European handicap is also known as 3-way and it’s quite logical that it consists of three outcomes: home win, draw, and success of the second team (all with conditional initial score).
As for an initial score, it’s worth noting that such handicap in bookmaker lines already includes the conditional initial score of events offered by bookmakers. Based on this result, the subsequent calculation of 3way bets is conducted.
Most often 3-way handicaps can be found at football matches and their main difference from Asian ones is that they have no stake refund for any of the outcomes.
Example of 3-way handicap calculation
This screenshot is taken from the Stake.com for one of the English Premier League matches between Leicester City FC and Crystal Palace FC . If we play a bet on Leicester City FC 0:1 , European handicap means that the match conditionally starts with a score 0:1 in favor of Crystal Palace.
Thus, if we bet on Leicester City FC with EH (-1), then our bet would pay off in case English team wins with two goals or more. With any other result, the bet loses.
In case we bet on a Draw 0:1, then Leicester City FC will have to beat the opponent with one goal difference. Let’s remind, this meeting starts with the score 0:1 in favor of Crystal Palace FC. Accordingly, if the Leicester City wins with a score 3:2, then taking conditional initial score 0:1 it would be 3:3, i.e. a draw.
As for EH (+1) on Crystal Palace, this stake pays off in case the English team won’t lose. In other words, the match should end in a draw or Crystal Palace victory with any score. If Leicester wins, our bet will lose.
As you can see, it’s not so difficult, but let’s consider one more example for greater clarity.
In this case, Stake put up one of the betting options on 3-way handicap for the match Eibar - Real Sociedad, which takes place in the La Liga.
If we bet on European handicap of Eibar 0:2 , then in order to pay it off the they should beat the rival with 3 or more goals.
The draw 0:2 , in this case, assumes that Eibar would defeat with a difference of exactly two goals. If we bet EH on Real Sociedad , the Spanish team should win or play a draw or lose with difference of at most one goal. In fact, this stake is equivalent to the usual for us AH2 (+1.5).
At first, it may seem that the calculation of 3-way handicap is challenging. However, it is only at first glance. In fact, even at the end of this article, you should be able to calculate this type of bet without any problems.