In any sporting event, there is a wide range of markets to bet on, which vary from sport to sport. The most popular is the Moneyline, also known as 1x2 or win-draw-win. This involves betting on who you believe will win the game or match. Depending on the sport, you may also have the option to bet on a draw.
Football, for example, has a massive range of betting options. As well as the standard Moneyline bet, you can also place bets on the number of goals within a game, what the correct score will be, will both teams score a goal. There are also player-specific bets, like who will score the first goal, or how many shots a player might have on target. These are just a few examples, but there are many others. Below you will find guides to various types of bets.
The Asian Handicap market is a type of bet that gives an advantage or disadvantage to a team or player. The market exists to help balance the odds when there is a strong favourite, and therefore, the odds on the standard moneyline bet are very poor.
Let's take a football match as an example:
There are many Asian Handicap markets, but they all involve adjusting the score of one team by adding or subtracting goals from their final tally. Let's say you were to bet on a team at -1.5. This would indicate that the number of goals that the team scores would be reduced by 1.5 goals. So if they scored 4 goals in the game, this would be reduced to 2.5. You could also bet on +1.5, which is the opposite meaning the goals they have scored increase from 4 to 5.5
The final score is altered by this amount when the game or match finishes, and it is then that your bet is calculated. You are therefore betting that your team can overcome this disadvantage and still win, or that with the advantage, they will win. This is not the easiest market to understand, so the following example will help clarify it.
Let's look at the fixture in the English Premier League between West Ham and Chelsea.
Chelsea are strong favourites priced at 1.75, West Ham are outsiders at 5.5, and the draw is 4.2.
| Final Score | Bet placed on | Adjusted Scoreline | Would bet win or lose |
|---|---|---|---|
| West Ham 1 - 2 Chelsea | West Ham +1.5 | West Ham 2.5 - 2 Chelsea | Win |
| West Ham 0 - 2 Chelsea | West Ham +1.5 | West Ham 1.5 - 2 Chelsea | Lose |
| West Ham 1 - 1 Chelsea | West Ham +1.5 | West Ham 2.5 - 2 Chelsea | Win |
There are many other types of Asian handicap bets which involve adding or subtracting whole numbers or quarter numbers. For more information, check out the link below
The European Handicap market shares similarities with the Asian Handicap market in many ways, but there are also notable differences. The market also exists to help balance the odds when there is a strong favourite in the match, and it adds either an advantage or disadvantage to the teams' scoreline in terms of the number of goals they have scored.
The primary difference is that the European Handicap market only offers full-number handicaps. By this, we mean +1/+2/+3 etc. Whereas Asian handicap markets can include quarter, half or whole number handicaps. Because of this, it's possible that after the result has been changed by the handicap, the game could result in a draw. This will also be classified as a losing bet if you have bet on one of the teams to win.
You are again betting that your team will overcome the disadvantage or win with the advantage. Once again, this may be clearer with an example:
| Final Score | Bet placed on | Adjusted Scoreline | Would bet win or lose |
|---|---|---|---|
| West Ham 2 - 2 Chelsea | West Ham +1.0 | West Ham 3 - 2 Chelsea | Win |
| West Ham 1 - 2 Chelsea | West Ham +1.0 | West Ham 2 - 2 Chelsea | Lose |
| West Ham 1 - 3 Chelsea | West Ham +1.0 | West Ham 2 - 3 Chelsea | Lose |
For more information on European handicap betting, please visit the link below.
Betting primarily should be about fun and adding enjoyment to watching a game. But your aim should also be to win more than you lose. To achieve this, it's crucial to have a betting strategy, especially for beginners.
Several strategies are available to increase your chances of winning. Strategies such as Matched Betting involve taking advantage of Free Bets and promotions, which are often offered when you join a new bookmaker and placing opposing bets on another platform. The Martingale System is a strategy where you double your stakes after a losing bet in an effort to recover any previous losses on the next bet.
The sphere of sports betting has its own terminology, and it's very important that you learn the meanings of the various words as it's vital to understanding how to navigate through the betting experience. Below are links to the glossary created by our experts. So if you don’t know the difference between backing a bet and laying one, or how a single bet differs from an accumulator, then you need to check out the glossary below for all the definitions of the different terminology used.
One of the tools you can use to help you with sports betting is to take advantage of the various betting calculators that are out there. These range from very basic ones, which will just add up the bets for you, say if you wish to place an accumulator bet. Which is placing a number of bets together so all the odds add up to make one final odd, which is the odd you use to place a bet, to more clever ones, which help with betting strategies such as the Matched Betting calculator. No matter what bet you are trying to place, there will be a calculator that helps you. Check out the links below for our betting calculator.
