Asian Handicaps Explained

The most common way to bet on football in the UK is with 3 way betting (sometimes called 1X2). The three options are home win, draw and away win. Working out whether you win a bet is straight forward. If you bet on a home win and the home side wins, you win, else you loose. The same goes for the draw and the away win.

The aim of Asian Handicap betting is to reduce the outcome of the bet from 3 outcomes to 2. This is achieved by giving one side a head start. At first the figures may seem a bit daunting but once you understand a few common handicaps the rest is easy.

The easiest handicap is to picture is the +0.5 handicap. This is given when one team is a clear favourite. So if a home win is expected, the away side may be given a half goal head start. If you bet on the away side the outcome of your bet is as follows:

Home win - Lose bet
Draw - Win bet
Away win - Win bet

Another easy handicap to grasp is the +0 handicap. This is where no side is the favourite so neither side is given a goal head start. If you bet on the away side, the bet outcomes are as follows:

Home win - Lose bet
Draw - Draw bet*
Away win - Win bet

*A draw bet is where your stakes are refunded.

The final straightforward handicap is the +1 handicap. This is where one team is a very strong favourite. A half goal handicap is not enough so the weaker side is given a full goal head start. So if an away side was given a +1 handicap, and you bet on the away team the outcomes are as follows:

Home win by 2 or more goals - Lose bet
Home win by one goal - Draw bet.
Draw - Win bet
Away win - Win bet

If you bet on the home team (which would have a -1 handicap) the outcome is as follows:

Home win by 2 or more goals - Win bet
Home win by one goal - Draw bet.
Draw - lose bet
Away win - lose bet

These handicaps can be added together to form other handicaps. So if there was an banker type favourite the handicap may be +1.5. Here the favourite has to win by 2 clear goals or the team loses the handicap bet.

Do not confuse these with the 1X2 (or European) Handicaps. A -1 handicap 1X2 is equivalent to an Asian Handicap of -1.5. A +1 1X2 handicap is equivalent to a +0.5 Asian Handicap.

The handicaps that people struggle with the most are the 0.25 and the 0.75 handicaps. How is a quarter ball handicap different to a half goal handicap? Surely if you bet on a team with a plus quarter ball handicap and the match ends in a draw, you should win your bet the same as with a half ball handicap. That's actually not too far from what happens.

When you put these handicaps with quarters in them, you are actually placing 2 separate bets. So a quarter ball handicap is made up of a 0 handicap bet and a +0.5 handicap bet. Your stake is simply divided in half and put on each bet separately.

So if you placed a bet on a team with a plus a quarter handicap and the match ended in a draw, you would win half. Your +0 handicap bet would have drawn and you would get your stake back, whereas your +0.5 bet would have won so you win. Overall you win but you don't win as much as if the handicap was +0.5. If you bet on a team with a -0.25 handicap and the match was a draw, you would lose half your stake.

The 0.75 handicap is simply made up of the +0.5 handicap and the +1 handicap. So if you bet on a team with a -0.75 handicap and they won by exactly one goal, you would only win half. A 1.25 handicap is made up of a +1 and a +1.5 handicap.

Why bother with these Asian Handicaps if we already have 3 way betting? The answer lies in the bookie margin. With three outcomes the bookie can put a higher margin into the pricing. Even shopping around for the best 3 way odds the book value is still around 106% for a typical match. With Asian Handicaps and the two outcomes the bookie margin is much less. By doing a little shopping around its possible to reduce the bookie margin to zero on most football matches.

Recommended bookies for Asian Handicaps are Bet365, Premierbet, Sportingbet, Ladbrokes, Gamebookers and Victor Chandler. Betfair do Asian Handicaps but after commission the odds are generally worse there.

Ben writes football (soccer) betting tips for http://www.klsbetting.com visit for more articles and betting picks.

