Jon Karlsson

For fans who like to have a casual bet on the football, Asian Handicap is probably something they never venture near. Yet this form of betting can be not only the most profitable, but also the most sensible. Once you get the hang of it, Asian Handicap betting becomes very very easy.

Asian Handicap betting, as the name suggests, originated in Asia. Rumour has it that betting on football in Asia was not doing so well in the beginning, simply because Asian bettors did not like the draw. So, the bookmakers had to come up with something to make football betting attractive to an Asian market, and the thing they chose was the Asian Handicap.

Although it works like a normal handicap, with the idea of making the match fairer and more equal, it usually only involves two outcomes. With Asian Handicap betting there is no third result. The markets offered eliminate the draw altogether as you side with one team or the other, and because of this it is far far better for football punters.

Just to show this point, imagine a normal match where you can bet on the home team to win, the draw, or the away team to win. When all the odds for these are added together you will probably get to a total of around 110% or higher, so no matter what the outcome is, the bookmaker is sure to make 10% profit.

With Asian Handicap betting, the bookmaker’s edge, margin, or whatever you want to call it, is usually around 2 to 3%, so a total book price of 102% or 103%. As a result the price that you can get for an outcome is much better than if the bookmaker gives himself a 10% profit margin. This is why Asian Handicap gives punters the extra advantage.


Let’s have a look at a typical Asian Handicap market:

Let’s say that Liverpool were playing against Sunderland. We would probably expect Liverpool to win, but the Asian Handicap market will try to make it fairer as any handicap would.

So the odds and Asian Handicap we might see could be:

Liverpool -1 (1.90)
Sunderland +1 (1.90)

As with a normal handicap it is clear that Liverpool start the game with -1 goal, so if you picked them you would need them to win by 2 goals. Also, Sunderland begin +1 goal, so as long as they do not lose the game, you would win.

But, here is another good thing with Asian Handicap. Let’s say that you chose Liverpool -1 as shown above, and that Liverpool won the game 1-0. Now with a normal handicap, you would lose your bet, because Liverpool scoring 1 just cancels out the handicap so they have 0.

However, if you decided to place your money on an Asian Handicap market and Liverpool won 1-0, you get your stake back. So importantly you don’t lose! This is called a push: Your stake is returned.

Half Ball Handicaps

With Asian Handicap there has also been the idea that using 1 goal handicaps only is not really always the right thing to do. Can we always say that one team are 1 goal better than the other? A lot of games are much closer than that.

This is the reason that half ball, or as some people know them, half goal, handicaps were introduced.

As a result, a typical Asian Handicap for Aston Villa v Everton might look like the following:

Aston Villa -0.5 (1.80)
Everton +0.5 (1.95)

What this means is really very simple. Aston Villa start the game minus half a goal (-0.5), so in order to cover this handicap they simply must win the game. Because if they win 1-0, then when we add the handicap they still have more than the opposition (0.5-0).

Equally, for Everton it is just as if we chose a traditional Double Chance bet. Everton begin the game with the +0.5 handicap. So if the game finished say 1-1, when we apply Everton’s handicap they win as it the score would be 1-1.5.

Quarter Ball Handicaps

Things can get a little more in-depth than the half handicaps too. Some bookmakers often introduce 2 handicaps for one team. These can be known as quarter ball handicaps. What this effectively does is to split your bet into two. So when you choose this market you essentially get two bets and your stake is split in half, so half on each bet.

Let’s say that Manchester United are playing at home against Fulham. The odds and handicaps might look as follows:

Manchester United -0.5, 1 (1.72)
Fulham +0.5, 1 (2.01)

As mentioned, your bet is split into two bets when you bet on this. So let’s say you place 20 currency units on Manchester United -0.5, 1 at the price of 1.72. Manchester United win the game 1:0. You have won the first part of your bet, where Manchester United beat the -0.5 handicap, but the second part of your bet is not a winner. It is a push, and you get half of your stake returned.

You can sometimes see these lines written in different ways like, -0.75, -1.25, +1.25 etc. This is still the same bet where your stake is split, just a different way of writing it.

Asian Handicap lines like this for example could be:

Arsenal -0.75 (just the same as -0.5, 1)
Liverpool -1.25 (just the same as -1, 1.5)
Fulham +1.75 (just the same as +1.5, 2)
Celtic -2.25 (just the same as -2, 2.5)

Easy Level Ball Handicaps

Finally I would like to end with probably the most simple Asian Handicap, and that is Asian Handicap 0, or as some call it, level ball.

This bet is exactly the same as the traditional Draw No Bet (just as +0.5 Asian Handicap on any team is the same as Double Chance), it is just the Asian way of presenting it.

It’s quite common to see both teams given this option in Asian Handicap betting. So typical odds and handicap for say Chelsea v Arsenal might be:

Chelsea 0 (2.00)
Arsenal 0 (2.10)

Just as Draw No Bet, if you choose either team on this option and the game ends in a draw, your stake is refunded. It is often better to choose this option than the traditional Draw No Bet (which bookmakers still offer alongside Asian Handicap 0) simply because most of the time this option is a better price (due to the lower margin bookmakers operate for Asian Handicaps).

In Summary

I hope that this article has cast a bit more light onto Asian Handicap betting for those who may have thought it is very complicated. Most of the time it is a better way to bet  and can offer you far more choices for betting on a game.

There are lots of places full of great Asian Handicap odds and these are always the best places to do your football betting. Speaking as a long time football punter, Asian Handicap is just a smarter way of betting so I mostly use it!

Remember to keep checking out my tips (click here), and good luck to all fellow football bettors out there!