Asian Handicap Football Bets

Asian Handicapping is slightly different to the traditional method of fixed odds betting and predicting whether the outcome of football fixtures will be a home win, draw or an away win. The normal football betting method makes it easy to work out if you’ve won or not. If you predict a home win and the home team wins, you win, any other outcome and you lose. The same also applies to a football match ends in a draw or an away win.

The Asian Handicap football bet is slightly different as they reduces the number of possible outcomes from three down to two. Basically this is achieved by online bookmakers giving one side a head start by way of a points advantage. This method of football betting may sound daunting at first but once you’ve got your head round the fact that poor teams are given a points advantage over superior teams with Asian Handicaps it soon makes sense.

Asian Handicap Bet Explained

An easy way to describe the Asian Handicap football bet is to explain it in its simplest form. This is the +0.5 handicap which is used when one team is a clear favourite. Bookmakers look at both teams and if a home win is most likely the away team may get a half goal head start. This +0.5 handicap means that placing a free bet on the away team would mean:

Home win – You would lose your bet
Draw – You would win your bet
Away win – You would win your bet

Another form of an Asian Handicap football bet that is easy to get your head around is the +0 handicap. This basically means that there’s no clear favourite in the match and that both teams are equally likely to win the match and so therefore no head starts are given. If you bet on the away team the outcome of your bet would be:

Home win – You would lose your bet
Draw – You would draw your bet and your stake is refunded
Away win – You would win your bet

The last easy Asian Handicap Football Bet is the +1 handicap in which one team has a very strong chance of winning. Because it’s even more likely that they’ll win a half goal handicap is not enough and so a whole one goal head start is given to the weaker team. If the way team was given a +1 handicap and you bet on the away team the outcome of your bet would be:

Home win by 2 or more goals – You would lose your bet
Home win by 1 goal – You would draw your bet and your stake is refunded
Draw – You would win your bet
Away win – You would win your bet

If you bet on the home team in the same match the would have a -1 handicap and the outcome of your bet would be as follows:

Home win by 2 or more goals – You would win your bet
Home win by one goal – You would draw your bet and your stake is refunded
Draw – You would lose your bet
Away win -You would lose your bet

Asian Handicap Football Bet

An Asian Handicap football bet starts to get a little confusing when you start dealing with 0.25 and 0.75 handicaps. When placing an Asian Handicap Football Bet with quarters in them you are actually placing two different bets with one made up of a 0 handicap and the other a +0.5 handicap. Basically with Asian Handicaps your stake is divided into two and placed on each bet separately. This means that if decided to place a free football bet on a team with a 0.25 handicap and the match was drawn, you would only win half. Your 0 handicap bet would have been a draw and your stake returned where as the 0.5 bet would have won. Unfortunately you don’t win as much as if the handicap had just been +0.5 to start with.

If you bet on a team with a +0.25 handicap and they draw you would win half. Basically your +0.25 handicap bet would have drawn and your stake returned where you would have won your +0.5 bet but not quite as much as if the handicap had been +0.5. If you bet on a team with a handicap of -0.25 and the game ended in a draw, you would only lose half your stake.

Another thing to note when betting using Asian Handicaps is that 0.75 handicaps are made up of a +0.5 handicap and a +1 handicap meaning that if you placed a bet on a team with a -0.75 handicap and they won the match by just one goal you would win half. A 1.25 handicap would be made up of a +1 handicap and also a handicap of +1.5.

Although it sounds extremely confusing at first, many online bookmakers allow you to practice Asian Handicap football bets for free before betting with your own money. Obviously you’ll not get to keep any winnings that you make but it’s a great way to get your head around the whole concept of an Asian Handicap football bet and what they entail.