In sports, there have been plenty of moments where uneven matches resulted in lopsided contests. These occurrences have become more common in the modern days, especially in football, where the gap between big clubs and smaller, provincial clubs grows bigger. There are also moments in league cups, for example, where top-flight clubs face off against a club from one or two divisions below.
Pick an example from the round of 32 of Spanish Copa del Rey in the 2020/2021 season, where FC Barcelona clashed against UE Cornellà from Primera División RFEF (two divisions below the top-tier, La Liga). The result is highly predictable—Barcelona’s second team trashed Cornellà with a final score of 2-0. With a match like this, predicting the winner is an easy task; therefore, placing the bet is pretty straightforward. To make a fixture like this more enticing, sports bookmakers have come up with handicap betting, in which current iterations include 2-way handicap and 3-way handicap betting.
Handicap Betting
Handicap betting has become one of the most popular markets in sports betting, where it initially emerged. It has gained more massive popularity among football punters, especially. Most of the time, handicap betting promotes positive impacts for leveling up the playing field.
Normally, sports bookmakers give stronger and favorite teams the “handicap.” By doing so, the bookmakers have given them a disadvantage on paper. Meanwhile, the less favorite team or, usually, the underdog gets a head start, at least in the betting field. This kind of betting provides an extra layer of difficulty for those who love challenges. Consequently, selecting the team to place your bet on will be a little trickier than usual.
Choosing a team that will win is not the main concern anymore. Punters need to weigh in some other factors that contribute to the betting condition as well. Winning the game is not the only thing to determine whether a punter wins the bet or not. The team has to score by certain margins set upfront by the bookmakers to give the punters’ wager the profit they aim for. If a punter places the bet on the underdog, they can still profit if the preferred team wins, or loses by a predetermined margin.
Currently, there are two types of widely known handicap bets. The first one is known as a 2-way handicap or Asian handicap betting. It is a very popular betting type in Asia. In this type, the bookmakers eliminate the possibility for a draw. The bet is placed on the final results, yet, handicaps are given to the teams before the match. The other one is called a 3-way handicap or European handicap betting.
3-Way Handicap Betting
It is also known as the European handicap for its popularity in European countries. This type of betting offers an enhanced challenge to the traditional 1X2 market. Unlike Asian handicap betting, this one allows punters to place a bet on the draw result. It gives the punter more options to make a profit in doing sports betting.
You have the option to place a bet on the stronger team, which has been handicapped by a predetermined goal disadvantage. Otherwise, you can pick the smaller team, which has been given a particular goal advantage. Alternatively, you can also opt to stick with the draw, which sometimes gets affected by certain handicaps as well.
See the example below for a clearer look at how 3-way handicap betting works.
Juventus (-2): 1.5 – Draw (-2): 3.5 – SPAL (+2): 3.9
It is an example from the 2020-2021 Coppa Italia quarter-final where former Serie A champion, Juventus, clashed against a Serie B team, SPAL. In this match, Juventus is considered the more superior side; therefore, they have been allotted a -2 handicap. If you are keen to make a profit by placing your bet on Juventus, they have to win this match by 2 goals or more. SPAL is the underdog in this match; therefore, they are given a positive handicap of +2. If you place your wager on them and expect to win the bet, SPAL has to either win the game, draw it, or lose by a one-goal margin.
If you are opting for a draw, you are agreeing on the bookmakers’ view of the match. In the above example, the bookmakers back Juventus to win by 2 goals. Therefore, if you opt to place your bet on a draw, Juventus has to win by exactly two goals for you to make a profit.
Tips for 3-Way Handicap Betting
Playing a 3-way handicap betting is not only more entertaining but is also more challenging. Your task is not simply predicting who will win the match anymore. You get to predict the score to make a real profit. Here are some tips you can do to make profits from 3-way handicap betting.
Learn the Stats
To find the right team to back, you must do your homework. Learn both teams’ recent statistics, including the current form, head-to-head results, and line-up situation. It can be beneficial as well if you follow updated sports news. By doing this, you thicken your chance to predict the match more accurately, even when the game can go beyond any measure sometimes.
Value Betting
Once again, your knowledge of the game and analysis of the recent statistical performance is needed if you want to do value betting. The idea of it is to bet on a match in which you believe the possibility set by bookmakers might not be the actual, possible result.
Place a Bet on Draw
This unorthodox tactic works best for games with mutually exclusive results. However, it can still work like a charm as one of the best football betting tactics at the moment when you are doing a 3-way handicap betting. The idea is to use your analytic skills to predict games that will likely end up in the bookmakers’ vision for a draw, even if it is handicapped. All you have to do is back the bookmakers’ opinion.
