Understand Football Bettings - Asian Handicap Odds Explained

Another popular way of betting on football is the Asian Handicap (AH) market. In recent years the popularity of Asian handicap betting has exploded with tens of thousands of pounds being bet on football handicaps every weekend. What does Asian Handicap mean? To the uninitiated, Asian Handicap odds can appear a little complicated at first glance. 

To put it simply, Asian Handicaps give both teams a goals handicap, either a goals advantage (+) or a goals deficit (-),.

An example of an Asian Handicap odds, with odds  for an upcoming match between Arsenal and Liverpool. Arsenal have a handicap of -0.5 goals while Liverpool have a handicap of +0.5 goals. What does this mean? It means that if you bet on Arsenal -0.5 goals, Arsenal must win the match for you to win your bet. On the other hand if you bet on Liverpool, then either a Liverpool win or a draw will be enough for you to win your bet. 

The easiest way to understand handicap betting is to take the full time result and adjust the scoreline to incorporate each team's handicap. If a team has a minus handicap (as Arsenal does in the above example) we deduct that handicap from their fulltime score. If they still lead after the handicap has been deducted, then that is a winning handicap bet.

On the other hand, if a team has a positive handicap (as Liverpool does), then we simply add the handicap to their fulltime score. If they then lead after the handicap has been added, then that is the winning handicap bet.

Calculating Asian Handicaps: Two Examples

So let's say you have bet on Arsenal with the -0.5 handicap. The fulltime result is Arsenal  2, Liverpool 1. Is your handicap bet on Arsenal a winner? We simply deduct Arsenal's -0.5 goal handicap and we have an adjusted scoreline of Arsenal 1.5, Liverpool 1. With their -0.5 goal handicap deducted, Arsenal still "win" the match by half a goal. In this case, your handicap bet on Arsenal is a winner.

But what if we bet on Liverpool with the +0.5 goal handicap? In this example, let's then say that the match ended in a draw 2-2. Is our Liverpool handicap bet a winner? We add the +0.5 goal handicap to Liverpool's score, giving us an adjusted scoreline of Arsenal 2, Liverpool 2.5. With this adjusted scoreline, Liverpool "wins", meaning our handicap bet on Liverpool is a winning wager. 

Asian handicap betting is a great way to bet on football, making even the most lopsided contest suddenly a thrilling match, not to mention the potential to find hidden value in Asian Handicap football betting markets.

There is also the possibility of betting on what are known as Quarter Asian Handicaps. 

Don't just read and understand, try to bet once! Our smallest bet is from 5SGD and above! To new members, you can claim up to 100% Welcome Bonus!