What Is Handicap Betting in Football? Your Complete Guide…

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Handicap betting is fast becoming a key market in football betting, and it’s no real surprise. But what is a handicap bet in football and how do you place the bets?

With the likes of Manchester City, Barcelona and PSG dominating their respective leagues, not to mention the rest of Europe’s elite, getting decent odds on them is relatively hard to come by.

Handicap betting will help boost the odds on the big teams and give you bigger payouts. And who doesn’t want them?

But what is Handicap betting and how should you bet on the market? Here’s everything you need to know…

 

What Is Handicap Betting?

Handicap betting is relatively easy to understand and essentially what the market does is give a team a head start.

What that means is the outcome of your bet will take that handicap into account.

The handicap will generally be bracketed by the side of the team and the number represented the number of goals head start has on the other.

Here’s an example:

Southampton (+2.0) 1/3

Handicap Draw (+2.0) 4/1

Liverpool (-2.0) 5/1

In this instance the bookmaker would be giving Southampton a two goal head start, with Liverpool now 5/1 to win taking that into account.

Without that handicap Liverpool would be 8/11 for this match so you can see how the value can change, boosting your chances of a payout.

Of course, in this case, where Southampton have a 2-0 headstart, Liverpool would have to win the game by three goals for your bet to come through.

If you were to bet on the draw, Liverpool would have to win by two clear goals and if you were to back Southampton they would simply have to avoid defeat by two clear goals.

Read More: See our handicap betting tips and predictions.

 

What Is an Asian Handicap?

An Asian Handicap essentially eliminates the draw. The same rules apply as above but the head starts will include a 0.5. This means you can either back a win for either side. Taking Southampton and Liverpool again, you’d be more likely to see the following odds:

Southampton (+2.5) 1/3

Liverpool (-2.5) 5/1

This would again mean Liverpool would have to win by three clear goals for that bet to payout, while Southampton would have to lose by two goals or less (or draw or win) for the Southampton bet to come through.

It really is that simple. You’ll find better odds in the handicap market and if you’re confident of an outcome, they’re well worth backing.

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