st century is the Asian Handicap football market. Our “football betting experts” use this method frequently in their predictions. In part three of our essential guide, we take a look in more detail at this popular form of betting,making it easier to understand.
What is an Asian handicap?
A system that originated in Indonesia, Asian handicap betting is a style of football betting in which teams are handicapped according to their form so that a stronger team must win by more goals for a punter betting on them to win. Typical handicaps range from one-quarter goal to several goals, in increments of half- or even quarter-goals. Asian handicap betting reduces the possible number of outcomes in a game (traditionally 1X2 or home team win, draw, away team win) to just two, eliminating the draw option.
Why is it called an Asian handicap?
Quite simply, the phrase was coined way back in 1998 by journalist Joe Saumarez Smith who was asked by an Indonesian bookmaker to provide a translation for the term “hangcheng betting” which washow Far Eastern bookmakers referred to it. Hence the Asian handicap was born.
An example of Asian handicap betting
The handicap is a figure such as +0.5 or +1.0 or +1.5, or -0.5 or -1.0 or -1.5. This figure represents a goals head start or a goals deficit awarded to the teams before kick-off.
For example, its Manchester United v Everton at Old Trafford, United would be favourites to win the game let’s say 1.20. This price would not be very popular with the majority of punters. Everton would be a very long price and few people will be interested in betting on an Everton win either. This is where the Asian Handicap markets come into play. United would be given some sort of negative handicap, such as -1.5. This figure represents a goals handicap before the game – literally -1.5 goals. That’s the handicap Manchester United starts the game with. To win your bet, United would need to win the game by two goals on more to win your bet.
Is there only ever one handicap per game?
Not at all,for any given game there are plenty of different positive and negative handicaps for you to pick from. So if we take the example above you’d find Manchester United -1.0, -1.25, -2.0 and Everton +1.0, +1.25, +1.50 and so on. Below is a table to guide you:
What price would Manchester United be to beat Everton with a -2.0 Asian handicap?
This would obviously depend on the market but the price would be more generous than if you were to just bet on United to win the match outright.
Say the Asian Handicap I’ve picked is a round number – e.g. -1.0 or -2.0 – as opposed to a half number and the handicap gets equalled by the actual score line in the game. What happens then?
In this instance your stake is simply returned to you. Taking Manchester United v Everton as an example again, if you bet on Manchester United to win using an Asian handicap of -1.0 and the result is 2-1 then the handicap has been equalled so your original stake is returned.
There are other forms of Asian handicap betting available. Check out our “football experts” for a more detailed view.
By Steve Mitchell (@barafundler)
Bet Advisors Essential Guide to Betting – Part 1]]>
