Asian Handicap betting

Asian handicap betting allows punters to get a better price on the favourite in a football match in exchange for a deduction against their final score, or to improve their chances of winning their bet on an underdog in exchange for a lower price on the underdog.

How does Asian handicapping work?

The principle behind Asian handicapping is simple. It applies a ‘handicap’ in the form of goals to the scores of two teams before a football match begins, and removes the possibility of a draw from the bet.

A simple example is a Premier League clash between Tottenham and Man United.

The bookie offers two options in the Asian handicap market:

• -0.5 on Man United
• +0.5 on Tottenham

Once the match is over, these handicaps are added to the final score, and the bet pays out if the selected team wins once the handicap is factored in.

Using the example above, if the match ends 2-1 to Man United:

• The -0.5 handicap bet on United would change the final score to 1.5-1, which means the bet would win
• The +0.5 handicap bet on Tottenham would change the final score to 2-.15 to United, which means this bet would lose.

As you can see from this example, the handicaps used in Asian handicap betting often do not make use of whole numbers, and instead make use of fractions. This is to avoid the handicap adjusted score producing a draw.

For example, if the handicaps offered in the example above had been -1 and +1, then a final score of 2-1 would have resulted in a handicap draw for both bets.

However, some handicap betting markets do offer whole numbers for Asian handicap bets. In these cases when the handicap score results in a draw, the punters stake is refunded.

Asian handicap 1.75 and other confusing Asian handicap meanings

As we have mentioned, half goals are usually used in Asian handicaps to force football matches to produce a result once the handicap is added to the final score. This means that most of the Asian handicaps you will see will be 0.5, 1.5 or 2.5.

However, there are some variations on how Asian handicaps are used. This can be quite confusing if you aren’t used to using these handicaps. These include handicaps that don’t use .5 number formats, but instead display the handicaps in quarters, for example Asian handicaps like 1.75, 1.25 or 0.25. This handicap may also be displayed as fractions, i.e. 1 ¾, 1 ¼ or ¼.

You’re probably wondering ‘why do bookies need to use quarters in handicaps if halves already do the job’. That’s a reasonable question. If presenting handicaps as factors of 0.5 already forces any match to produce a result, using factors of 0.25 does look a bit pointless.

However, there is a good reason for it.

Bookies use factors of 0.25 to indicate a special type of Asian handicap cap bet – one which takes a handicap bet and turns it into two different handicap bets.

Whenever you take out a bet which is a factor of 0.25, you will automatically place two Asian handicap bets on the closest whole number of 0.5 interval on either side of the bet. This sounds pretty confusing, but it’s quite simple in practice. Just take the handicap, subtract 0.25 from it to determine your first bet. Then add 0.25 to determine your second bet.

For example:

• If you place a bet on 0.25, bets will be placed on 0 and 0.5.
• If you place a bet on 0.75, bets will be placed on 0.5 and 1.
• If you place a bet on 1.25, bet will be placed on 1 and 1.5
• If you place a bet on 1.75, bets will be placed on 1.5 and 2.

By splitting your bet into two separate bets, you are effectively given two opportunities to win your bet. And you can also win half your bet, or get half of it refunded. For more information on how each Asian handicap value works, skip ahead to the section on Asian handicap bet types.

Alternative Asian handicap 0.0 explained

There’s one more Asian handicap market you could stumble on that could be confusing, which is Asian handicap 0.0 market. If you’ve already come across it and are wondering what the alternative Asian handicap 0.0 means, the answer is straightforward – this is the Asian handicap version of a regular 3-way or match bet on a football game.

The confusing part about this bet is there is no handicap at all! Once the game is finished no handicap is added to, or subtracted from, the final score. Instead the final score remains unchanged.

Let’s say you bet on a Asian handicap 0.0 market on Tottenham vs Man United, and select Man United as the match winner:

• If Man United win the game by any score, your bet will pay out
• If Man United lose the game by any score, your bet will lose
• If the match ends in a draw, your stake will be refunded.

From this example it should be clear that the 0.0 Asian handicap is really just a very simplified Asian handicap bet. You don’t need to try figure out what the difference in scores between the two sides will be. You just need to a pick a winner. If your prediction is correct your bet will win, and if the match draws you get your money back.

What do the different Asian handicap markets mean?

One of the reasons why Asian handicaps can be confusing is because each handicap works slightly differently, and will have different outcomes depending on the bet type and the result of the match that is being bet on. To provide more clarity on how this works, we have provided details on each type of Asian handicap market, along with examples and an Asian handicap table which shows all the possible outcomes of a bet on that market.

Where to bet on Asian handicaps

Many bookmakers offer standard handicap markets, which allow add or subtract whole numbers from the final score of football matches. Relatively few offer Asian handicaps on football matches.

Of the large international bookmakers only bet365 offers Asian handicaps on most football matches. Paddy Power, Boylesports and William Hill all tend to offer standard handicaps in their football betting markets.