Meaning Of Handicap In Soccer Betting

• Handicap Betting Meaning
• Meaning Of Handicap In Soccer Betting
• Meaning Of Handicap In Football Betting
• Handicap Betting Explained
• What Is Goal Handicap In Betting

In this bet a handicap is given to the team that is considered better than their opposition. It means that instead of just winning the match, they have to win by greater than the handicap in order to win in this market. By the stronger team having to score more goals, the weaker team in reverse is given an advantage to win in the match. Unlike the traditional 1X2 bet, it gives you an equal chance of winning by betting on a weaker team. A 3-way handicap betting is indeed advantageous in the sense that a player can win a bet by relying on the goal difference of a football match result.

A handicap is a system of betting which basically tries to level the playing field in games that appear to be a bit one-sided. It’s a popular type of betting across a variety of sports, from football, rugby and NFL.

What is a Handicap bet?

Why would a bookmaker set a handicap? If you are looking at a football match of Manchester United v Rotherham in the FA Cup, for example, you would assume the Red Devils would be very strong odds-on favourites to win the game. There would be little value in backing them to win outright.

However, if Manchester United were backed at a -1 handicap, that involves them winning the game still. In the handicap scenario of -1, United would be trailing by a virtual 0-1 scoreline at kick-off. That’s the condition that the handicap sets.

So think of a handicap as a virtual deficit for a favourite. The reverse of that is backing the underdogs at +1 which means in order for the bet to win, they would have to lose by no more than one goal.

How does a Handicap bet work?

A handicap bet will be presented with the team involved along with either a – (minus) or + (plus) numerical value next to it. For example Manchester United -1 handicap, but this number can actually be anything. A bookmaker will present plenty of different handicap options for a single game.

If United started the match in the virtual position of being 0-1 down at kick off, the minimum they would have to do to win the game from there is score two unanswered goals. In reality the score on the day would be United 2-0, with the handicap that’s a 2-1 win.

That means the -1 United handicap bet won. What happens if, in the example above if United were to win by a one-goal margin? Well if they had won 1-0, in accordance to the handicap the result would be 1-1. That causes the bet to not win because the handicap of -1 wasn’t covered.

You will see a wider variety of handicap margins in Rugby, because of the points scoring system in rugby matches. Here you will see something like a -6 handicap, requiring that backed team to win the match starting from a negative six points difference.

What is a 3-way and 2-way Handicap?

A 2-way handicap is backing a handicap selection in a match where the bookmaker has only options on either team winning. This ignores a draw as an outcome. However, if the result causes a draw with the handicap, the stake is refunded.

2-Way Handicap example

Gloucester 4/9 to win with a -6 point handicap

Harlequins 7/4 to win with a + 6 handicap

A 3-way handicap brings in that option of being able to back a draw as a handicap option. In the below example, the Draw is set at that +6 margin, which means that if Gloucester won 30-24, you add on the +6 handicap for Harlequins and the match is a draw. If you had backed the Handicap Draw, it would have won.

3-Way Handicap example

Gloucester are 4/9 to win with a -6 point handicap.

Harlequins are 7/4 to win with a +6 point advantage.

The draw is 22/1 +6 points.

Types of Handicap bets

The regular handicap is the one as described above, where you have the option of backing a team either to overcome a minus handicap or defend a positive handicap in a match to win the fixture.

Alternative handicaps add in half points in rugby matches, for example. So you may see Gloucester -7.5 handicap. That half point eliminates the possibility of a draw, so Gloucester would have to win by at least eight points for the bet to be successful.

You can also do a split handicap. This is when your stake can be split over two different handicap options, such 0 and -0.5 in one bet. It’s a useful option available on games where there isn’t much quality difference between the participating teams and could, therefore, be a close match. In this instance, if the game produced a draw, the 0 handicap part would be refunded, the -0.5 wasn’t covered so would be lost.

