Whether you bet on CSGO, Dota 2, LoL, Overwatch or any other game, you’re bound to encounter handicap bets. In general – Handicap (or “spread)betting is essentially a way of making a match, where there is an apparent winner, more interesting. Handicap betting means giving or taking round wins to one of the teams involved before the game even starts, making the odds closer and more fun to wager on.
So, to confirm: a regular handicap bet involves giving or taking advantage to one team, making the game more even.
You may encounter a handicap-type bet on a variety of sites and you can recognize it by seeing a (+) or (-) sign next to each team. By clicking on the corresponding odd, you can give or take an advantage to one team and boost your odd value.
Here is an example of a CSGO handicap bet. This game is played in the best of 3 maps format. Therefore, if you want to bet on NiP and take away 0.5 map wins from them, you will have an odd of 2.87. If you’re betting on EnvyUS with a handicap, you’re giving them 0.5 map wins and therefore, the odd is lower.
Naturally, there are more examples, and each of them is different depending on how the game itself functions. Handicap bets in first-person shooter games are the same as our example for CS:GO, but those found in MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) games are slightly different. So, in games like Dota 2 and LoL, you get to place, for example, a handicap bet of +1.5 on a team before the match, which will give your team an advantage of 1.5 games. That way, you’ll get paid if the team wins one game in the set or the entire match.
These are just some examples of handicap bets in esports, and there are plenty of others you can place to make the betting experience more enjoyable. The most common handicap bet, outside the ones we just discussed, are handicap bets for kills in matches, where you get to bet on the number of kills in a game, with the advantage or a disadvantage of a handicap.
The types of bets you can get depend on the handicap markets available on the site you choose.
CS:GO Handicap Betting Explained
Regular csgo betting can get quite problematic for bettors because the odds on favorites are usually very low, making the winnings ridiculously low sometimes. However, with handicap betting, things can change significantly. Handicap betting in CS:GO is relatively similar to how handicaps in sports function, but we’ll give you a specific example so handicap meaning in CS:GO will become much clearer.
So, if a specific team is the favorite, you can place a -3.5 handicap bet, for example, which means that they will have to win by at least a 4-round difference in the match. So, if the score is 16-12 for your team, you will win the wager. But if they win with a score of 16-13, you won’t win the bet. In essence, these types of bets are great in CS:GO as they increase the odds with the increase in the handicap.
You can also use map handicap betting in CS:GO if you want. These wagers are fairly similar to the previous ones, with the only difference being that entire maps are counted instead of rounds in a single match. However, the map handicap can either be -1.5 or -2.5., and you can use them in Bo3 and Bo5 games.
Map Handicap League of Legends
If you use handicap betting in League of Legends, you can effectively minimize the risk of you losing the bet. As we’ve already stated, a handicap bet allows you to bet on a team that will have a specific number of wins added to their score before the match even begins, giving you and your team a head start.
It’s a great way to gain an advantage in the wager, but it’s also a way to allow you to have a chance of winning by betting on a team that has a sizable disadvantage in strength and skill over the other.
In the end, LoL handicap bets are great if you want to have more fun because you can always bet on a team using a minus handicap bet, which means that their score will be reduced. So, if you place a -1 handicap bet, the team must win by an added point for you to win the bet. But whichever type of handicap bet you choose; the entire betting experience will be more fun as there’s more risk involved and thus better odds.
You can also place map handicap bets where you will bet on the team winning a specific number of maps, not matches. So, the margin doesn’t matter, as you will bet on map wins. The handicap will function in the same way here, the only difference being that the handicap score will be added or taken away from the cumulative map wins.
For example, if you place a +1.5 map handicap bet, your team will have to win by one map for you to win the bet. On the opposite end of the spectrum, if you place a -1.5 map handicap bet, your team will have to win by two maps for you to win the wager.
Naturally, you can still expect the odds to be higher the tougher the bet is.
What about Asian Handicaps?
Something that’s been pretty popular in many sports betting operators and which we will see pretty soon in esports betting is the good old Asian handicap bet. With Asian handicaps, there is no such thing as a tie game, meaning that your team can either win or lose, which makes for a more exciting bet.
Like in the regular handicap game, you just give your team a sufficient or a deficit before the match starts and then pray to God that they know what they’re doing and they’re not running around the map like headless chicken.
But what makes the Asian handicap so unique is that, when you give the favorites a deficit, their opponents get an equal sufficient, which means the game will be super exciting to bet on, and also pretty even.
There are many variances in this handicap and we’ll try to go through the most common ones.
Asian Handicap 0
The Asian handicap0 is used when teams are pretty even and you would like to take a draw out of the equation. Here, you would just bet on your favorite team to win and wait until the end of the match. Nothing fancy, move on.
Asian Handicap -0.5
This means that the favorite team starts with a deficit of -0.5 round wins while the underdog team starts with a sufficit of +0.5 round wins. If you bet on favorites and they win by 1, you win your bet.
Asian Handicap -1
Is it starting to get any clearer? Good, we can now move on to the -1 handicap. Following the same principle, if you bet on your team with a -1 handicap, they need to win by at least two rounds for you to win your bet. That’s right, two rounds, obviously because you gave them a -1 round before the beginning. How could you do that to them?
Besides these 3, there are several other similar handicaps that can be used for different purposes. Also, you can use Asian handicap for live in-play betting if you are feeling confident enough.
Handicap Betting F.A.Q.
What does the +1 handicap mean?
+1 handicap in esports betting is pretty much the same as a corresponding handicap in sports. The number in sports usually signifies one goal or a point, but in the case of esports, it’s mostly about matches. So, if a team has a +1 handicap in, for example, Dota 2, then that team starts the game with a one-match advantage over the other team.
What does the +0.5 handicap mean?
Once again, this handicap is the same as a corresponding sports handicap. It’s like a half goal advantage in football, but here it signifies a round or a match. So, if you bet on a team with a +0.5 handicap, you will win the bet if the team wins by a round or if the match ends in a draw.
What is 2-way handicap betting?
In a two-way handicap bet, you get to predict the team that will the match, as you would normally do, but here a handicap is applied as well. Also, if a draw occurs, you won’t lose your bet, and the money you invested will be returned to you.
