What is Handicap Betting?

Handicap betting is a form of levelling the playing field. This involves giving or laying points, goals, or an equivalent from each team to provide sports betting odds close to even for both participants.

When there is a clear favourite in sports like basketball, football, rugby, or American football, a handicap is a way for bettors to wager on a participant without having to take extremely long or short odds.

Understand the Handicap

It’s crucial you fully understand how a handicap works in betting before placing a wager. It’s simpler than it might look at first, but plenty of people need handicap betting explained due to the unusual notations.

Some handicaps might require a handicap calculator to help you. Feel free to make the most of the technology at your disposal, especially if you’re looking to construct a bet builder featuring a handicap wager.

Once you are familiar with reading the handicaps and you fully understand how they affect the odds in each market, as well as the relevant handicap betting rules, this form of betting could help increase those all-important winnings or limit the losses!

How does Handicap Betting Work?

A handicap bet, in general, is focused on ‘giving’ points or goals to the underdog. For instance, if Luton are facing Manchester City, City’s price to win the match will be very short. 

Bettors can choose to ‘give’ Luton one, two, three, or more goals. This is effectively a head start. 

If you backed Luton +1 (a one-goal headstart), City would need to win by two clear goals for the bet to lose. The other side of that bet would be City -1 – City winning by one goal would leave the bet as a push, while a two-, three-, or four-goal win would be a winner.

Similarly, in a rugby match where England are favourites to defeat Scotland, the handicap might see Scotland in receipt of seven points (expressed as Scotland +7 for a handicap betting example).

In this case, England by association could be backed at -7 in the same market.

Effectively, the odds are implying a seven-point differential between the teams. This is the margin by which the bookmaker’s odds are suggesting one team is superior to the other – in terms of their chance of winning.

If you placed a bet on Scotland +7 in the scenario above, and England actually win the game by 6 or fewer points, your bet is a winning one in the handicap market.

Most sports have handicap options. You can wager on a frame handicap in snooker, set, game or point handicaps in tennis, and there are an array of handicap markets in the major American sports, where this is the most popular form of gambling. 

888Sport has alternate handicap markets available, too. These are a good option if you cannot decide which side of the standard handicap to back. 

No Draw Bets

Football betting has become hugely popular. Nothing frustrates punters more than a last-minute goal denying their bet. 

As well as straightforward handicap betting, you can also consider handicapping options that remove the draw from the equation. In this handicap betting example, there are only two possible outcomes in a contest instead of three, with the draw no longer possible.

In a soccer match where Liverpool are favourites to beat Everton, the no draw handicap market might see Everton given a 0.5 goals head start. This means if you back Everton, and the game ends level, your bet wins on account of the virtual half goal assigned to them in this particular handicap market.

As with regular handicap markets, you can increase this handicap to +1.5 goals etc. if desired and the price will be reflected.

Similarly, if you were backing Liverpool as favourites in this example and you are extremely confident, you could handicap them by conceding a 1.5 goal start. This means that for your handicap bet to win, Liverpool must win the match by two clear goals. 

These larger handicaps can prove to be very effective when there is a heavy favourite or a team has a knack for winning or losing by large margins. 

Asian Handicap Betting

Asian handicap betting is a variation on the no draw handicap system. If you back a team to win on Asian handicap at -1.0, for example, your bet wins if the teams wins by two or more goals. If they win by 1, thus making your bet a draw, your stake is refunded.

With Asian handicapping you can choose split handicaps. You might elect to split your stakes on a selection at -2 and -2.5.

If the selection wins by 2, you lose half your stake (on the -2.5 line) while you get the second part of your stake back (on the -2 line). If the team wins by three or more goals, both lines are deemed winners.

Asian handicap betting can seem more complicated on a surface level, but it doesn’t take long to get used to. There are upsides to Asian handicap wagers once you understand the pros and cons. 

Handicap Betting FAQs

What Do The Handicap Numbers Mean?

Usually, you will see the following numbers when searching for handicap odds: +2, +1, 0, -1, -2 and sometimes +3 and -3.

Essentially, the underdog will be given the positive numbers while the favourite is given the negative – giving the underdog a virtual head start.

What Sports Are Best For Handicap Betting?

Handicap betting is popular in football but 888sport offer this wager type on most sports.

The art of handicap betting is integral if wagering on the NFL or NBA due to how often teams are heavily favoured for the final result. 

What Is 'No Draw' Handicap Betting?

With some handicap betting, you can get a ‘draw’ but this eliminates any chance of a drawn wager.

Traders will price the handicap line at .5 in order to prevent this from happening. This is increasing in popularity across a range of sports.

Handicap League Betting Explained

Handicap league betting allows punters to place a bet that spans the whole season.

For example, bookmakers now offer Premier League handicap odds at the beginning of the season, with the favourite to win the title starting with a handicap of 0.