From the days of the “betting bus” you will surely know that you can bet on correct results, but also on goalscorers or even the first or last goalscorer of a match. The age of live betting has expanded such special bets even further and you can now bet on pretty much anything during a match: number of corners, which team has more throw-ins, is there a yellow or red card for a certain player, which team sees yellow more often, which team sees red first, who has the kick-off, which coach decides to make a substitution first. The possibilities are almost endless, also thanks to the many bookmakers in the world of sports betting. Those who like it are certainly at an advantage due to the abundance of bets – I am personally not a fan of such bets, but have recently discovered interesting types of bets that can be placed BEFORE a match and are often very valuable.
HANDICAP BETS
Handicap bets have 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 are unfamiliar with the term: handicap bets are bets where one of the two teams goes into the game with a (fictitious) goal lead. Suppose you play Barcelona – Valencia Handicap 0:1 Tip 1, this means that Barcelona would have to win by two goals for you to win your bet. If Barcelona wins the game 2:0, you have won your bet (2:1 betting result). If Barcelona only wins 1:0, you would have had to bet X on a handicap of 0:1 to win. For your bet, the game actually ended 1:1….
So where can you play handicap bets? Handicap win bets are mostly played when you expect a team to win by two or more goals. Let’s say you only get odds of 1.40 for a normal home win for team XY, but you think that the team is strong enough to beat the opposition by two or more goals, then take a look at the odds for the handicap win. But even with handicap bets, analyse each game carefully, no matter how clear it looks. Every team behaves differently at different scores. Study the clubs’ schedules. Is it possible that the favourite you play a handicap win bet on when the score is 2-0 will rest important players, slow down and maybe concede a stupid goal? Yes, that can always happen!
You can get even higher odds if you bet on a handicap X. To do this, the team with the “handicap” (i.e. the one with the fictitious goal conceded from minute 1) has to win the game by one goal. If you manage to do this, you will get 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 believe that this team will win – but not by a large margin. However, the odds for such bets are high for a reason, because it is not so easy to predict such an event. This can be illustrated by the goal bet. 4:3 or 5:4 wins are known to be the exception in football. But it will also not be possible to correctly predict a 1:0, 2:1 or 3:2 in the majority of games. Nevertheless, the handicap X is an interesting bet that you should always keep an eye on – or rather, you should keep an eye on the odds. But as described in the first part of the tutorial, for every handicap bet you place, you should consider whether you would have specified the odds differently yourself.
WHAT IS “DNB”?
“DNB” stands for Draw No Bet. Here you don’t get three odds for victory, draw or defeat, but only two: victory or defeat. The odds for these events are of course lower than with 3-way bets, but in return you don’t lose your money in the event of a draw, but 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 forego the slightly higher odds and not lose any money in the event of a draw.
A similar bet is the “Double Chance”. It works almost the same, except that there are three options: 1X, 2X or 12. So if you bet 1X, it means that if there is a home win or a draw, you win, and if there is an away win, you lose your money. If you bet 12, home win or away win, you absolutely need a win to win your bet. In the event of a draw, you lose your bet.
WHAT DOES B2S MEAN?
B2S stands for “both to score” – you can only bet on YES or NO, so there are only two possible outcomes. If you bet on YES, you win your bet if both teams score at least one goal. If you bet on NO, you win if the match ends “to nil” or even goalless.
OVER/UNDER
With the “over” and “under” bets you can bet on how many goals will be scored in a match. For example, if you bet on “over 2.5”, you win your bet if the third goal is scored. If only two goals are scored, you lose. Of course, the whole thing works the other way round too: you win a bet on “under 2.5” if only two goals are scored – if the third goal is scored, you lose. And these bets can be played in 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 advisable to look at the last head-to-head matches between the opponents. Are the goals scored in the teams’ head-to-head matches more or less? How do these statistics compare to other matches between the teams? And then it’s back to analyzing! The strongest offensive team will not score many goals if the best striker and assist king are missing. The worst defense will probably not score many goals if the opposing offense is not shooting well or a key player is missing.
I’m happy to take a bit more risk myself on over/under bets. Let’s say I get odds of 1.50 for an over 2.5: if I bet €10 on it, I’d get €15 back if the result is right. The €5 net profit I’d win on an over 2.5, I’d like to bet on an over 3.5, for which I get odds of 2.40. If exactly three goals are scored, I’ll get out at face value: €15 stake, €15 return, no bet. But if a fourth goal is scored (and in football, as we all know, anything is possible), in this case I’ll get €27 back for a €15 stake. This may not always be the smartest solution, but in certain games it makes sense. It also always depends on how much is at stake in a game. Do teams throw everything forward at the end when they need a goal? Do teams usually take the risk of a counterattack? You should always remember that this variant also involves a higher risk than if you were to play a single over/under bet. You must always decide for yourself whether the respective bet is worth the risk for you.
These were some basic “special bets” that you should know when deciding to place a bet. There are of course many others, for example the famous “Asian Handicap” which was a bit of a mystery even for me as a beginner, but in reality is a very simple thing. More on that in the next part of the tutorial!