Handicap betting is a great way to even out a market where a bigger team is playing a much smaller team. When teams are badly mismatched the odds for the favourable team are really bad, so it’s not really worth betting on it anyway. Adding a handicap will open the market back up and give you some betting options. Use some free bets to try it out.

For example, if Manchester United were playing Nottingham Forest in a FA cup match you might see a handicap of: Manchester United -2.5 goals. Nottingham Forrest +2.5 goals. Here the bookmaker is saying will United be able to score more than 3 goals or will Forest be able to keep the tally under 2 goals. This will open the market up again and provide some good odds for both sides of the bet.

The two teams don’t have to be as mismatched as the example above though. It could be two premiership teams playing. Let’s say Manchester United are actually playing Everton who have a good chance of scoring against them. You might see a handicap of Manchester United -1 goal. Everton +1 goal. You bet on Everton…

If it was a tight match all the way to the end and United sneaked a late goal to make it 2-1 as they so often do, an Asian handicap bettor would not be as upset as a normal fixed odds bettor in this case. If you were betting with fixed odds you may have split your stake and put half on Everton winning and half on them drawing to cover two outcomes. However both of these would have lost. If you were using a handicap and put all your money on Everton to win, you would have just lost out on your profit in the final minutes of the match when United scored their winner. However you would have been given your money back on this match because the handicap finished level > 2 -1(+1) = 2-2.

Give this type of betting a go with free bets and you will see the advantages it brings you.