What Does Handicap Mean In Basketball Betting?

If you’re a casual sports bettor who generally sticks to football and horse racing, you might have wondered about branching out into other sports, but been a little too nervous to do so.

Or perhaps you’re a matched bettor who’s seen a tempting Bet & Get offer for basketball, where the best match is on a handicap market - but how does that market even work?

A handicap bet involves giving a team a theoretical disadvantage to even up the odds in a match. So in football, you might give the favourites a 1 goal deficit, meaning that they have to win by at least that amount for your bet to win.

This concept can be applied to pretty much any sport, but particularly with sports that are dominant elsewhere in the world, like basketball or American football, the teams and markets available can seem both confusing and intimidating.

How do you know how realistic a chance a team might have of winning their next game? How do basketball leagues even work? And how exactly does handicap betting work when applied to sports other than football?

In this article, we’ll take you through all you need to know before you tackle handicap betting in basketball. By the time you reach the end you’ll have all the information you need to place handicap basketball bets with confidence, whether you’re betting recreationally or making money with Matched Betting.

Basketball Betting In The UK

Basketball, and in particular the NBA (which stands for the National Basketball Association, and is the major American basketball league), is enormously popular in the USA.

Although its viewership has dropped somewhat in recent years, with only 11.3 million Americans watching the 2024 NBA finals, it remains one of the biggest sporting leagues in the world.

In the UK, though, basketball is a fairly niche sport. Few of us could name more than a couple of American basketball teams, and you’d have to be a dedicated fan to watch NBA games, given that they aren’t ever shown on mainstream TV.

So it’s not surprising that most of us don’t really understand the game, or how some of the most popular betting markets on basketball work.

Despite this, basketball is available to bet on with most UK bookies, and you’ll often encounter basketball offers on bookie sites and apps, designed to draw in punters to less popular markets.

So whether you’re a recreational bettor looking to branch out, or a matched bettor in search of a profit, you have both reason and opportunity to start betting on basketball.

What Does ‘Handicap’ Mean In Sports Betting?

In general, handicap in sports betting means that a team has been given a theoretical goal or points deficit in advance of the match, meaning that they have to win by at least that amount for your bet to win.

The idea is that, for very uneven match-ups, a handicap bet makes it more worthwhile, and more interesting, for punters to bet on.

As an example, we’ll take a look at an upcoming match between Manchester City and Club Brugge. Manchester City are the favourites by a mile, meaning that the odds are heavily skewed in their direction.

However, if we give Manchester City a goal handicap of -2, meaning that they have to win by more than 2 goals for your bet to win (or that Brugge have to lose by less than 2), the odds even up dramatically, and a potential bet becomes a lot more interesting.

There are a number of varieties of handicap, two of the most common being Asian handicap and European handicap, but they all work on these essential principles, across pretty much all sports.

Horse Racing

The exception to this is horse racing, where handicap means something else entirely.

Although handicap in horse racing is a similar concept - that of giving stronger competitors a disadvantage to level the playing field - in practice it’s something very different.

Rather than giving a competitor a theoretical disadvantage that applies only to a betting market, in horse racing a handicap means a physical disadvantage, in the form of weight that’s added to a horse’s saddle.

Horses that compete in handicap races are constantly assessed for their performance and assigned a certain handicap weight by dedicated officials.

The aim is to completely even out the differences in ability between horses in a race. Although this isn’t something that can ever be entirely achieved, it still results in much more exciting races, and much more exciting betting as a result.

As this is a very different system to handicap in other sports, it’s important to be aware of the difference when it comes to your betting activity.

Basketball

Handicap in basketball works just like in most other sports, with the stronger team assigned a points deficit to even things up.

The exact handicap available can vary hugely, depending on the teams playing and their expected performance.

For example, in this match between the Golden State Warriors and the Utah Jazz, the Warriors are the clear favourites, and their default points handicap with this bookie is therefore -11.5:

On the other hand, this match between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Los Angeles Lakers is expected to be much closer, so a default points handicap of just -4.5 is assigned to the Lakers:

There will also be alternative handicap markets available, with somewhat more disparate odds, offering a wide range of possibilities for the basketball bettor to choose from.

What About Betting On The Spread?

You might have heard about betting on ‘the spread’ or ‘spread betting’ in relation to basketball (or American football), and have an idea that it works similarly to handicap betting.

Well, you’d be right - when it comes to American sports, betting on the spread is exactly the same as betting on a handicap market. You’ll find that some British bookies use the term ‘spread’ and some use the term ‘handicap’, but there’s no difference between those markets.

The reason some British bookies avoid the term ‘spread’ in relation to basketball is that ‘spread betting’ in British sports betting means something completely different, and refers to a type of bet where your winnings or losses depend on the accuracy of your wager.

So, to avoid confusion, many British bookies avoid talking about ‘spread’ when it comes to American sports - but not all. As a result, you’ll encounter both terms when betting on basketball in the UK if you bet with multiple different bookies.

The most important thing is to remember that, in the context of basketball betting (and generally for American sports), ‘spread’ and ‘handicap’ markets are the same thing.

Advantages Of Handicap Betting In Basketball?

The reason handicap (or spread) bets are so popular is that they make it far more worthwhile to bet on heavily one-sided matches, especially for games like basketball where the points total can be incredibly high.

When there’s a very clear favourite, there’s not much point in betting on either team for most people. If they bet on the favourite, their returns will be negligible. And if they take a punt on the outsider they’ll get great odds, but a tiny chance of a win.

By evening things out with a handicap, bettors get the chance to bet on the match at much more sensible odds, and with a realistic possibility of their bet actually winning.

And from the bookie’s point of view, incentivising more customers to place bets is always a good thing - so they’re firmly in favour of handicap markets.

Does Handicap Betting Work With Matched Betting?

Handicap betting certainly can be used in conjunction with Matched Betting. In fact, it can make it much easier to profit from basketball promotions - or from other promotions that require you to bet on more obscure sports, or on American sports.

Apart from anything else, the presence of handicap markets means you have more choice available when tracking down good matches - and as you’ll generally have to locate matches manually for more obscure sports, this makes life much easier.

For qualifying bets in particular, where you’ll need to bet at minimum odds to receive your free bet, handicap markets give you a better chance of finding a good match that both qualifies for the offer in question and minimises your qualifying loss.

One consideration to take into account when Matched Betting on basketball is finding a suitable lay market. All the major betting exchanges have basketball markets available, including handicap markets, but, for less high profile events especially, you might find the volume of betting to be quite low, which could make it harder to find a good match.

Your best bet is, when looking at an offer, to double check before you place your qualifying bet that there are suitable lay markets available for both your qualifying and free bets. That way, you won’t run the risk of receiving your free bet only to discover it won’t make you nearly as much profit as you hoped.

Summary

Handicap markets in basketball sound far more complicated than they actually are. In truth, they work just the same as handicap betting on any other sport (save horse racing), and you’ll find them perfectly simple to place as soon as you understand the basic principles of handicap betting.

That said, it’s important to remember that there is some potential for confusion in terminology. Americans use the term ‘spread’ to refer to handicap bets, and so some British bookies have followed suit - but not all, thanks to ‘spread betting’ being a very different concept in the UK sports betting world.

And if you’re a matched bettor, handicap betting can come in really handy, making it easier to profit from basketball promotions.

If you’d like to find out more about making money with Matched Betting, check out our complete guide for beginners, which gives you your introduction to all the tools you need to start making profits today.