We report the analysis of time-series of infrared JHK _ { s } photometry of the dwarf nova V2051 Oph in quiescence .
We modelled the ellipsoidal variations caused by the distorted mass-donor star to infer its JHK _ { s } fluxes .
From its infrared colors we estimate a spectral type of M ( 8.0 \pm 1.5 ) and an equivalent blackbody temperature of T _ { \mathrm { BB } } = ( 2700 \pm 270 ) K .
We used the Barnes & Evans relation to infer a photometric parallax distance of d _ { \mathrm { BE } } = ( 102 \pm 16 ) pc to the binary .
At this short distance , the corresponding accretion disc temperatures in outburst are too low to be explained by the disc-instability model for dwarf nova outbursts , underscoring a previous suggestion that the outbursts of this binary are powered by mass-transfer bursts .