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What Does European Handicap +3/-3 Mean?
The Handicap market is one of the most popular ways to bet on a variety of sports. There are many reasons why bettors flock to the Handicap market - they can often provide greater value than a standard Match Winner bet and can help ‘even up’ the teams or players taking part in that particular event.
Handicap betting is split into two main variations - the European Handicap and the Asian Handicap. In this guide, we’ll examine both types of market. Particularly, though, we’re going to focus on the former and, specifically, the European Handicap +3/-3 variation.
In addition to the above, we’ll look at when betting on the EH +3/-3 market can be beneficial for your betting and the variety of sports and events you can find this market for.
What is Handicap Betting in sports?
Before we analyse what a European Handicap +3/-3 bet means, let’s look at Handicap betting in general. A Handicap bet gives a player or team a hypothetical edge or disadvantage to either increase the odds and therefore provide better value or to ‘equal’ the chances of winning for both players/teams.
As we’ve touched upon, there are two main variations of the Handicap market - European and Asian. There are slight differences between the two. The former tends to be easier for bettors to understand, especially for those new to betting, whereas the Asian Handicap market can be more complicated and requires greater understanding. European Handicaps allow you to bet on a draw after the handicap, whereas for an AH bet there are usually just two outcomes after the handicap (or your stake is returned)
Another difference is that European Handicap bets use whole numbers, like +1, +2, +3, with Asian Handicap markets using whole and also using half and quarter numbers, such as +1.25, +2.5, +3.75.
You’re likely to find both types of Handicap betting options at the majority of online bookmakers.
A Handicap bet can lengthen the odds on a particular event occurring, which of course is especially useful on events that are priced incredibly short. They’re often used when there is a huge difference in odds between two opponents. Let’s look at an example. Barcelona are at home to Osasuna in Spain’s La Liga. Barcelona are priced at 1.28 to win the game, the draw has odds of 5.90 and the Osasuna win 8.50. We want to bet on the Barcelona win, but odds of 1.28 don’t offer any particular value.
So instead we look to the Handicap market. If we give Barcelona a 2 goal disadvantage, in other words they have a hypothetical deficit at the start of the match of 2 goals, this lengthens the odds to 2.70, which are more appealing.
If we expect Barcelona to win extremely comfortably, we might use the +4/-4 market. If we give Barcelona a four-goal deficit, the odds increase to 8.50. Of course, stretching the Handicap to this number comes with much greater risk and should be considered very carefully.
We could also give Osasuna a hypothetical advantage. We might decide to bet on Osasuna +2, which means they start with a hypothetical two goal lead. For our bet to be successful, we will need Osasuna to not get beat by more than two goals.
Let’s take a look at another sport, this time we’ll use tennis as our example. Matteo Berrettini is playing Zizou Bergs in the ATP Tour in Miami. The odds on Berrettini to win are 1.40. Let’s say we think the Italian will win the match quite comfortably. To increase the odds, we might look at the Games Handicap market of -4. This increases the odds on a Berrettini win to 2.90 - our bet will be successful as long as he wins by more than four games.
What does European Handicap +3/-3 mean?
We’ve looked at different types of European Handicap bets. Now, let’s focus our attention on the +3/-3 market. To illustrate how this market works, we’ll return to our Barcelona vs Osasuna example.
As we’ve seen, odds on the Barcelona victory are 1.78, which doesn’t present much value. If we believe that Barcelona will win the match comfortably, giving them a hypothetical -3 handicap, albeit quite a large handicap, might be a better option for us.
Giving Barcelona this handicap increases the odds to 4.75. For our bet to win, we will need the home side to win by four or more goals.
Similarly, we could give Osasuna a +3 advantage. Our bet will win if Osasuna don’t lose by more than three goals.
If Barcelona wins by exactly 3 goals then the bet on the Handicap to Draw would now win.
What sports is the European Handicap market useful for?
The European Handicap market can be used when betting on a variety of sports. In this guide, we’ve used football and tennis to illustrate our examples, but there are many more sports and events a Handicap bet could be beneficial.
For instance, Handicap betting is particularly common in basketball, rugby, handball, ice hockey and volleyball betting.
When should you utilise the European Handicap market? There are a few scenarios where a Handicap bet might be a good choice. For one, if you’re looking to bet on a match which features a heavy favourite, a Handicap bet might be worth considering as a way to add value and/or to even up the chances of the two featured teams or players.
Where to bet on European Handicaps
As it’s such a popular betting market, you’ll find European Handicap bets at pretty much every online bookmaker you’ll come across. When you’re looking for a new betting site, make sure they have the types of betting markets you want to bet on available.
There are other factors that you should consider when you’re looking to sign up to a new site. User experience, competitive odds, comprehensive live betting facilities, streaming and promotions can all signify a top quality bookmaker.
Talking of promotions, our top choices of European Handicap betting sites are listed below, along with details of their current new customer bonuses.
| Betting Site | Welcome Offer |
|---|---|
 | 100% Deposit Match |
 | 100% Deposit Match |
 | 100% Deposit Match |
 | 100% Deposit Match |
 | 100% Deposit Match |
