How Does Premier League Handicap Betting Work? This Guide Makes Everything Crystal Clear

When you first start placing bets on football, we recommend that you start off with markets such as both teams to score, full-time result, and over/under 2.5 goals. These are the easiest football bets and will help ease you into the world of football betting. Once you have a bit of experience and confidence under your belt, then you can start tackling the trickier markets such as handicap betting. In the following guide, you will find out all that you need to know about handicap betting in football.

What is a Handicap Bet?

Handicap betting, also sometimes called points betting or line betting, is a market where the bookmaker turns a sporting event in which the available odds have a huge variation into a more even contest. How is this done? Well, it is done by giving a disadvantage or advantage to the teams that are playing.

Although handicap betting is now very popular for sports like football, it was originally created for horse races as a means to make all participating horses equal. The handicaps were applied depending on the breed, age, class, form, jockey, distance, and so on. This was what allowed horses and jockeys of different ages and skills to run in the same race.

How the Handicap Market Works When Premier League Betting

We are now going to give you a detailed example because we believe that this is truly the best way to help you fully understand what handicap betting is. Since the Premier League is the best league in the world and English Premier League betting is now really popular, we are going to use it as an example.

Let us pretend that you are an Arsenal fan, and your team will be taking on Norwich in the early kick-off on a Saturday afternoon. Arsenal are the home team and have won three games on the spin, meaning they now sit in top four, while Norwich have lost their last three matches away from home. The odds that your bookmaker is offering are Arsenal to win at odds of 1.60, and Norwich to win at odds of 7.00.

However, if you go on the book for this match and scroll down the different markets, you will come across the handicap betting section and will see that Arsenal have some minus numbers next to their betting odds Premier League, while Norwich have some positive numbers.

The minus number indicates the number of goals that will be taken away from Arsenal at the start of the match, while the positive number indicates the number of goals that are given to Norwich before the game begins. Thus, if you place a wager on Norwich (+2) with odds of 2.00, it means that they will basically start the match with a 2-0 lead over Arsenal, and the Gunners will have to score three goals and not concede to stop you winning your bet. Obviously, if Arsenal win 2-0, you will not win your wager either as the match will be called a draw.

On the other hand, if you opt to put your money on Arsenal (-2) with odds of 2.20, it basically means that Arsenal will begin the game with a two-goal deficit. Once again, it means that Arsenal will have to score three goals without concession for you to win your wager. A 2-0 win will see the result put down as a draw, which is not good for your bet.

Premier League Betting Sites: The Best Sites for Handicap Betting

When it comes to betting sites to bet on football, there are hundreds out there that you can sign up with. However, not all bookies have been created equally, and below we have given you a short list of some of the best bookmakers for betting on the English Premier League.

• William Hill
• Ladbrokes
• Betfred
• Unibet
• 888sport

If you would like to find out more about these bookmakers as well as betting on the Premier League, then head on over to mybettingsite.uk/football/english-premier-league/ as this is the only guide you need to read on the topic.

How to Make a Handicap Bet

How does Premier League betting work? This is a question that you should now be able to answer if any of your friends ask you about it, and now we are going to explain to you how you can place a handicap bet should you decide to open an account with one of the aforementioned bookies. You will be glad to find out that making a handicap bet is a simple process and does not take long at all.

Go to the bookmaker’s site and log into your account. Then, go to the football betting section of the site</li>

Find a match that interests you and click on it, so you will be taken to the different available markets</li>

Scroll down until you come across the handicap betting section. Choose your handicap and you will find it automatically added to your betting slip</li>

Decide how much you want to bet on the outcome, and add the number to the stake box</li>

When you are happy with your choices, hit the “Submit Bet” button and you will have placed your first handicap bet

 Handicap Betting Tips

Sometimes you will feel like doing some betting for Premier League matches so take a look at the odds on offer, but soon come to realise that the odds are not that enticing because all the games involve teams at the top of the table against teams at the bottom.

You could place your money on the underdogs to win, which is not that rare in the Premier League, but there will still be a good chance that you lose your bet. Thus, in this scenario, we suggest that you make some handicap bets to improve the odds in your favour. For example, if Manchester City are playing Burnley, then there is a really good chance that City will score plenty of goals – they love high-scoring matches against Burnley. Thus, in this case, you could think about spicing things up a little by giving city a minus three-goal handicap, which would mean they have to win the game at least 4-0.

So, when there are no good odds available because the teams are seen to be a gulf apart, we suggest that you have a look at placing a handicap bet.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Handicap Betting

Below we are going to have a look at the advantages and disadvantages of this type of betting.

Advantages

The bookies are the ones who are tasked with evaluating both teams and deciding the handicap that the underdog should have. This will usually be determined by looking at recent games between the two sides, the form of each side, financial strength, home advantage, and whether any side is missing key players because of suspension or injury.

When these factors have been taken into account, they then decide on the handicap odds that will be given. Most of the time, bookies will offer correct handicap odds, but they cannot be right all the time. There will be times when one side will be given a slight advantage, which is where you can jump in to earn more of a profit.

One other great thing about this type of betting is that it can add plenty of value and entertainment to what would otherwise have been a pretty dull day of betting. Not many football fans enjoy watching one team score five goals against another team, and many will probably switch off. However, those who have placed £20 on a -4-goal handicap will be getting plenty of entertainment.

Disadvantages

There are truly not many disadvantages that come with handicap betting, but there are two factors that might stop bettors placing a handicap bet.

For example, when you put money on your favourite football team, it is easy to get ruled by emotions. If you end up letting your emotions get the better of you when you are betting, then you will find yourself losing plenty of money. Thus, when you are handicap betting, we suggest that you do not consider placing a bet on the team that you support so that your love does not cloud your logic.

Also, you will not find handicap betting available with all sports – mostly it is available for team sports. Thus, if you want to bet on another sport such as cycling or boxing, you will not usually find handicap betting markets.