Handicap 0: meaning in sports betting

Handicap markets are incredibly popular in the world of sports betting. Very often, a Handicap bet can provide greater value than other markets, particularly the Match Winner or Full-Time Result markets.

Handicap betting is generally split into two main types - Asian Handicap and European Handicap. You will only find the 0 handicap in association with an Asian Handicap, the equivalent for European would be the market “Draw no bet” which is the same thing.

We are also going to go through exactly what Handicap betting is. We’ll take a look at a few different examples of the Handicap market, which sports are most likely to contain these markets and how the 0 Handicap works.

What is Handicap betting in sports?

Before we go into what exactly a zero Handicap bet is, let’s define what the Handicap market is. A Handicap bet gives a hypothetical advantage, or disadvantage, to a particular team or player. Most betting sites you’ll find offer both Asian and European Handicap markets.

Handicap betting can often provide greater value than a Match Result bet, which has led to this type of market becoming incredibly popular in the betting world. For example, Manchester City are playing Leicester City in the Premier League. The Match Winner odds on Manchester City to win are 1.18, which are incredibly short and provide little betting value. However, Handicap betting odds are much more attractive. Let’s give Man City a hypothetical disadvantage. In the Asian Handicap market, Man City -2.5, meaning they start with a hypothetical 2.5 goal disadvantage.

Similarly, it gives Leicester a hypothetical edge. The odds on the Leicester win are 12.50, which are huge odds but show how unlikely the bookmaker thinks they are of winning. A more sensible bet could be a Handicap bet. In the Asian Handicap market, Leicester +2.5 might be priced at 1.75, again meaning if they don’t lose by more than three goals, your bet will be a winner.

What does 0 Handicap mean?

Now we’ve taken a brief look at general Handicap betting, what does the zero Handicap market offer?

The major difference, and positive aspect, of a zero Handicap bet is that it returns the stake of the bettor in the case of a draw. With a 0 Handicap a draw in reality is also a draw after the handicap and your bet won’t make profit but it will return your stake, just like a Pushed Bet.

Let’s use another example, this time we’ll use the UEFA Champions League to describe our point. Bayern Munich are playing Inter Milan in the Champions League. We want to place a bet on Bayern Munich to win. With the zero Handicap market, there are three potential outcomes for our bet. Remember, with this market there isn’t a hypothetical advantage or disadvantage given to either team, we simply need our selection to win the match. So, the three potentialities are:

• Bayern win, meaning in turn we win our bet
• Bayern lose, meaning in turn we lose our bet
• The two sides draw, meaning you don’t win your bet but you do receive your stake back

The downside to this market, though, is that generally the odds are shorter than other Handicap variations. As there’s less chance of your bet actually losing (because you receive your stake back) most operators price this market less favourably than other Handicaps you’ll find.

When should I use the Handicap 0 market?

Handicap betting, as we’ve seen, can either give greater value than other markets, like the Match Result market we discussed earlier, or make a bet slightly easier to win. The zero Handicap bet could come in useful when the teams are more evenly matched and you do not think a team will lose, but can not rule out the other team playing for a draw, so at least here you would get your stake back if that happens.

Let’s look at another example.  Wolves are playing West Ham in the Premier League. The odds on this match are as follows:

As you can see in the table above, the match odds on all three potential outcomes of the match are pretty similar. As it would be more difficult to correctly predict the winner of a game like this, the zero Handicap market can help protect your stake in the event of a draw.

What Sports is the Handicap 0 market useful for?

You might have noticed we’ve used football for all of our examples in this guide. There’s a good reason for this. The zero Handicap market is especially useful in sports where a draw is potentially a likely occurrence.

Similarly, while a draw is technically possible in sports like ice hockey (again, generally an Overtime period is played to declare a winner) rugby and cricket, a tie is still unlikely, therefore a zero Handicap bet wouldn’t be particularly useful.

This is why most bettors use this market on football matches. They can bet on a team to win, but know if the game ends in a draw they’ll receive their stake back. Essentially, where three potential outcomes are possible, a zero Handicap market might be worth considering.

Where to bet on Handicap 0 markets

General Handicap betting is available at almost every online bookmaker you’ll come across. The zero Handicap market, however, is a little more difficult to find. As it’s only available on certain sports, and there’s often greater value elsewhere, many operators don’t offer this market.

Note that the language used to name this market might differ from site to site. For instance, in this guide we’ve referred to it as both Handicap 0 and Zero Handicap - either term can be used by bookmakers on their sites.

Our top choices of Handicap 0 operators, along with the odds margin they offered during our research and details of their current welcome bonus are below. The match we chose was a UK Premier League game between Arsenal FC and Fulham FC.

Betting Site	Fulham +0	Arsenal -0	Margin	Welcome Offer
	5.8	1.15	4.2%	100% Deposit Match
	1.12	5.5	7.47%	100% Deposit Match
	1.08	6.55	7.86%	100% Deposit Match
	1.08	6.55	7.86%	100% Deposit Match
	1.08	6.55	7.86%	100% Deposit Match