This is our guide to handicap betting in the UK. We’re going to explain how handicaps work and have tips to make the most of them. We’ve got sportsbook reviews, information on different types of handicaps and how they can be used when betting on various sports. Let’s start off with a list of our favourite handicap betting sites.
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Here’s a little more information about our recommended handicap betting sites for UK punters. Many of these are top online bookmakers in general, but our focus here is on the handicap markets they provide:
Now we’re going to examine our favourite sportsbooks for betting on handicaps, with some in-depth reviews.
Launched in 2012, Brit-focused brand BetUK has become a major name on the UK gambling scene. They have a very well designed website that is easy to navigate around and find their various handicap markets, within sports such as football, basketball, golf, tennis and eSports. There’s an impressive range of handicap markets overall and the odds are very competitive.
There’s a BetUK Specials section that features enhanced odds bets, which can often include handicaps. BetUK also features expert betting tips, a generous welcome offer, one of the best acca clubs around and a regular stream of free bets.
As the UK’s number one site for sports spread betting, the core Spreadex product is very similar to handicaps, as you are hoping that your selection wins by a large margin, in order to win big yourself. They also feature a regular fixed odds service, which has plenty of traditional handicap markets available.
With features like live streaming and cash out available, Spreadex can more than hold their own with the established giants of the betting world. They deliver a no-nonsense betting experience, free of the flashy graphics and ads that feature heavily at other online bookies. Spreadex also have one of the very best welcome offers around, which is not just generous, but gives you a chance to try out a range of their betting products.
Launched back in 2003, 10bet has quietly and confidently established itself as one of the top UK bookmakers around. They have developed a slick website that is an absolute pleasure to use and to look at. Navigating around is a breeze and you’ll easily find any event that you’re after, along with a wide range of handicap markets, featuring strong odds.
There’s a big welcome offer available and 10bet always have a number of unique betting offers for existing customers, which change on a regular basis, based on the big sporting events of the day. You should also look out for features such as cash out and bet builder available, along with Pulse Bet, which enhances your live football betting experience.
A relatively new name in the betting industry are LiveScore Bet, who only launched in 2020. They’re part of the LiveScore brand that specialises in correct scores and for a newcomer, they have an impressive all-round product, which of course means plenty of handicap markets.
There’s live streaming on offer and a cash out facility available. There’s a solid new customer offer that doubles your first bet and a regular stream of free bets for existing customers. This is a bookmaker to watch out for. They’ve made a confident start in their formative years and we expect them to grow.
One of the biggest bookmakers in Ireland are BoyleSports and they are increasingly building a reputation in the UK. As you would expect from an Irish bookie, they are big on horse racing, but also specialise in sports such as football, golf and tennis, where handicap markets are very popular.
The site is well designed and BoyleSports have some of the best mobile betting apps around. There’s daily price boosts, which can include handicap markets and a range of offers, with this bookie particular excelling when it comes to acca deals. With a great tips site to point you in the right direction, BoyleSports is a smart choice for punters.
Another bookie from Ireland making waves in the UK are QuinnBet. Their site features a very clear and crisp design, making it easy to find what you want. The in-play section is particularly good and features lots of sports where handicap markets are available.
QuinnBet is arguably the best bookie around when it comes to providing a regular stream of offers for existing customers. There’s all sorts of insurance deals, free bets and cash rebates available. At Quinnbet, you’re always being given back a little bit extra, which you can use for betting on handicaps.
One of the biggest names in the gambling industry is bet365. As a long-established company, they have been able to invest heavily in their product and the result is a brilliant all-round betting product. There’s countless markets for big events, with a really wide array of handicaps available, with the amount of Asian handicap betting markets for football, being particularly impressive.
As you’d expect, the site is packed with features. Live streaming, bet builder, cash out and betting tips are all available. There’s a strong welcome offer and a massive amount of promos for regular users. Overall, bet365 is a superb choice for fans of handicaps.
As a relatively new betting company, having launched in 2019, Virgin Bet has links to the well-known wider brand and hit the scene with an impressive product at launch and has continued to make strides forward. Their aesthetically pleasing site makes it easy to find your chosen event and in our review, we found a good range of handicap markets available, with competitive odds.
There are daily price boosts available, which can often include handicap bets. Existing customers can also enjoy weekly free bets. Virgin Bet has positioned itself strongly for horse racing punters, with live streaming, Best Odds Guaranteed, extra places, money back deals and ticket offers all available.
Returning to one of the major players in the betting industry, we have Betfred. ‘The Bonus King’ as it is known, has been online since 2004 and has been able to build a formidable offering. Their prices are amongst the best around and this includes their numerable handicap markets.
The welcome offer is a big one, as you’d expect from a bookie famed for their promos. Existing customers get treated to odds boosts, insurance deals, free bets and much more. This site is feature-rich, boasting of live streaming, cash out, bet builder and tips, along with excellent betting apps.
