One of the primary objectives of any sports bettor is to increase the amount of money they win with every bet. Of course, anyone would love to have a 100% success rate, but we all know that’s not possible – even when playing 1,01 odds every day. If you take sports betting seriously, you should try to increase your average win as much as possible, and there are a few tried-and-tested ways to do this.

Handicap Betting Explained. Handicap betting, as noted above, is geared towards making the team favored to win a little less dominant in a head-to-head matchup. For example, take this into account. However, if you choose Galaxy to win and the game ends in a draw, you lose. If you choose Los Angeles FC to win, and the game ends in a draw. Draw no bet is one of the many types of betting schemes offered by online betting sites. It is one of the most popular betting styles. It has become ever popular in recent years, as it allows for more ways to win when wagering. If you want to know what the draw no bet is, this is the handicap draw explained, and the draw no bet explained. If you take the “United +1” bet here from the 3-Way Handicap slip, your bet will be a winner if the game ends in a draw or if the Red Devils win (essentially an X2 bet), since they do benefit from a one-goal advantage from the handicap. Handicap Bet Explained A handicap is a system of betting which basically tries to level the playing field in games that appear to be a bit one-sided. It’s a popular type of betting across a variety of sports, from football, rugby and NFL.

Simply put, the idea is the following: if you analyze a game well enough, chances are you can predict more complicated things that a simple winner or loser. If you are able to do so, then 3-Way Handicap betting might make the difference between average returns each month and big success.

Best Online Bookmakers For 3-Way Handicap Betting

Best 3-Way Handicap Betting Sites By Country

What Is 3-Way Handicap Betting And How Does It Work?

Thankfully, 3-Way Handicap is very easy to understand, especially if you are familiar with other types of handicap betting systems, like Asian Handicaps or European Handicaps. Three-way handicap bets are available in a wide variety of sports, but we’ll only focus on football today. Lots of betting sites from all over the world offer bettors 3-Way Handicap bets, alongside European and Asian handicap bets. There isn’t a significant difference between these three styles.

3-Way Handicap bets focus on the same three outcomes as outright bets: home team to win, draw, or away team to win. The difference between 3-Way Handicap bets and outright bets is that the game doesn’t start from the score of 0-0. One of the teams has a larger or smaller advantage or disadvantage, and have to take this into consideration for the final outcome of the bet. As always, it’s easier if we take a practical example.

3-Way Handicap Betting Example

Handicap Draw Betting Explained

Let’s assume that Middlesbrough prepare to host Manchester United, which is in good form and need a win, which could see them move into higher place. The outright odds of the game are the following: 6,25 for a home win, 3,90 for a draw and 1,65 for a Red Devil away win. Of course, the 3-Way Handicap options are much more attractive.

If we look at the 3-Way-Handicap section of the online bookmakers for this game, we see we have several scenarios: only one favourable for Man United, and several favourable for Middlesbrough. The one beneficial for the Red Devils is called “Game Starts 0:1” or Boro -1, Draw -1, United +1. In this case, the odds of an away win drop to 1,11, a draw is priced in at 7,50 and a home win at 15,00.

If you take the “United +1” bet here from the 3-Way Handicap slip, your bet will be a winner if the game ends in a draw or if the Red Devils win (essentially an X2 bet), since they do benefit from a one-goal advantage from the handicap. This is one of the ways to use 3-way handicap bets to search for “sure bets” – low odd bets, where the favourites just have to avoid losing.

Of course, the game offers some other great alternatives to use the 3-Way Handicap. If we look at the betting options, we see that we have lots of options where the home team is favoured: Game starts 1:0, 2:0 or even 4:0. These are all great ways to bet against favourites, especially if these favourites are teams which struggle to play well on the road – just like Man United have done this season.

Looking at their away form, they very rarely win by more than 1 goal away from home. Thus, if the game would start 2:0 and we would bet on the home team, even a narrow away win wouldn’t make us lose our bet. The odds of this scenario: 1,36 for Middlesbrough +2 handicap bet.

Such an advantage works in other ways as well. For example, an early United goal could force the home team to start attacking and opening their defence to counter-attacks – and we all know that Boro doesn’t have the best offence in the league. In such a case, United could score a few more goals, and even overturn the 2:0 deficit the bet has them to start with.

Handicap Draw Betting Explained Numbers

An away goal overturning the 2:0 star has odds of 5,50. Primarily, this bet could also be looked at as an Asian Handicap bet, Manchester United -2,5. 3-way handicap bet is, thus, just another way to make use of handicaps to win as much money per bet as possible.

Advantages Of 3-Way Handicap Bets

Handicap bets of any type actually open the doors for larger-odds betting. Just think of it: one well-placed handicap win could bring you odds of 4.00 or 5.00.

If you’re looking for smaller odds, you could need as many as 3 or 4 bets to obtain such odds, and we all know that adding games and predictions on the betting slip drastically reduce win chances.

Handicap betting can almost be seen as trading: your win rate, at the end of a period, could be just around 50%, but this could still bring you good profits if your average odds are over 2,00.

Summary And Recommendations

That being said, take a look at the 3-Way Handicap section before you place your next bet on the best football betting sites. Now that you understand how these bets work, you can easily find lots of options each weekend where a handicap bet could bring you quite some profits.