A level handicap is when the bookmaker can’t really see any noticeable difference in the quality of the two teams, so may offer both starting at a level 0 handicap. So basically then it’s a matter of picking the winning team. This is essentially the same as Draw No bet as if the game is drawn, the stake is refunded.

Winning example of a Handicap bet in football

Going back to our FA Cup example of Manchester United v Rotherham, here are some handicap options.

In the match outright, Manchester United are 8/13 odds-on favourites, the draw at 3/1 and Rotherham at 21/4. So take a look at the handicap options:

The full list of handicap options would be a lot bigger. But you can see how the odds shift to be more favourable in backing United. As a punter you expect Man Utd to win, but that 8/13 outright winner odds does not have great appeal. Backing the same scenario of still expecting Manchester United to win, but by at least a two-goal margin, a Man Utd -1 handicap is better value at 7/5.

Note that the scoreline in the game doesn’t matter. It could be 6-2 to Man Utd, or 2-0 or 3-1, as long as their margin of victory was by at least two goals, the handicap bet of -1 would win.

Losing example of a Handicap bet in rugby

A top rugby Premiership clash between Saracens and Exeter would present punters with a tough call in such a tight game. Exeter are away from home but they are top of the league and have great form behind them. But Saracens are a formidable team on home soil.

After weighing up the options you think that Exeter could easily defend a +6 point handicap for 10/11 odds. That means that Exeter could lose the match and your bet would still win, as long as they didn’t lose by a margin of more than six points.

For example if they lost 21-19 on the pitch, add on their six points from the handicap and they are the match winners.

In the game however, Exeter give a good account of themselves, but in the end, they are no match for the power of Saracens. Saracens outscore Exeter 21-12 in the game, a difference in favour of Saracens of nine points.

If you added the virtual +6 points awarded to Exeter through the handicap to their physical score in the match of 12, 12+6 = 18 which is three points short of them avoiding defeat. The handicap result would be 21-18 in favour of Saracens.

Handicap betting strategy

Focusing on football betting, you will be able to track how well a team is covering handicaps throughout the course of season. For example, you could study Liverpool’s home form and determine how often they are beating teams from the bottom half of the table by more than a one-goal margin.

Next time Liverpool are at home against a lower ranked team, it could be worth pushing the handicap margin on the Reds.

How to place a Handicap bet on bet365?

There are different ways to look at rugby handicap betting at bet365. If you visit their rugby section you will see under the Main menu, key markets for things like Game betting 3-way, Alternative Handicap 2-Way and Alternative Handicap 3-Way.

For example, if you click Game Betting 3-way, this will bring up a list of the main handicap options for upcoming games from different leagues. That means it’s easy to grab a few different handicap options from a variety of games.

If you want to focus on one game and its handicap options, browse to an individual game. You will see a grid of options for the handicap and the respective odds.

One of the primary objectives of any sports bettor is to increase the amount of money they win with every bet. Of course, anyone would love to have a 100% success rate, but we all know that’s not possible – even when playing 1,01 odds every day. If you take sports betting seriously, you should try to increase your average win as much as possible, and there are a few tried-and-tested ways to do this.

Simply put, the idea is the following: if you analyze a game well enough, chances are you can predict more complicated things that a simple winner or loser. If you are able to do so, then 3-Way Handicap betting might make the difference between average returns each month and big success.

Best Online Bookmakers For 3-Way Handicap Betting

Handicap Betting Meaning

Best 3-Way Handicap Betting Sites By Country

What Is 3-Way Handicap Betting And How Does It Work?

Thankfully, 3-Way Handicap is very easy to understand, especially if you are familiar with other types of handicap betting systems, like Asian Handicaps or European Handicaps. Three-way handicap bets are available in a wide variety of sports, but we’ll only focus on football today. Lots of betting sites from all over the world offer bettors 3-Way Handicap bets, alongside European and Asian handicap bets. There isn’t a significant difference between these three styles.

