Asian Handicap Betting

Asian Handicap Explained

The Asian Handicap market can be used to place bets on many sports, but the most popular sport for this market is Football, and that's what we will focus on in this article.

By doing this, it allows you to bet on an outsider with more favourable odds as they not only need to win but also need to overcome the handicap. When giving an underdog a head start, the odds will be shorter than a standard 1x2 bet, but with this advantage, there is a greater chance of them winning.

The market can seem complicated at first, and certain options are more complicated than others, but with this guide, you will find out all you need to understand the market fully.

How to place an Asian Handicap Bet

So, how do you place a bet on the Asian Handicap market? The steps below will show you what you need to do in order to place a bet on this Market.

1. Select a site from our list of partners on this page and click the icon to be directed to their homepage.
2. Click on the register or similar icon to begin the process of joining the sportsbook.
3. Complete the registration process, ensuring all the information you input is correct, as you may be asked to confirm your phone number, address or email address.
4. Once you have completed the registration process, you will need to deposit money into your account. Do this by heading to the account section, selecting your preferred payment method and amount and making a deposit.
5. Now you can place your bet. Head to the sports section, choose your preferred football league, find the match you wish to bet on, and click on that match.
6. Scroll down to find the correct market and click on the odds which are next to the bet you wish to place. This should put the bet into your betslip. Enter the amount you wish to bet and confirm the bet.
7. Hopefully, sit back back enjoy the game and hope your bet wins.

What types of Asian Handicap bets are there?

There are three types of handicap bets, which get a little more complicated as the list continues. It’s important to learn about all of them, as they all have their place if you want to expand your betting options when wanting to place a bet on a football match.

• Whole Number Handicaps - The simplest type of Asian Handicap bet, which gives a team a specified number of goals head start, for example, +1 or +2, or deducts from their final score, shown as -1 or -2. This is the only type of handicap bet where your bet could result in a “push” and your whole stake would be refunded. This would happen if you bet on a team to win with a -1 handicap, as shown in the table below, your money would be refunded if they win by 1 goal. A two-goal or better victory would mean they have beaten the handicap of -1, and your bet wins. Any other score would result in your bet losing.
• Half Number Handicaps- Although these may look a little more confusing, they're not. The .5 actually means that no game can end in a draw, so there's no chance of getting your money back; your bet can only win or lose. This time, let's say you backed a team to win with a -0.5 handicap. Only half a goal is removed from their final score, so any win is still a win. If it were -1.5, they would need to beat that number and win by 2 clear goals.
• Quarter Number Handicap- Also known as split handicaps, is the most complicated type of Asian Handicap. In this market, your stake is split between two handicaps. This type of bet can be displayed in two different ways. The first is the quarter number, for example, -0.75.. Some sites display the market as  -0.5 & -1.0. They both mean the same thing, and 50% of your stake is placed on each handicap. As you can see in the table below, this means not only is it possible to win or lose your bet, but you could get 50% of your stake back.

Real examples of Handicaps Available Online in Malaysia

So let's take a look at some actual examples of bets you could place. For this, we will examine the English Premier League match between Manchester United and Sunderland. In the standard 1x2 market, Manchester are favourites at 1.54, the draw is 4.2, and Sunderland are 5.4. The odds for each bet are in brackets below.

So let's consider a few handicap markets and how the odds are affected, and how the handicap may change the result.

Manchester United -1 (1.88) - Sunderland +1 (1.89)

First is a whole number handicap. You can see that with the 1 goal handicap, the odds on Manchester United winning have lengthened to 1.88, but the odds on Sunderland with the 1 goal boost have shortened to 1.89, making the odds virtually the same on both teams.

So if you had bet on Manchester United -1, you would of course still lose if the game was a draw or a Sunderland victory, as a one-goal win would be wiped out by the -1 handicap, resulting in the game being a draw and your stake refunded. If Manchester United wins by two or more goals, then they have overcome the handicap, and your bet wins

Next, we will look at the half-goal Handicap.

Manchester United -1.5 (2.41) -  Sunderland +1.5 (1.55)

In this example, as the handicap has increased on Manchester United, you can see their odds have lengthened even further. Sunderland's odds have reduced to the point that they are now favourites.

As the table shows, this would mean that to win a bet on Manchester United, Manchester would need to win by two or more goals; any other result would result in a loss of your bet. If you had bet on Sunderland, they could afford to lose by one goal, and your bet still wins. But any worse than that and your bet loses.

Finally, the more complicated quarter goal handicap.

Manchester United -1.75 (2.85) -  Sunderland +1.75 (1.41)

As you can see, once again, as the handicap has increased, Manchester United’s odds have lengthened and Sunderland's have shortened.

So in this example, remember that your bet has been split between -1.5 and -2 or +1.5 and +2.0. In the examples where Manchester has won by 2, this means your -2 or +2 side of the bet has pushed, resulting in 50% of your stake being returned. The 1.5 part of the bet has lost in both examples.