Usually, even favourites can have good odds to win away from home, and if we add even a -1 handicap , the odds become even greater. And teams like Liverpool, Man United, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern or Juventus have no problem putting a few goals past their opposition.

If this isn’t your cup of tea, look at it from a different perspective: how often do teams like Inter, Milan, Chelsea, Arsenal or Manchester City win by two or more goals away from home? Is their away form really that good to warrant bets on them? Or are you better of trying to anticipate a surprise?

These are all betting ideas where a 3-Way Handicap bet could be ideal. After a careful analysis, these types of bets can quickly improve your win rate, and also increase the size of your account with it.

Handicap betting, which can include line betting, Asian handicap, the spread, and points betting, is available across a wide range of sports and is sometimes more popular than typical match betting as it offers the punter a more competitive market to place a bet on. Bookmakers like Betfair and Paddy Power will give one of the selections a head start before the match has even begun. This means that the winner of the handicap market can sometimes produce a different result to the outright outcome.

It is very important to consider what you feel the exact result is going to be in a match or race before deciding which side of the handicap you want to back. For example, if Team A are the strong favourites to win a football match, their opponents, Team B, may receive a two-goal start. If you feel the contest is going to be close, you may want to take Team B at +2. With this selection, you will have a number of outcomes in your favour, Team B winning outright, the draw and Team A winning by just one goal. All other results will result in a losing bet.

Below you will find a look at some of the forms of handicap betting...

Handicap match betting

Betting Odds Explained

In handicap match betting there are three possible outcomes which you can bet on. Using Team A vs Team B as the example again, the selections are Team A, Draw and Team B. Here is how bookmakers like Betfair and Paddy Power will present the selections to you on their site using mythical odds:-

Team A (-2) 10/11

Tie 3/1

Team B (+2) 2/1

If the above match finishes with team A winning by exactly two goals, the handicap market will be a tie or draw. In order for you to win with Team A on the handicap, they will need to win by more than two goals, therefore, scorelines such as 3-0, 4-1 and 5-2 will all be in your favour. Team B with the two-goal start just requires your team not to lose by two or more goals. Using football statistics websites such as Infogol can help you to get as much of an understanding about a team as possible, before you conclude what bet is best.

Handicap markets enable you to get behind the underdog, at less risk

Just like any market, the odds on the handicap match betting will be set by the bookmaker but the prices may change depending on how much money is staked on one side of the market. Some bookmakers will even update their betting during the game. Do bear in mind, though, that the handicap terms may change in the live betting depending on the current score of the game.

For those who are who only interested in betting on the first half of a game, you may find a market which covers the first 45 minutes of a football match. The head start given to the outsider here tends to be minimal as there is not much time for the favourite to make up this ground in one half of a game.

No-draw handicap betting

If you are simply looking for a bet where there can be only two possible outcomes in a game, the no-draw handicap market will be for you. In order to eliminate a tie, bookmakers like Betfair and Paddy Power will use 0.5 in their handicap mark. For example, in a game where Team A are the favourites to defeat Team B, this is how they may offer betting on this market.

Team A (-2.5) 11/10

Team B (+2.5) 4/6

With the above example, if the scoreline finishes 3-0 in favour of Team A, then they would be the winning team in the handicap market. If the game ends 3-1 to Team A, Team B would win the handicap market as the revised score would be 3-3.5.

The no draw handicap market is also popular in the total points betting across a number of sports, in particular in rugby league and rugby union. The bookmaker will set a mark, for example, of 38.5, and you then decide if you want to bet under or over on this spread. If you backed over and it ends 30-10, you are a winner.

Handicap league betting

Many bookmakers offer handicap league betting at the start of a new season across a wide range of sports. Just like in handicap match betting, this is done to give every team an equal chance of winning in order to create a competitive betting market. In the handicap league betting, the favourite – Manchester City in the Premier League for example - will start off scratch and then the teams which are forecast to finish below them will receive a head start. Once the season is complete, the head start will be added to the league table and the winner will be the team with the most points. Here is an example with a 10 team league.

Team A (Scr)

Team B (+2)

Team C (+4)

Team D (+6)

Team E (+8)

Team F (+10)

Team G (+12)

Team H (+14)

Team I (+16)

Team J (+18)

All of the above will be the same price to win in the handicap market as, in theory, they should have an equal chance of finishing top. If you feel the bookmaker has underestimated a team’s chances though, you will want to back them in this market. If more than one team finishes on the same number of points, dead-heat rules apply.

Asian handicap betting

As the name suggests, this form of handicap betting gets its name from its popularity in Asia. Just like with the no-draw handicap market, there can be no tie on the Asian handicap, which is what makes it so appealing to many people.

In the Asian handicap, there are sometimes two numbers quoted. Team A may be -1 and -1.5. If Team A win by two goals or more, you will win on this selection. If Team A only wins by one goal though, you receive half of your stake back as your whole stake is split over the two bets. This form of handicap betting offers you an insurance as you are effectively betting on Team A -1.5 but if you fall short with the team winning by just one goal, you at least get half your stake back rather than losing all of it.