Asian Handicap

The Asian Handicap is a popular bet type, but before playing with it you should first understand how it works.

Topics Addressed

The Asian Handicap bet type
Halves
Rounds
Double Asian Handicap Bets (Quarters)

The Asian Handicap bet type is becoming increasingly popular, as people find it much easier than the regular bet on football. We have to say that this is not necessarily true, but there is no doubt this is a much more straight-forward kind of bet.

What makes is such, put in simple words, is the elimination of the draw result, hence leaving the player with only two possible outcomes to bet on.

The bookie's aim is to create a line which will make each team's chances to win as close to 50% as possible. This is done by "handicapping" one of the teams - or in the case of the game of football - giving their opponents a number of goals head start.

The number of goals is set by the bookie, after considering the strengths of the teams involved in the match. If the teams are fairly equal, the bookie might set a handicap of 0.5 goals. This means that the weaker team, from the bookie point of view, starts the match with a 0.5-0 lead.

If there is a clear favourite in the match, the handicap will grow bigger, getting as high as 2 or 3 goals. By giving such a huge lead to the underdog, the bookie can set a line close to the 50-50 chance.

There are three common methods for the Asian Handicap bets:

Halves:

This is the easiest to comprehend, so we'll start from here.

In this method the handicap comes in the form of half-goals. This can be a +0.5 advantage or a +2.5 advantage. Here's an example:

Let's assume Brazil take on England. The bookie considers Brazil to be stronger and decides to give England a 1.5 goal start. This will show:

Brazil -1.5 vs. England +1.5

This means that match starts with England leading 1.5-0. Since we have great faith in England we decide to place our money on them.

Winning The Bet - We win if one of three occurs: (a) England win, (b) The match ends in a draw or (c) Brazil win by one goal. In these three scenarios Brazil fail overcome the 1.5 goals advantage the bookie gave England.
Losing The Bet - We lose the bet if Brazil overcomes the 1.5 Goal advantage, by winning by a two-goal margin or more.

Rounds:

The principle in the Rounds method is similar to the one we saw in the Halves, but there are a couple of differences. The first and most obvious is the fact that the handicap comes in the form of round goals. The other is... Well, let's explain this using another example:

Brazil and England meet again, but this time the bookie decided to give England a 1 goal advantage. Therefore:

Brazil -1 vs. England +1

As we already know, from the bookie point of view England start the match with a 1-0 lead.

Winning The Bet - To win this bet we need England to win or at least salvage a draw. This means that, once again, Brazil failed to overcome the 1 goal advantage. This one is simple.
Losing The Bet - If Brazil wins by 2 goals or more, the 1 goal advantage is obsolete and we lose the bet.
Drawing The Bet - Now we stand with one option open - what if Brazil wins by 1 goal? Such a result draws the bet, as Brazil's win evens England's advantage. Well, in this case the solution is simple - the bookie refunds your stake and that is it. You neither win nor lose.

Double Asian Handicap Bets:

This is the tricky part of the Asian Handicap. Once you understand the idea behind this - it's easy to comprehend what's going on, but this is not as simple as you would think.

The double Asian Handicap bet is a situation when a wager is split into two equal and separate bets. For instance:

Brazil -1, -1.5 vs. England +1, +1.5 (The odds for England to win are 2.05)

As you can see, there are two handicaps here: 1 and 1.5.

Let's assume we decide to place a £100 bet on England. The bookie "takes" the £100 and splits them in half, just as if we made two bets: £50 on England +1 and another £50 on England +1.5. The odds for both these bets are as specified - 2.05.

Since we actually made 2 bets, there are more possible scenarios:

Winning The Bet - If England wins, we also win our total bet, as Brazil failed to overcome neither of the two handicaps.
Losing The Bet - If Brazil wins by 2 goals or more we lose our entire bet, as they managed to overcome the two handicaps. Obviously, there is nothing special here.
Half Win - In case Brazil wins by 1 goal, we win the +1.5 bet but draw the +1 bet. This is considered as "Half Win", as we won only half of our bet (£50*odds) while the other half is refunded.
Half Loss - This could have happened if we chose to bet on Brazil and Brazil won by 1 goal. In this case we lose the -1.5 bet and draw the -1 bet.

Another way to display the Double Bet is by using Quarters. Instead of showing two handicaps, we show one which is their average. Therefore, another way to display our previous example is:

Brazil -1¼ vs. England +1¼