Handicap Betting Explained in 2021
For sports bettors in South Africa, handicap betting is a great way for you to make it more attractive to bet on heavily mismatched fixtures. If there is a strong favorite, usually the short odds will not be very good for making a bet. However, placing a handicap on the strong favorite in a rugby game for example makes the odds a lot more attractive. This guide looks at everything to do with using handicap betting in your overall strategy and what exactly the given handicap means.
How does Handicap Betting work?
Handicap betting is one of the most common types of betting that you will ever come across. The idea is pretty simple, there is a handicap being applied to the favorite in a given sporting event, making the odds a lot more attractive to what they previously were. handicap betting can apply to many different markets, but usually, you will see it for match winner bets.
In a rugby match, for example, the favorite might have a handicap of -6.5 points to win the game. This means that the favorite needs to win by 7 points in order to cover the handicap betting match winner wager.
How do I place & win Handicap Betting?
The process of handicap betting is very simple and easy to understand, You simply find a handicap market that looks attractive and place your bet. This type of bet has been developed over time and you are able to use it to your advantage and to set yourself up for long term success. Here are a few key steps to follow:
- Step 1: Find an opportunity: There are plenty of handicap betting opportunities out there for you. If you believe that a certain team is going to win a game by a certain amount or lose a game by a certain amount, you can look for a handicap betting opportunity. Oftentimes, the same event will have multiple different handicap betting options.
- Step 2: Create an account: Before placing your bet, you will need to open a sports betting account if you have not already done so. This is a pretty simple process, taking only a few minutes to complete before you are ready to start betting.
- Step 3: Place the bet: As soon as you have found the event you want to bet on and decided on the optimal handicap, you can then add this selection to your betslip and decide the size of your bet.
What sports offer Handicap Betting?
The majority of sports will have some form of handicap betting on offer. The art of handicapping is a key part of some sports themselves, with horses often carrying weight handicaps during the course of the race to level the playing field. This adds to the overall excitement of the race. Here are the most popular sports for handicap betting:
- Rugby: As rugby is a sport that can see scores quickly change, there is plenty of opportunity for handicap betting. Rather than just sticking to a match winner bet, you can enhance your odds if you take part in handicap betting. For example, you may think that South Africa will beat Australia by more than 7 points in a fixture and place a bet on the handicap at better odds than just betting on South Africa to win the game.
- Soccer: Applying a handicap on soccer games is also very popular. This allows you to competitively bet on mismatched games. If a giant of soccer is playing a minnow, usually there is not much point in betting on the match winner market. However, if you add a handicap of a few goals to the favorite then matters become a lot more interesting.
Examples for Handicap Betting?
For this example, we are looking at a rugby match between South Africa and Italy. In the match-winner betting, South Africa is the strong favorite to be victorious.
Winning example of Handicap Betting?
If you think that South Africa is going to win the game against Italy by more than 29 points, then you will back the South Africa -29.5 points market at 1.1 odds. If you place R100 on this outcome and South Africa win the game 65-12, then you will win a profit of R110.
Losing Example of Handicap Betting?
If you back South Africa to win by at least 29.5 points and the game finishes 30-19 to South Africa, this means that your bet did not cover the spread and is a loser.
Is Handicap Betting a Good Bet?
You cannot go wrong with using handicap betting as part of your overall strategy. There are countless advantages to using this betting type. It is not a niche type of bet that you might use every once and a while, but a core part of any sports bettors strategy.
5 Tips for your next bets
If you are looking to begin using handicap betting as part of your strategy, you may not know where to start. Here are a few key tips to help you with this process:
- Tip 1: Do your homework: To find potential handicap betting opportunities, you need to do some research. This includes looking at given matchups in a historical sense, as well as the current form of teams. You should pay close attention to winning margins and use this info to guide your betting.
- Tip 2: Don't’ bite off more than you can chew: Most operators will allow you to apply different levels of handicaps in a given game. With a soccer game, for example, you often have the choice to add a handicap of one goal, two goals, three goals, and so on. Naturally, the greater the goals, the greater the odds. However, you should not get too greedy with your bets and stick to a sensible handicap.
- Tip 3: Test different approaches: As handicap betting has a lot of nuances, you may need some trial and error in order to perfect the use of it. This means trying out different strategies across different sports to see what works the best for you.
- Tip 4: Get expert advice: There are many betting experts out there who issue advice about handicap betting. One of those is Billy’s List, a service that you can sign up for free and sends expert handicap betting tips to your inbox.
- Tip 5: Find value: A lot of people are put off by betting on mismatched fixtures. However, they forget to consider handicap betting and they can leave a lot of betting value on the table. You can use this to your advantage to get the best bang for your buck with these markets.
Which betting site is the best to bet on?
Although handicap betting is an advanced wagering type, tips, and tricks from this guide will help you improve your betting experience. It's time to head straight to bet.co.za and start implementing these strategies into real-money betting. Put some money into your account, and dive into the bet.co.za offer. Select your favorite sporting events, and place handicap bets now! Don't miss the opportunity to start making long-term profits!
Free bets come in many different forms. They each will have their own distinct terms and conditions associated with them that can change from operator to operator and promotion to promotion. Some free bet offers will not allow you to place wagers on certain bet types, while others will allow you to partake in handicap betting.
In-play betting is very popular among sports bettors. This allows you to place bets on a fixture that has already started, allowing you to take advantage of any opportunities that you spot. Not every sport will offer handicap betting markets after the fixture has started, but in certain circumstances, this will still be an option.
Most online sportsbooks today allow people to place bets through their mobile devices. This is ideal as you can bet on the go. For the most part, the same betting markets will be available through mobile as what you would see through the desktop platform, which includes the options to make handicap bets.
The majority of sports will have handicap betting in some shape or form. Even horse racing and golf have a sort of handicap betting in place as you can bet without the favorites involved in the odds. However, for the most part, the types of sports where there aren’t just two competitors usually won’t have a distinct handicap betting option.