Another of the bigger bookies on the UK scene, are 888sport. They can boast of a great all-round betting product. There’s a huge amount of markets for events, which means lots of handicaps and thanks to the size of the company, odds are extremely competitive. That’s certainly the case with 888sport’s daily specials, which feature enhanced odds that can include handicap markets.
Again, this is another site packed with features. Live streaming, a betting tips site, cash out and bet builder are all present. There’s a big welcome deal and a good array of offers for existing customers, many of which are compatible with handicaps.
There may be some you wanting an explanation of what handicaps are. So if you’re looking for a handicap betting meaning, carry on reading.
>Handicaps are applied to even up a betting market that is considered one-sided. If there’s a big favourite that is widely expected to win, the odds will be very short and unattractive to punters. By applying an extra handicap and virtual deficit to the superior team that needs to be overcome, the odds can be made more even and enticing for customers.
This also works the other way. You can give outsiders and underdogs a positive handicap, like a pretend advantage in runs, points or goals, for them to hold on to. If they beat the favourites or lose the match, game or event by a smaller margin than is set in the bet, then you’ve got yourself a winner.
That’s really all there is to it, though it can look a little more complicated when you look at a handicap market for the first time. In the next section, we’re going to take you through an example.
We’re going to show you an example of a handicap market. If a bookmaker were handicap betting football and Manchester City were playing Ipswich Town in the FA Cup, the regular odds for a City win would be extremely short. You would need a handicap to get any value out of the market.
So, for example, Manchester City could be given a handicap of -2.5 goals, with Ipswich getting +2.5. That would mean that if you backed City, they would have to win the game by a three-goal margin, in order for the bet to be a winner. If you backed Ipswich with +2.5, for your bet to be a winner, they could either win the game, draw, lose by a one-goal margin, or lose by a two-goal margin.
You can hopefully see how such a handicap evens up the respective chances of the two teams and helps to make the prices in a market, become more attractive.
Having seen our ranking of the best sites for handicap betting, you are probably wondering how we came to our conclusions. Here are some of the factors that we considered.
Below is a table that displays the various features available at our recommended sportsbooks for handicap bets.
Betting Site | Asian Handicap | Number of Sports | Live Streaming | Cash Out |
BetUK | Over 30 | |||
Spreadex | Over 20 | |||
10bet | Over 30 | |||
LiveScore Bet | Over 35 | |||
BoyleSports | Over 30 | |||
Quinnbet | Over 30 | |||
bet365 | Over 35 | |||
Virgin Bet | Over 30 | |||
Betfred | Over 25 | |||
888sport | Over 25 |
In this section we’re going to explore some of the sports where betting on handicaps tends to be popular.
The biggest sport at online bookmakers is football betting, and with good reason. It’s the most popular sport in the world and this extends to betting. You’ll find that football is at the front and centre of the homepages of most bookmakers, so you’ll have no trouble tracking down the match that you want to bet on.
Football handicap betting accounts for a fairly large portion of the markets that are available on any match. There are a lot of leagues where one or two teams are really dominant and win a lot of matches easily, so handicaps are a great way of making things more even.
The English top flight is famed for being a competition where the smaller teams can spring upsets, for all Manchester City keep winning it and yet, Premier League handicap betting remains very popular. Betting on the margin of victory in football, is a great way to get some extra value.
Rugby handicap betting is extremely common. In fact, it is fair to say that it tends to be more popular than the match winner market. While the margins of victory in football tend to be slim, in rugby they are generally larger, so handicaps make sense. The sport of rugby has two codes. Rugby union handicap betting is given more prominence by bookmakers.
The annual Six Nations Championship in the British Isles and Europe is a hugely popular event, expanding throughout its history from just the Four Nations to include France and Italy. There are many other international and domestic rugby union competitions that attract a lot of interest from punters.
Rugby league handicap betting is not quite so popular, but the sport still has a very strong following in areas such as the north of England and Australia, where it is popular. The Super League is the major domestic competition for the UK, with the NRL being the equivalent in Australia. Among the markets on show, rugby league betting with handicaps is popular as teams like Leeds Rhinos, St Helens and Wigan Warriors have enjoyed periods of dominance in this code of the sport.
Tennis is a staple at online bookmakers. It’s a sport with a year-round schedule, which produces matches on a daily basis, with ATP and WTA tournaments generally starting on a Monday and ending on a Sunday.
Along with the flow of regular tournaments, tennis betting and the sport’s annual calendar punctuated by major events. The biggest events on the tennis schedule are the Grand Slams, which comprise of the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and US Open. In the UK, Wimbledon is a particularly popular when it comes to betting, with lots of promotions available based around the event.
Tennis handicap betting is a useful way for punters to gain some extra value. In the early rounds of tournaments especially, there can be some very short-priced favourites. So in such instances, you might back the likes of Novak Djokovic with -1.5 sets, meaning that he would have to win a match in straight sets or 3-1. There are also handicaps available for games, so you could back Djokovic with -9.5 games, for example.
There are few sports that can compete with basketball betting for producing high-scoring encounters. It’s a slam dunk! Consequently, basketball handicap betting tends to be more popular than simply betting on the result.
