Handball Daily Trader46
Posted by daviddon on August 21st, 2015
Centaur Daily Trader members are used to the usual analysis on football, horse racing, cricket etc but last week we introduced them to a new sport - handball. Ian, our resident handball expert, has provided us with an introduction below and this will be followed shortly by an introduction to Futsal.
The game of handball is played over two halves of 30 minutes duration. Goals are scored by throwing the ball to the net, usually from just out side a D-shaped penalty error. Bad discipline results in expulsion for two minutes or dismissal from your game. Seven metre throws are awarded for foul play and about 70% of those throws result in goals.
The game is ideal for betting, because there are always lots of goals and swings in momentum. An approximate average across all the leagues and nations is that a goal is scored once in just over a minute. There are generally 10% less goals in the first half than the second half.
Handball is really a hugely popular spectator and betting sport across Europe. I spent a little while employed by a prominent European based online bookmaker. At that company handball was the fourth most popular betting sport in terms of turnover after soccer, tennis and ice hockey.
It's an appealing part of the game for betting purposes that scoring percentages for the two teams are often similar for both halves. So, if a team is leading by 3 at half-time they can often win the game by 6 or 7 goals.
Motivation is a key factor when assessing betting opportunities for the sport. A marginal drop in playing ability, by as little as 10%, is reflected in the scoring patterns. Home advantage is also highly significant across all leagues and competitions.
For whatever reason handball is of little interest to sports followers in the United Kingdom. In the current world rankings, consisting of about 70 nations, this country is not even featured because we don't play enough matches to allow for assessment.
Great Britain have taken up the option to enter a team for the men's handball competition at next year's Olympics. The reasoning behind this decision is that our appearance will promote the sport and achieve a long term legacy objective of the Games.
However, I think Britain's inclusion will have a detrimental effect on the sport here. I believe the host country will lose each match by a large margin and this can only damage the perception of the sport in this country.
From a domestic viewpoint the main leagues for the men's game are in Germany, Spain and the Scandinavian countries. When I lived and worked in Gibraltar I went to some matches in the main Spanish league. The venues were always packed out and many matches are shown live on Spanish television.
The sport is also very popular in Germany where live television coverage encourages betting and large followings of the major clubs. In addition to the top Bundesliga there are also regional leagues in the north and south of the country.
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