Since the days of the “betting bus” you certainly know that you can bet on correct scores, as well as on the scorer or even the first or last scorer of a match. The era of live betting has expanded such special bets even further and now you can bet on almost anything during a match: Number of corners, which team has the most throw-ins, whether a particular player is shown a yellow or red card, which team sees the yellow card the most often, which team sees the red card first, who has the kick-off, which coach decides to make the first substitution. The possibilities are almost endless, and due to the many bookmakers in the sports betting space. Those who like it are certainly at an advantage due to the abundance of bets – I personally do not deal with such bets, but recently I have discovered interesting types of bets that can be placed BEFORE a game and are often very valuable.
HANDICAP BET
Handicap betting has long since ceased to be a “special” type of bet. Almost everyone who has ever been involved in sports betting has played one. For those who don’t know what to make of this term: Handicap bets are bets where one of the two teams goes into the match with a (fictitious) goal advantage. Assuming you bet Barcelona – Valencia Handicap 0:1 Tip 1, this means that Barcelona would have to win by two goals to win your bet. If Barcelona wins the match 2:0, you win your bet (final bet result 2:1). If Barcelona only wins 1:0, you would have to bet X on a 0:1 handicap to win. For your bet, the game effectively ended 1:1….
So where do you place a handicap bet? Handicap win bets are mainly played when you expect a team to win by two goals or more. Let’s say you only have odds of 1.40 for a regular home win of Team XY, but you think the team is strong enough to beat the opponent by two or more goals, take a look at the odds for the handicap win. But the same goes for handicap betting: analyze each match carefully, even if it seems so obvious. Each team behaves differently at different scores. Study the clubs’ schedule. Is it possible that the favorite on whom you place a handicap win bet with a score of 2:0 will save important players, slow down and maybe concede a silly goal? Yes, that can always happen!
You can get even higher odds by guessing a handicap X. For this, the team with the “handicap” (i.e. the one with the fictitious goal conceded from minute 1) must win the match by a goal difference. And if you manage to do this, you will have odds between 3 and 4. You can risk such a bet if you think that one of the two teams has an advantage and you think that this team will win – but it will not succeed by a large margin. However, the odds on such bets are high for some reason, it is not so easy to predict such an event. You can show this with the goal bet. 4:3 or 5:4 victories are known to be the exception in football. But even correctly predicting a 1:0, 2:1 or 3:2 will not be possible for most games. Nevertheless, Handicap X is an interesting bet that you should always keep in mind – or rather, you should pay attention to the odds. However, as described in the first part of the tutorial, for every handicap bet you place, you should think in advance about whether you would have given the odds differently.
WHAT IS “DNB”?
“DNB” stands for Draw No Bet. Here you don’t have three chances to win, draw or lose, but only two: win or lose. The odds for these events are of course lower than for 3-way bets, but in return you don’t lose your money in the event of a draw, but you get your stake back. Especially in games where you have a favorite, but there is an acute risk of a draw, it is sometimes better to forgo the slightly higher odds and not lose money in the event of a draw.
A similar bet is the “double chance”. This works in much the same way, except that there are three options: 1X, 2X or 12. So if you bet 1X, it means you will win your bet in the event of a home win or a draw and you will lose your money in the event of an away win. For the 12 bet, home win or away win, you definitely need a win to win your bet. In the event of a draw you will lose your bet.
WHAT DO THEY MEAN BY B2S?
B2S stands for “both to score” – you can only bet on YES or NO, so there are only two possible outcomes. If you bet YES, you win your bet if both teams score at least once. If you bet NO, you win if the match ends “nil” or even without a goal.
UP DOWN
You can bet on how many goals will be scored in a match with “over” and “under” bets. For example, if you bet on a game on “over 2.5”, you have won your bet when the third goal is scored. If only two goals are scored, you lose. Of course, the whole thing works the other way around: you win an “under 2.5” bet if only two goals are scored – if the third goal is scored, you lose. And these bets can be played on all possible constellations: under 1.5, over 3.5, under 3.5, over 6.5… and so on!
Before placing over/under bets, it is a good idea to look at the latest head-to-head matches between the opponents. Are the goals scored in the teams’ head-to-head matches more or less likely? How do these statistics compare to other matches between the teams? And then it comes back to the analysis! The team with the greatest attack will not score many goals if the best striker and the assist king are missing. The worst defense will probably not score many goals if the opposing attack does not shoot well or is missing a key player.
With over/under bets, I like to take a little more risk myself. Let’s say I have odds of 1.50 on an over 2.5: If I bet €10 on that, I’d get €15 back if the result matches. I like to bet the €5 net profit I would make in the case of over 2.5 on over 3.5, for which I have odds of 2.40. If exactly three goals are scored, I come out even: €15 staked, €15 return, zero round. But if a fourth goal is scored (and as we know, anything is always possible in football), I get €27 back for a €15 bet in that case. This may not always be the smartest thing to do, but it makes sense for some games. It’s also always about how much is at stake in a game. Do teams throw everything in the towel late on when they need one more goal? Are teams usually at risk of counterattacking? You should always keep in mind with this variation that you also have a higher risk than if you were to play a single over/under bet. Whether this particular bet is worth the risk for you should always be decided for yourself.
These were some basic “special bets” that you should know if you decide to bet. Of course, there are many more, for example the famous “Asian handicap”, which was a bit of a mystery even to me as a beginner, but in reality it is a very simple thing. More about that in the next part of the seminar!