Betting on the margin of victory, is a way to get more favourable odds. So for example, in the NBA, you could bet on the Golden State Warriors with a handicap of -7.5 points, to beat the Boston Celtics. That would mean that the Warriors would need to win by eight points or more, in order for the bet to be successful.
In the UK, the majority of basketball bets are placed on the NBA in America, which is the top competition in the world. However, there is also the British Basketball League and also lots of thriving basketball leagues across Europe, Asia and elsewhere. So even when the NBA is out of season, there are plenty of opportunities to bet on basketball.
A type of handicaps that you may have heard mentioned is Asian handicap betting. The ‘Asian’ part of the name, comes from the fact that this sort of handicap originated in Indonesia. They are used in sports where a draw is a possibility, with the intention of eliminating the possibility of a stalemate result.
The Asian handicap bet is especially popular in football. So say Liverpool are plating Everton. In a regular market, there is the possibility of a Liverpool win, an Everton win or a draw. An Asian handicap takes the draw out of the equation. So Liverpool would start with -1.5 goals and Everton would have +1.5.
Obviously, it is impossible for a team to score half a goal, so there can be no tied result. Liverpool need to win by a two-goal margin for a bet on them to be a winner. If they only win by a single goal, then Everton are the winner in the handicap market, as is the case if the match is drawn, or Everton win.
You may have seen Asian handicap markets where a team has two handicaps. These are sometimes referred to as ‘Quarter goal handicaps’. So Manchester City say, might have handicaps of -2.5 and -2. In such an instance, your bet is split evenly between the two handicaps. A £20 bet would see £10 go on Manchester City -2.5 and £10 on Manchester City -2.
In this example, if Manchester City win by three goals or more, both parts of the bet win. If they win by two goals, the -2.5 part of the bet loses, but the -2 is a draw and that half of your stake is refunded. If Manchester City only win by one goal, or draw, or lose, then both parts of the bet are losers.
As tends to be the case with most things, there are both positives and negatives with handicaps. Below, we have highlighted some of the pros and cons.
We’ve talked a lot about handicap markets. So is it better than traditional betting? In our experts’ opinion, it all depends on the event in question.
If two teams or competitors are well-matched, then there’s an argument that there’s no need to place a handicap bet. The regular result market will provide strong odds and by trying to be specific regarding the margin of victory, you are adding a level of complexity to the bet, that makes a loss more likely.
On the other hand, if there’s a strong favourite, there is often very little point in placing a bet on the straight result. It’s only with handicap markets, that some value can be delivered to the customer.
There are many bonuses and promotions, both for new and existing customers, that can be used in conjunction with handicaps. Here are some of the best betting offers and deals that you can enjoy.
All of our recommended bookmakers for handicaps have dedicated mobile apps for iOS and Android devices. This gives you the option of placing handicap bets, wherever you are.
You can access your betting account via a mobile browser, but we would always suggest using an app instead. They tend to be more secure, faster and are designed specifically for the dimensions of the smaller screen.
All of the handicap markets that you would find on the regular betting site of an online bookmaker, will be available on the app. When it comes to recommending a particular bookie for their betting app, we would point you in the direction of BoyleSports.
In this section we are going to give you a few tips that should help when placing bets on handicaps.
With handicaps you are not just betting on a result, but also the margin of the result. It’s therefore important that you do your research. So if you were football handicap betting, you would want to look into team news, home/away records, xG and goal records.
People often tend to look at the favourites with handicap markets and it’s obvious why. They’re often very likely to win, so betting on them with a handicap gives the price a boost. However, there can often be just as much value in betting on the outsider. They may lose the contest, but if they can keep things close then they could win the bet. Look out for selections that keep things competitive in defeat.
For a selection to win by a big amount, they often have to be motivated to do so. For example, a football team that has already won their league, or a side guaranteed of a mid-table finish, have nothing left to play for and may have mentally switched off. In contrast, a poor team that are in danger of relegation, will be putting in maximum effort.
Look between handicaps and other similar markets, to see which has the best price. So if you’re considering betting on a football team to with a handicap of -1.5, it may be worth seeing what the odds are for that team to win and for there to be over 2.5 goals, or for the side to win half-time/full-time.
Every little advantage that you can give yourself will be a help. So if you’re going to bet on a handicap market, make sure that you get the best odds, which you can do by opening a few betting accounts and comparing prices. Also, lots of handicap bets will be compatible with promotions and bonuses, so take advantage of those too, when you can.
Before looking at the handicap betting odds, it’s worth looking at the xG in football stats for a game. These give you an idea of how many goals a team should be scoring and conceding in a match. You can then pick the right handicap market accordingly based on this data. Although you can’t and shouldn’t solely rely on it, this can help inform any betting decisions.
We hope that you enjoyed our guide to handicap betting. As you will have seen, there are a lot of quality sports betting sites available for betting on handicaps. In our review, it was BetUK that came out on top in this particular category.