In this article:
Asian handicaps meaning
Asian handicaps in football betting
Example of Asian handicaps
How to place Asian handicaps
Asian handicaps meaning
Asian handicaps are bets that level the playing field between teams or runners in which there is a clear winner.
You may be aware of normal handicaps or European handicaps. Well, these are exactly the same except your bet is refunded in the event of a draw. That’s a benefit in certain situations as we’ll look at below.
A handicap may be something like a two-goal head start for the underdog in a football fixture for example.
Most online bookmakers offer Asian handicap markets to their customers, so they’re not just for those based in Asia as the name suggests.
It’s important to add that in Asian handicap betting, a draw is refunded. This is essentially a push scenario where neither you (the bettor) nor the bookmaker win the bet.
Asian handicaps in football betting
Handicaps are typically used in football betting as it’s easy to give a goal advantage to one team. There are other sports where you’ll find Asian handicaps but soccer is the most common.
Asian handicap example
This may be a difficult concept for some bettors to understand so here’s an example to help explain. As I mentioned above, Asian handicaps are the same as standard handicaps.
Let’s say that you want to bet on the winner of a football match between Liverpool and Southampton.
In an Asian handicap, Southampton may have a +2.5 goal advantage (Southampton +2.5) as they are seen as the underdogs. So for Liverpool to win this bet, they’d need to score at least three more goals than Southampton.
So if you bet on a Liverpool win and the final score was 2-1 to Liverpool, your bet would lose as Southampton had a 2.5 goal advantage.
However, if the score was 3-0 to Liverpool, your bet would win.
You can also bet on two-way handicaps which are a little more complicated. Basically, this splits your stake into two. Half of your bet is wagered on one handicap and the other is wagered on a slightly higher handicap.
Here’s an example: Southampton +2.0, +2.5.
Half your bet goes to the +2.0 handicap and the other half goes to the +2.5 handicap.
If the fixture ends up as 2-0 to Liverpool, half your bet would be refunded due to a draw and the other half would win thanks to the +2.5 handicap part.
You can see with the two-way handicap, there’s more potential for you to win part of the bet. It’s much like an each-way bet in this regard.
How to place an Asian handicap bet
Placing Asian handicap bets is incredibly easy in the modern world of online gambling. There’s no difference between placing a Win/Draw/Win bet and an Asian handicap bet.
Simply head to your desired bookmaker and find the football fixture you want to place your bets on. Then scroll down to find the Asian handicap market.
Now it’s time to select which Asian handicap you want to bet on. There’s plenty of different handicaps available for each team as you can see in the screenshot below.
Once you’ve selected your market, it’s time to place your bet.
