points, and doubles handicaps by 0.7 points.
Singles odds calculator
The IHSC has analysed the quarter-million singles matches in the Real Tennis Online (RTO) database where the match was played off the true handicap difference between players. It found that, at odds worse than receive 15-owe 15, the receiving player is winning anywhere from 16 games out of 30 to 11 games out of 20 — depending on the exact odds at play. For cramped odds, where the owing player is playing one serve, banned tambour, the effect is even stronger, with the receiving player winning up to 6 in 10 games. For a system that purports to give every player an equal chance of winning, such a systemic bias to one side is clearly not acceptable.
The IHSC will therefore implement an update to the singles odds calculator for use in all handicap matches effective 1 August. For matches played between 0 and 10 handicap difference, the odds remain unchanged. As 90% of all matches are within this band, the vast majority of tennis played will be unaffected. Between 11 and 16, the odds will shift to be one band easier for the owing player, and from 17 to 35 the odds will shift to be two bands easier. However, as odds involving chase restrictions appear to be calibrated correctly, the receive 30-owe 15, banned chases worse than 3 and 4 band will be abolished, with all other chase restriction handicaps remaining unchanged. The doubles odds calculator remains mostly unchanged — except that a difference of 2 points will now be Love-Owe 1/4 15 instead of Love-Owe 1/2 15.
The full proposed table is shown below, and will be available in a PDF form from your national association.
Doubles handicap calculator
The IHSC has also investigated the calibration of the doubles handicap calculator — the lookup table that determines a combined handicap based on the pair’s individual handicaps. To do this, 40,000 matches with a handicap difference of zero were isolated. The analysis showed that pairs with a similar handicap to each other systematically defeat pairs with a big difference in handicap between the pair. As such, the IHSC will also amend the doubles handicap adjustment factors applicable from 1 August, as shown in the table below. The table will be available in PDF form from your national association.
Doubles familiar court advantage
The IHSC has found enough evidence to bring familiar court advantage to doubles handicaps, bringing it into alignment with singles handicaps. In singles play, a player on a familiar court will win 11 out of 20 games against a non-familiar opponent when playing the true handicap difference. Consequently, the handicap algorithm gives a 2-point deduction to any familiar court player’s handicap when computing handicap adjustments. For doubles play, a pair with two players on a familiar court will win 16 out of 30 games against a pair of unfamiliar players when playing the true handicap difference.
The doubles familiar court adjustment will work as follows: each player in a doubles pair will bring one point of familiar court advantage, regardless of actual handicap. So if two home players play two away players, there will be a 2-point adjustment in the handicaps. If two home players play against one home and one away player, the adjustment will be 1-point. All symmetric combinations will have no adjustment.
A player may earn familiar court advantage for doubles in the same way as singles. A player will always have familiar court on any court connected to their primary organisation, or will achieve it should they play at least 5 matches on any court in the preceding 23 months. Singles matches will not count towards doubles familiar court and vice versa. Players who have Category 1 status will have familiar court applied to all matches for that handicap.
Global handicap cut
Following the 2.5 handicap point cut to singles handicap in 2025, 2026 will see all active singles handicaps reduced by a further 1.1 points. Doubles handicaps will be reduced by 0.7 points. Both reductions will be applied on 1 August. The reduction is calculated to readjust the median player’s handicap to 55.0 — the standard being determined by the first season after the COVID-19 break. As new players start the game their early improvement will result in established players’ handicaps increasing.
The 1.1-point cut is well above the long-term average. The primary driver for this is that new players are being assigned initial handicaps on average 7 points higher than they were even 5 years ago, and 2 points higher than the 2024/25 season even despite the last cut. The effect is particularly strong in America, which accounts for 5 of the top 7 clubs for increased initial handicaps.
Real Tennis Online updates
1 August will also see the full deployment of the new version of RTO. Some pages have already been deployed in a trial fashion in the first half of the year. Users will enjoy an expanded statistical package, allowing them to track their performances across different courts, opponents and years. Clubs will be able to access an expanded membership dashboard and systems making it easier to manage their membership register. The new RTO Booking system will then follow with much-improved finance integration, with a new all-encompassing tournament management suite thereafter.
Health of the game
The end of the season also gives an opportunity to appraise the global health of the game, based on recorded RTO results across the season. Overall, the news is positive, with the 2025/26 season set to record the largest number of active players globally recording matches for any season this century, with over 4,800 players recording a result since August 2025 including 550 women.
The number of matches recorded is set to be the highest in a decade — albeit below the high watermark set in 2010. The biggest change has been the opening of the new court in Sydney, recording its first full year of data. However, Newmarket and Newport have impressed, each recording 50% more matches year-on-year. Oxford, Melbourne, Queen’s, Wellington, Manchester, Lord’s and Leamington also saw double-digit percentage increases, while decreases were generally seen at clubs that have had turnover in their professional roster in the last 12 months.
The outstanding area of concern is the general aging of the real tennis player base, with the median age of active players now 53 — up from 47 in 2005. Under-25 participation is a real concern, having fallen from its 2015/16 peak at 16.1% of active players to an all-time low of 11.3%. The decline is consistent across countries, and should be a key focus for all clubs and administrators over the coming years.
Ben, is there any change in doubles handicapping from the idea that the system assumes the lesser player in a pair always plays up? In friendly matches where everyone wants to hit balls, that is not necessarily what people want to do.
Thanks Ben and your colleagues on the handicap committee for this fantastic data analysis work and then working thru the appropriate update policy.
As someone who's played a lot the last decade, interesting to see that the data bears out - at least partially - what players anecdotally often say over a post-match drink ;)
It occurs to me the large handicap diff matches add a big element of psychological pressure on the lower h'cap player to avoid almost all unforced errors … somewhat akin to when taking penalty kicks in soccer ;)
This analysis over a large set of results is a way to quantify & readjust handicaps to take into account the real but otherwise hard-to-quantify aspects like this.