More Resources

Unable to open RSS Feed $XMLfilename with error HTTP ERROR: 404, exiting

More Casino/Gambling Information:

Related Articles

My Official Cheapskate Guide to Las Vegas
TRAVEL- The following is my penny pinchers guide to Las Vegas. The best way to cut your vacation costs is to travel cheap.
Money Management, Why You Need to Manage Your Bankroll
You should only play games that your bankroll will allow. If you have 200 dollars to play with for a month you don't want to lose it all in the first week playing a 5-10 no-limit game.
Party Poker Sign up Bonus Code Tutorial
I have had a lot of emails from people who are looking for a partypoker sign up bonus code. To save some time I have written a simple tutorial on how to get and use a partypoker sign up bonus code.
Heres an Easy Exercise to Improve Your Texas Holdem Play
Many beginning Texas Holdem players develop a playing style that is tight but weak. Maybe they have learned the value of playing only a select few starting hands.
Horse Racing Betting, A Beginners Guide (Part 2)
In part one we went over how to pick contending horses by looking at the jockey, trainer and then finished off by looking at the form of the horse. By looking at the factors we went over last time you should now have been able to select some winners.
Video Poker - Tips to Remember
Video poker is an easy game to learn to play well, so do take the time to learn the basic draw strategy, as well as the best machines to play (the ones with the most favorable payout schedule). In addition, the tips below will give you a better chance of winning and overall make the game more enjoyable.
Freeroll Poker Tournaments - The Greatest Deal Of All!
Freeroll poker tournaments are daily events that happen on a lot of the best online poker websites. Freerolls are much loved by the poker playing community as they offer the poker players the chance to win some real money without losing any.
Poker Hand Rankings
Poker hand rankings are one of the most important aspects of any poker game. When playing online poker, especially fast online poker games such as Texas Holdem Poker, you need to be able to quickly discern which cards are needed to create a better poker hand.
The Secrets of the Inside Numbers
The CrapshooterThe Secret of The Inside NumbersPssst..
Becoming a Consistent Winner at Online Low-Limit Texas Hold Em
Start with LIMIT Texas Hold 'EmBoth limit and no-limit Texas Hold 'Em are wonderful games. Each game provides unique opportunities in nearly every single hand and subtle complexities that can take more than a lifetime to master.
Soccer Livebetting
Live betting is one of the main sources of income for the bookmaker why?Well before the match starts there is always large publicity about the coming fixtures for Live matches.They are often 2 strong team facing each other and they are most likely to be telecast throughout the world.
My Las Vegas Review
Recently I took ten days off and went to Las Vegas! This was my sixth trip there in the last three years In the last 6 visits I think I have found out some great places to eat gamble and sleep- So I am posting this as my offical Las Vegas Review.If you have never been to Las Vegas or haven't been there in 2 years than this review will be helpful to you.
World Series of Poker Mania
The popularity of the World Series of Poker gained tremendousmomentum from The Travel Channel's World Poker Tour showings. Although the event had been showing for a number of years on ESPN, when new technologies such as the table camera were used,television watchers began getting involved in the hands as they were being played.
Do You Want to Discover the Three Hidden Secrets of the Poker Playing Professional?
What's the difference between an amateur and a professional when it comes to poker playing? Professionals consistently win. Do you want to win like a pro? Professional poker players are professionals for a good reason - their professionals.
Online Gambling
Online gambling is hot. In fact there are websites popping up everywhere with new gambling options.
Craps 101: What You Need to Know About
Alternatively called as Hazard, Craps has been here since centuries. Now the game has been brought to the visitor's PC.
Gender Differences in Gambling
Being a fairly regular gambler, I have noticed a few interesting differences between men and women over the many years I've spent on the casino floor. Although these observations are by no means scientific, the general results have more or less been consistent.
The Secret of Pushing the Pass Line
Pssst..
Viva Las Vegas Buffets
Please correct me if I am wrong but aren't Las Vegas Buffets just the best in the world! Ok there are a few ones that are a bit how's your father (an Australian term for so so) but I am yet to go to a buffet that I havn't enjoyed. This is probably why I have a Vegas Buffet waist line.
Gambling Addiction 101
A lot many of us know something or the other about gambling, must have at some point or the other have indulged in it in some or the other form. A trip to Las Vegas takes us right into the heart of the matter although the start might be as simple as a game of poker with friends while waiting for the school bus.