Handicap Football Betting Markets Explained: -1, -2, -3, -4

Handicap betting explained

To explain handicap betting it is going to be best to give a simple example. If we look at a real example of a game being played soon (at the time of writing. In this example we will use what is known as the European Handicap system:

In this example, you can see that Liverpool are heavy favourites, and only 1.09 to win the game. You can see that as the amount of the handicap increases so do the odds on the bet. If you think they will win by two goals or more rather than betting on them to win at 1.09 you could bet on them with a -1 handicap, because a 2-0 result will still win, as will any other result where they win by 2 goals or more. If you think they will absolutely thrash Southampton you would bet on the -4 handicap and get odds of 4.75, but not for that bet to win Liverpool must win by 5 clear goals, so 5-0 would win, as would 6-1, or 7-2 etc.

You can see the inverse happens to the Southampton odds which is logical, they can afford to lose and as long as it is by less than the handicap your bet on them will win. In the +1 handicap bet you will win that bet on Southampton if either Southampton win or the game ends as a draw, because whatever the actual result you +1 to it.

The odds of it being a “draw” in this market is actually a bet on exactly how many goals will a team win by. If you get the winning margin exactly right, then your bet wins, because that was the result after the handicap amount is added to the result.

Asian Handicap vs European Handicap betting

There are two types of handicap betting which are commonly called “Asian Handicaps” and “European Handicaps” but the reasons why are not certain, both types of bet can placed and accepted in both areas, and both types of bet are most popular in the US anyway!

The main difference between them is that with an Asian Handicap it is possible for the bet to “push”, that is you get your stake back whereas with a European Handicap bet you either win or lose and that is it. Asian Handicaps do not have to have the option to push, it is possible to just win or lose. Asian Handicaps can also become more complex, with results such as half your bet winning and half being returned.

As an example if you are betting with a +2 handicap then the different handicaps have the following outcomes:

Asian Handicap betting examples

Asian handicaps often simply have a two option bet that will either win or lose, and to do this they add 0.5 goals to the spread. This eliminates the possibility of it being a draw after the handicap is applied.

For example if the handicap is just -0.5 then when you get on the favourite team that is identical to a bet on them to win, there is no difference. Since a bet on them to win will involve them scoring at least one more goal than their opponents, if you remove 0.5 from the score they will always still be at least 0.5 goals ahead.

On the other hand a bet on a team with a +0.5 handicap becomes a bet on them to win OR to draw. If they win the game naturally then after the handicap they just won the game still but by a little bit more. It becomes interesting when the game’s natural score is a draw, because after the handicap is applied it is not a draw, now that the team won by 0.5 goals.

It is a bit beyond the remit of this article but there are a huge number of Asian Handicap betting options including 0, which is the same as Draw No Bet, and you can have split handicaps such as +1 / + 1.5 where some of your bet is settled as one result and the other potentially differently. You can end up having some of your bet win or lose and some of it returned as a push for example. We have detailed explanations of all the Asian handicap markets in our betting school here.

Handicap betting tips and advice

• If you are going to bet on a team to win check the -0.5 handicap market because it is the same thing but may be higher odds.
• Use handicap bets to increase the odds on teams you expect to win comfortably. It is also useful to consider them in certain situations where a team “must” win by two goals or more to qualify in a tournament or similar, in this case there may be value in backing a large win rather than just a win.
• Compare the odds between Asian and European Handicaps before deciding which to use, remembering that they will settle differently for certain results.

Conclusion

Handicaps can be a useful tool in increasing the returns on your win bets, and also can be used to place strategic bets on teams that you think will play well and although ultimately lose, it will be a close fought game and they won’t lose by much. Comparing the handicap odds to other bet markets is always advised because sometimes you will be betting on exactly the same thing, and it would make sense to choose the one that offers the best odds for that. Asian Handicaps can be quite complex and hard to get your head around to start, so definitely start slowly and also use some of our Asian Handicap calculators in the betting school to help you.