Asian Handicap betting is an alternative form of football betting that began in Indonesia, or was at least first named Asian Handicap there, in 1998. Unlike 1×2 traditional football betting, with three potential outcomes; home win, away win, and draw, Asian Handicap in betting can cut out the draw to gives just two outcomes. This system is the preferred betting system for experienced and professional football bettors, since Asian Handicap bets tend to give punters better odds and far greater value. Read on for our simple guide to Asian Handicap football betting, where we’ll show you just how to master this system and get more from your football betting!
With the Asian Handicap in betting, the bookmaker calculates the perceived difference in quality and likelihood of winning between the two teams and awards the weaker team an advantage over the stronger team. Doing this means two things; firstly, there can only be two winning outcomes to a match and secondly, in theory, both teams have an equal chance of winning any match.
When you see Asian Handicap odds, you’ll see each team has either a positive or negative figure applied to them alongside the odds on offer. The favourite always has the negative handicap, the underdog always the positive handicap. This all means that you can still win your bet if your team is defeated, depending on the handicap taken.
To give you an example. Let’s look at a match between Manchester City and Chelsea. The bookmaker has looked at the chances of each team winning and decided that Manchester City are big favourites. Therefore, they’ve given Manchester City a -2.0 handicap and Chelsea a +2.0 handicap. This, effectively, means that, when you bet on Man City, they need to beat Chelsea by 3 goals to win your bet. Similarly, as underdogs, Chelsea can lose the game by a goal, draw, or win to deliver a winning bet.
Although many people look at Asian Handicap in betting and think it’s some incredibly complicated system, it’s actually very simple and straightforward, once you have Asian Handicap explained properly – and that’s just what we’re doing for you here.
But, if you want a really simple idea of how it works, think of it this way; when you see Asian Handicap examples it just equals the number of goals you give to the weaker team, just like when you played in the playground when you’d give a team a goal start if you knew they were awful! So the match starts at 1-0. If you score one goal, the result is a draw and you’d need to score two goals to win. Simple!
Asian Handicap betting is essentially this playground equation, but with money! If you back the underdog, add the handicap to their score. If you back the favourite, subtract the handicap instead. The bet pays out on these adjusted scores. If the match ends in a draw, it’s voided and you get your stake back.
Other betting strategies include corner betting and double chance betting – it’s up to you to decide which one works best for you.
With traditional 1×2 match betting, there’s often a big difference in quality between the two teams. This tends to mean that the underdog might have hugely attractive odds for the win but they’ll be very unlikely to actually win you your bet. On the other hand, in 1×2 match betting, the odds for the favourites are, usually, ridiculously low so as to make backing the favourite almost pointless. Add into the equation the problematic factor of the draw, confusing things further, and you see that match betting gives you two ways to lose and just one way to win, with poor favourite returns.
But, with Asian Handicap betting, you’ll see that it’s a system that offers far greater value for your bets. Firstly, because it removes the draw as a losing option, there are only two options for a result, so your chance of losing is reduced. You have two outcomes, one winning, one losing with a draw, if it happens, resulting in the push, where your stake is simply returned to you. Secondly, because the bookmakers are levelling the playing field between the two teams, you’ll find that Asian Handicap odds for both teams are fairly similar and, usually, much better value than traditional 1×2 betting. And, finally, even if the team you backed draws or loses, your bet can still win, depending on the handicap.
All of this means the Asian Handicap bet both lowers the risk of losing and can offer much better value for your betting. Next up, the full details of Asian Handicap explained!
When you see Asian Handicap bets laid out at your favourite sports bookmakers, you’ll see a huge range of numbers representing the handicap, starting at one-quarter goal up to several goals, in increments of half and quarter goals. You’ll find plenty of Asian Handicap charts to explain them or huge Asian Handicap tables full of figures, and referred to by many different names, but, in our simple Asian Handicap explained guide, we’ve broken them down into just four, easy to understand, categories…
Starting with the simplest Asian Handicap example, the level or zero-ball, this is where there’s no perceived difference between the teams and no goals are given as handicaps. You’ll see the Asian handicap figure here as 0:0, meaning that you’re simply backing whichever team you think will win. In the event of a draw, the bet is declared void, and you get your stake back.
With whole handicaps, there’s the possibility of a handicap draw, in which case you receive your stake back. For whole handicaps, you’re given a whole goal in handicap, usually just 1.0, 2.0, or in rare cases 3.0. The favourite would be -1.0, the underdog +1.0. To back the favourite at -1 Asian Handicap would mean they need to score two more goals than the underdog to win and one more goal to draw. If you backed the underdog, you win the bet if they win or if they draw, or if they lose by just one goal for a +2.0, or by two goals on a +3.0 handicap.
Sound easy enough? Why not have a look at some betting sites with 5 pound deposit and get started today?
The half-ball bet is one type of the two-way handicap, where any possibility of a draw is eliminated. So, you will see Asian Handicap 1.5, 2.5, either positive or negative, as half-ball bets. Again, these are pretty simple, just add or take away the handicap.
For example, if Tottenham is +1.5 against Arsenal, just add 1.5 to Tottenham’s final score and compare to Arsenal. Here, if the underdog wins or draws, they automatically win the bet. So, if the match result is 1-0 to Tottenham, the bet result is 2.5-0 if they draw 0-0, the bet result is 1.5-0 to Tottenham. And if Tottenham lose 0-1, the bet result is 1.5-1, meaning Tottenham still win the bet.
These are more complicated, known as split handicap bets or two-way handicaps. Simply put, the bet is split in the easiest way possible using zero-ball, whole-ball, half-ball, and quarter-ball figures. With these, your stake is split in half and placed on each of the two handicap figures.
For example, a quarter-ball bet of +0.25 is split into one zero-ball bet plus one +0.5 handicap. Half your stake goes on each. If the team win, you win both bets. If the game is a draw, you win the 0.5 handicap, but the zero-ball stake is returned.
A +1.25 bet is calculated by splitting your stake again, half going on a +1.0 and half stake on a +1.5 handicap. And a +1.75 bet is calculated by half stake on a +1.5 handicap and half stake on a +2.0 handicap.
For example, Tottenham v Arsenal again. This time, Tottenham are given a +1.75 handicap. You put £10 bet on. £5 is put on as a +1.5 handicap, £5 is put on as a +2.0 handicap.
If Tottenham win or draw, both bets win. If Tottenham lose by 1, both handicaps win. If Tottenham lose by 2, the +1.5 handicap is lost and the +2.0 handicap is drawn with the stake returned. If Tottenham lose by 3 or more, both handicaps are lost.
With so many options to choose from, Asian Handicap betting can take some getting used to – but it can add a lot to your betting armoury if you know how to use it.
Looking for more betting guides? You’ve landed in the right place! How about having the four fold bet explained, or learning more about gambling winnings tax?
Users must be 18+. If you are having trouble with gambling then help and advice can be found at begambleaware.org. Please Play Responsibly.
This site is using Cloudflare and adheres to the Google Safe Browsing Program. We adapted Google's Privacy Guidelines to keep your data safe at all times.