Meaning Of Handicap In Soccer Betting

3-Way Handicap bets focus on the same three outcomes as outright bets: home team to win, draw, or away team to win. The difference between 3-Way Handicap bets and outright bets is that the game doesn’t start from the score of 0-0. One of the teams has a larger or smaller advantage or disadvantage, and have to take this into consideration for the final outcome of the bet. As always, it’s easier if we take a practical example.

3-Way Handicap Betting Example

Let’s assume that Middlesbrough prepare to host Manchester United, which is in good form and need a win, which could see them move into higher place. The outright odds of the game are the following: 6,25 for a home win, 3,90 for a draw and 1,65 for a Red Devil away win. Of course, the 3-Way Handicap options are much more attractive.

If we look at the 3-Way-Handicap section of the online bookmakers for this game, we see we have several scenarios: only one favourable for Man United, and several favourable for Middlesbrough. The one beneficial for the Red Devils is called “Game Starts 0:1” or Boro -1, Draw -1, United +1. In this case, the odds of an away win drop to 1,11, a draw is priced in at 7,50 and a home win at 15,00.

If you take the “United +1” bet here from the 3-Way Handicap slip, your bet will be a winner if the game ends in a draw or if the Red Devils win (essentially an X2 bet), since they do benefit from a one-goal advantage from the handicap. This is one of the ways to use 3-way handicap bets to search for “sure bets” – low odd bets, where the favourites just have to avoid losing.

Of course, the game offers some other great alternatives to use the 3-Way Handicap. If we look at the betting options, we see that we have lots of options where the home team is favoured: Game starts 1:0, 2:0 or even 4:0. These are all great ways to bet against favourites, especially if these favourites are teams which struggle to play well on the road – just like Man United have done this season.

Looking at their away form, they very rarely win by more than 1 goal away from home. Thus, if the game would start 2:0 and we would bet on the home team, even a narrow away win wouldn’t make us lose our bet. The odds of this scenario: 1,36 for Middlesbrough +2 handicap bet.

Such an advantage works in other ways as well. For example, an early United goal could force the home team to start attacking and opening their defence to counter-attacks – and we all know that Boro doesn’t have the best offence in the league. In such a case, United could score a few more goals, and even overturn the 2:0 deficit the bet has them to start with.

An away goal overturning the 2:0 star has odds of 5,50. Primarily, this bet could also be looked at as an Asian Handicap bet, Manchester United -2,5. 3-way handicap bet is, thus, just another way to make use of handicaps to win as much money per bet as possible.

Advantages Of 3-Way Handicap Bets

Meaning Of Handicap In Football Betting

Handicap bets of any type actually open the doors for larger-odds betting. Just think of it: one well-placed handicap win could bring you odds of 4.00 or 5.00.

Handicap Betting Explained

If you’re looking for smaller odds, you could need as many as 3 or 4 bets to obtain such odds, and we all know that adding games and predictions on the betting slip drastically reduce win chances.

Handicap betting can almost be seen as trading: your win rate, at the end of a period, could be just around 50%, but this could still bring you good profits if your average odds are over 2,00.

Summary And Recommendations

That being said, take a look at the 3-Way Handicap section before you place your next bet on the best football betting sites. Now that you understand how these bets work, you can easily find lots of options each weekend where a handicap bet could bring you quite some profits.

Usually, even favourites can have good odds to win away from home, and if we add even a -1 handicap , the odds become even greater. And teams like Liverpool, Man United, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern or Juventus have no problem putting a few goals past their opposition.

What Is Goal Handicap In Betting

If this isn’t your cup of tea, look at it from a different perspective: how often do teams like Inter, Milan, Chelsea, Arsenal or Manchester City win by two or more goals away from home? Is their away form really that good to warrant bets on them? Or are you better of trying to anticipate a surprise?

These are all betting ideas where a 3-Way Handicap bet could be ideal. After a careful analysis, these types of bets can quickly improve your win rate, and also increase the size of your account with it.