Asian Handicap Betting

What is Asian Handicap Betting?

Asian handicap is a very specific type of sports (mainly football) betting option, where one team starts a game with a virtual advantage or handicap over the other. In this type of betting the draw as an option is eliminated. Therefore, in Asian Handicaps the results of matches are explicitly limited to only two outcomes, a win or a lose.

A minus (-) symbol is used for the teams that are deemed as favourites to win and therefore need to cover the handicap. Whereas, a plus (+) symbol is used when you place your bets on the team that is considered to be an underdog and thus has an initial handicap advantage.

Interestingly, with Asian Handicap you can choose to bet on just one team or spread your bet between both opposing teams, obviously taking into account both handicaps.

It is important to know that the initially nominated handicaps can occasionally be adjusted (changed) due to various factors (e.g. a key player gets injured or a recent poor run of results).

Nonetheless, the handicap indicated when you confirm your bet is the handicap that you are betting on, regardless of the finalised handicap offered.

As previously mentioned, Asian Handicap is almost exclusively used for football betting and is taking into account the result at the end of the 90 minutes (including stoppage time). Correspondingly, extra time and penalties are excluded from this.

“Lines” in Asian Handicap

In Asian handicap betting the bookmaker’s aim will always be to create a handicap or “line” that will make the chance of either team winning (taking in mind the handicap) as close to 50% as possible.

There are a few types of handicaps, which are referred to as goals. Starting from quarter goals (0.25, 0.75 etc), going onto half goals (0.5, 1.5 etc) and whole goals (1, 2 etc). Therefore, Asian handicaps can span over from 0 to 2.5 or 3 goals (in matches with huge gaps in abillity). What makes Asian handicaps so appealing and unique is the use of fine, marginal handicaps (quarter goals) in order to get the “line” as close as possible (to 50/50 outcomes). 

With a 0 handicap the teams are considered equally likely to win a match. In this case it is simple because if your selected team wins, you win. If the match ends as a draw, you can refund your stake.

With the whole goal it could happen that it ends as a draw as well. For example, a team with a handicap of -1.0, wins the game by one goal. In this case, all the bets will also be refunded, which is commonly termed as a ‘push.’ 

After all, the majority of matches will be handicapped at half or quarter intervals. This eliminates any chance of a ‘push’ as no team can score a half or a quarter of a goal. Quarter handicaps can split between two closest half intervals. This means that when you bet on any quarter handicaps you can get a half win or a half loss (look at the table below).. 

In the table below there are some common handicaps and results of bets:

Some Realistic examples of handicaps

0.25 handicap example:

To start off with a ‘weaker’ team has an initial 0.25 (quarter) goal advantage.

For example, Valencia @1.90 - Atalanta @2.00

You place your bet of £100 on Valencia to win the +0.25 asian handicap market.

● If Valencia wins, you win the bet.

● If it ends as a draw, you earn a half win, which means that half of your stake is refund and you win the other half at 1.90 odds. Therefore, you still make a profit.

● If Valencia loses, you lose the bet.

0.5 handicap example:

In this case a ‘weaker’ team starts with 0.5 goal advantage.

For example, Olympiakos @2.00 - Wolves @1.85

You place your bet of £100 on Wolves to win -0.5 Asian handicap.

● If Wolves win, you win the bet.

● If it is a draw or a Wolves lose, you lose the bet.

0.75 handicap example:

Here the underdog starts with a 0.75 goal lead.

For example, Rangers @3.00 - Bayer Leverkusen @2.50

You place your bet of £100 on Rangers to win +0.75 Asian handicap.

● If Rangers’ win or a draw, you win the bet.

● I Rangers lose by 1 goal, you lose half of your stake (£50) and the other half is returned to you (£50).

● If Rangers lose by 2 or more goals (e.g. 0-2, 0-3, 2-4…), you lose the bet.

1.0 handicap example:

Here the team that is considered an underdog starts with a virtual 1 goal lead.

For example, PSG @2.00 - Borussia Dortmund @3.50

You place your bet of £100 on PSG to win the -1.0 handicap.

● If PSG wins by 2 or more goals, you win the bet.’

● If PSG wins by exactly 1 goal, it is considered as a virtual draw, so you get you full stake (£100) back.

● If PSG draws or loses the game, you lose all of your stake.

1.5 handicap example:

Virtually, in this example a ‘weaker’ team would initially have a 1.5 goal advantage.

For example, Lask @4.00 - Manchester United @2.05

You place your bet of £100 on Manchester United to win a -1.5 goal handicap.

● If Manchester United win by 2 or more goals, you win the bet by earning a £105 profit.

● If Manchester United wins by 1 goal or match ends as a draw or Manchester United loses, you lose all of your stake.

Asian handicap in live betting

In-play Asian handicap is a betting type that really stands out from the rest, as you can bet from the point of last score. Whenever you bet live with Asian handicap, the game virtually resets back to 0-0 every time a team scores a goal.

For example: Manchester City @1.90 - Arsenal @4.00

Asian handicap for Manchester City is -1.00.

At the start of the game, Manchester city win was priced at 1.90. However, 30 minutes into the game Arsenal score to take a 1-0 lead. Manchester City may then be priced at 2.10 at -1.0 handicap. At this point you may want to predict that Manchester City will score at least two goals by the end of 90 minutes. When you place your bet the score will virtually reset to 0-0.

For argument sake, from the point of the first goal Manchester City score 3 while Arsenal only score 1. This will therefore result as a win and you will make profit. If you had placed your bet at the start of the game, you would only get a ‘push’ as the final score of the game is 3-2.