Asian Handicap Betting Explained

Bookmakers in Asia present odds for various markets as an integral part of their betting offer, both on pre-match and live sports betting. Most sports events will have some Asian handicap or Asian total (over/under) markets available for betting, so we will present the basics and cover the most popular sport of all – football. This way of betting is especially interesting when the probability of one side winning the match is significantly higher than the opponent’s. Let’s start by defining the Asian handicap.

What is Asian Handicap?

Asian handicap is a form of sports betting market that is very popular in Asia, as its name signifies. Also presented sometimes as Asian HCP, it gives a virtual handicap (disadvantage or advantage) to the opposing teams, thus eliminating the chance of a draw in the match. In terms of bookmaker’s offer, this is done by presenting a positive or negative goal (or points) handicap for each team in a match, depending on which participant is perceived as the favourite (negative) and which as the underdog (positive). These markets may seem complicated at first glance, but it is actually a simple betting market type.

Simply put, without the draw option, Asian handicaps present only 2 possible outcomes in a match: Team A or Team B win. In some special cases, your bet might be settled as a ‘push‘, which we will cover as well in the following examples.

Three Types of Asian Handicap

There are few types of Asian handicaps which we will explain in detail here:

• Half goal (0.5, 1.5, 2.5, etc),
• Whole goal (1.0, 2.0, etc),
• Quarter goal (0.25, 0.75, etc).

As we previously mentioned, all of these can be presented as positive or negative values, and it will be easier to understand by reading the following detailed explanation and examples. We will present the AH betting options on bookmakers like PS3838 or Singbet.

Half Goal Asian Handicap betting -0.5 / 0.5

As we said, the half goal difference eliminates the draw option. In the standard betting markets there’s a ‘Double Chance’ option, where one team is considered to be the winner if the game ends in a win for them or a draw. 

If you place a bet on a team where the AH is – 0.5, your bet will be a winning one only if the team wins and you will lose if the game ends in a draw or your team loses. Similarly if you place a bet on a team for which the handicap is 0.5, your bet will be a winning one if the team wins or the game ends in a draw. 

Of course, the margin doesn’t have to be 0.5, if it is -1.5 for example, your bet will win only if the team wins by at least two goals – 2:0, 3:1, 3:0, 4:2, 4:1, etc.

Full Goal Asian Handicap betting -1.0 / 1.0

With whole goal Asian handicap a goal advantage is virtually added to one of the teams. In this case we assume that the game starts with 1:0, 0:1, 2:0 depending on the goal difference and which team gets the advantage. 

Let’s assume the standard situation where Team A is slightly better than Team B, so we have a goal difference in favour of Team B. If you place a + 1.0 wager on the underdog team, the bet will be a win if the game ends in a draw or a win, whereas if Team A wins by a single goal difference the bet is a push. In the case of a push you get your stake bet, so this is identical to the ‘Draw no bet’ market in conventional betting. 

On the other hand, if you’re betting on – 1.0 your team needs to win by a goal margin for a push and at least two goals for your bet to win. If the game ends in a draw, your bet will be a loss. 

Level Ball

An interesting selection among the possible full Asian handicaps, is ‘Level ball‘ AH, also presented as 0.0 and in non-Asian bookies as ‘Draw No Bet’ (DNB) market. Let’s say you bet on a team to win on the AH 0.0 market – all that you need is your team to win, and you will win your coupon. If there is a draw, it’s a ‘push‘ – you get your stake refunded, but if your team loses the game, you lose your bet.

Check the table below for more information on this betting market.

Quarter Goal Asian Handicap betting -0.25 / 0.25

This is the most complex, but also the most interesting type of Asian handicap bet. Here we assume that one of the teams starts with a quarter goal head-start. With this option you split your stake even further, but we’ll get to that. 

Let’s say that you bet on the favourite and they are disadvantaged by a quarter of a goal. If your team wins by any margin you win your bet. If the game ends in a draw, you lose half of your stake and get the half back, whereas if your team loses, you lose the full stake. As you can see, it is not as complicated as it seems. 

While the goal options are the most popular and most interesting ones, there are also Asian over/under markets. These markets basically are a twist on the conventional over/under markets. 

What is Asian Total (Over / Under)?

Punters love the classic over/under bets because here it doesn’t matter who scores or doesn’t score, as long as the total number of goals during a match is within the desired margin.

The goal in this bet is to correctly predict the margin of goals that will be scored during a game. Unlike the standard over/under bets, here the line can be placed on half or a quarter, like 1.75, 2.0, 2.25, 3.50 etc. 

Types of Over/Under

All the principles that relate to Asian handicap betting also apply here, but instead of betting which team will win by what margin here you bet on the total number of goals. So, if you bet over 2.5, your bet is a win if the total number of scored goals is at least 3, and you lose when the number of goals is 2 or fewer.

If you bet that the number of goals will be under 3.0, you will get your stake bet if the total number of goals is 3 and win if two or fewer goals were scored. Understandably, the bet will be lost if the number of scored goals is 4 or more.

If the goal line is set on a quarter, there is an option to win half of your bet and get your stake back or lose half of your bet and get your stake back on half. For instance, if you bet over 2.75 and there are 3 goals in the game, you will win half of your wager and get the stake back on the remaining half. If the teams score a total of 4 or more goals then you will win the bet in full.

But goals isn’t the only event for which over/under bets are offered, you can bet on the number of corners, cards and more, depending on the sport and what the specific provider offers.

How to start betting on Asian handicaps?

Betting on Asian handicaps and totals is definitely not complicated, as it may seem at first, but more importantly, it offers you many new options to step up your betting game on football and other sports.

As all professionals do, aspiring profitable bettors should start with the analysis of the teams, their form, stats, game conditions, and compare their conclusions with the odds offered by the bookmakers. The Asian market provides the best odds compared to the rest of the bookies out there.

The best place to find highest odds on the market, and take full advantage of all Asian handicap betting selections is BetInAsia BLACK Sports Trading platform. One account will allow you to use more than ten Asian bookmakers and major betting exchanges. Start by opening an account with BetInAsia, and trying out BLACK, and other products and services offered in the BetInAsia Portal.