Understanding Handicap Wagering?

Latest update on 10 November, 2022

In sports, it's common for teams of varying abilities to compete against each other, even within the same league. This results in low odds for the favored team to win, making betting on the favorite's victory less appealing. Conversely, the odds for the underdog's win are much higher, indicating a lower likelihood of success, thus making betting on the underdog riskier. To address this, bookmakers provide Handicap wagers, which add interest to such matches by creating an artificial advantage or disadvantage for one of the teams, balancing the odds even when the teams have unequal strengths.

Bookmakers account for the disparity in team strengths, so for a match between a clear favorite, such as a league leader, and an underdog, such as a team struggling to avoid relegation, they will offer very low odds for the favorite's victory (around 1.3 or less), which can drop to as low as 1.01 if the difference in strength is significant. This means betting 100 euros would only return 1 euro if the bet is successful.

In these scenarios, it is possible to make the game more challenging for the favorite by giving them a deliberate disadvantage or to make it easier for the underdog by giving them a deliberate advantage.

Consider this example: Zenit and Tambov face off in the Russian Premier League. The odds for Zenit's win are 1.05, showing they are the clear favorite. A bettor, confident in Tambov's defeat, places a bet on "Zenit to win with a Handicap of (-3.5)" at odds of 2.1. This means St. Petersburg's team starts the game with a -3.5:0 score (a disadvantage). The match ends with a score of 5-1 in favor of Zenit. To calculate the bet, we subtract 3.5 from Zenit's total of 5 goals, resulting in a 1.5-1 outcome, still in favor of Zenit, thus winning the bet. Although such scores are not possible in real games, bookmakers accept these outcomes for handicap bets.

The key principle in handicap wagering

There are two crucial aspects you need to grasp to fully comprehend handicap bets: the minus and plus signs. A negative handicap, signified by a minus sign (-), shows the final advantage that the team must have for the bet to succeed. A positive handicap, marked by a plus sign (+), indicates that the team should not lose by more than the specified margin by the end of the match. This margin can differ depending on the sport – in football, a one-goal difference is common, while in hockey, games often conclude with a 2-3 goal difference, and in basketball, a 6-8 point difference is not unusual even between evenly matched teams.

Consider a hypothetical game between Chelsea and Sunderland in the top tier of English football. Here are some options that a fan or a betting enthusiast might find intriguing:

“Chelsea’s win with Handicap (-0.5)” – any Chelsea victory suffices, but if the game ends in a draw, the bet is lost;
“Chelsea’s win with Handicap (-1.5)” – any Chelsea win with a two-goal or more margin (3-1, 2-0, etc.) is acceptable;
“Chelsea’s win with Handicap (-2.5)” – any Chelsea win with a three-goal or more margin (4-1, 5-2, etc.) is acceptable.

As previously mentioned, a negative handicap means you subtract its value from the total goals scored by the team you bet on. If the final result is still a win for the team, then the bet is successful.

Now, let’s explore the positive handicap options, where the underdog – Sunderland – has an advantage.
“Sunderland’s victory with Handicap (+0.5)” – a draw wins the bet (1-1, 3-3, etc.), but even a minimal defeat loses the bet;
“Sunderland’s victory with Handicap (+1.5)” – any one-goal defeat (0-1, 3-4) means the bet wins;
“Sunderland’s victory with Handicap (+2.5)” – any defeat by no more than two goals (2-4, 0-2) means the bet wins.

Thus, with a positive handicap, you simply add the value to the number of goals scored by the underdog, and if the final score favors this team, the bet is successful.