1.5) To Obtain A Greater Win.

An incredibly popular way to bet on sports, the Handicap market can provide better value than other types of bet. Essentially, a Handicap is designed to even the odds between two teams or players. It can be especially useful when one team or player is the clear favourite to win the event.

-1.5/+1.5 is an example of an Asian Handicap bet. The half numbers take away the possibility of betting on just the draw. If it is a draw then the +1.5 bet will win. The Asian Handicap market also uses quarter numbers, we’ll take a look at what this means in this guide.

In addition, we’ll explore the sports and events the Handicap market can be useful for. We’ll use a few different examples to illustrate how the Handicap market can be beneficial for your betting, with a particular focus on the -1.5/+1.5 market.

What is Handicap Betting in Sport?

Before we look at the -1.5/+1.5  handicap in detail, let’s examine what Handicap betting is. A Handicap bet will give a team or player a hypothetical advantage, or disadvantage, to even up the chances of betting success and often provide greater betting value than bets such as Match Winner.

The Asian Handicap will just have two possible sides to bet on, either the +ve or the -ve and if it is exactly the amount of the handicap then stakes are returned. (It would not be possible to be exactly 1.5 so this bet will either win or lose). A European Handicap does allow you to bet on it being a draw after the handicap has been applied. Asian Handicaps sometimes make use of half and quarter numbers, like +1.25, +1.5, and -1.75. On the other hand European Handicap counterpart uses whole numbers, such as +1, +2. +3.

As we’ve touched upon, the Handicap market can provide greater betting value than other markets, particularly true when there is a huge difference in odds between two players or sides. For this example, we’ll compare football Match Winner odds and Asian Handicap odds on a fixture where one side is heavy favourites to win.

Arsenal are playing Fulham at home in the UK Premier League. The odds on Arsenal to win are generally about 1.45, Fulham to win is priced at 9 and the draw is at 4.5.

We want to bet on the home win, but odds of 1.45 don’t represent much value. Instead, to boost those odds whilst still betting on Arsenal to win we can look at the Asian Handicap market. As we think this will be a comfortable win for Arsenal, we might look at the Arsenal -1.5 handicap market, which gives us much better odds of about 2.25. But why is that?

The reason for better odds is that essentially, we will be taking 1.5 goals away from Arsenal’s final score. So, if Arsenal were to score 2 goals in the game, for our bets purposes they will actually only score 0.5 goals. If the final score is 2-0, our bet is won, as the score for betting purposes would be 0.5-0. However, if Fulham were to score, and the final score is 2-1, we’d lose our bet as the score for betting purposes would be 0.5-1 in Fulhams favour.

As far as handicap betting is concerned the amount of the handicap and the sport that is used can vary beyond football and low numbers. Let’s use a different sport for our next example. Detroit Pistons are at San Antonio Spurs in the NBA. The Money Line odds on the Pistons victory are set at 1.22, with San Antonio at 4.50. If we believe that Detroit Pistons will win quite comfortably, we again can look to the Asian Handicap market.

Pistons -13.5 gives them a 13.5 points disadvantage. So, for this bet to win, we’d need them to win by 14 points or more. Similarly, we could give San Antonio Spurs a head start of 13.5 points. So, as long as they don’t lose by more than 14 points, this bet would win.