Asian Handicap Betting

Asian handicap betting has been a very popular way of betting on football matches for a long time in Asia, and now it is catching on in a big way here in the West. The appeal of Asian handicap betting is that is reduces the number of possible outcomes in a football match from three (win, draw or lose) to just two (win or lose). This gives football betting fans a greater chance of having a successful bet, so for those who like the idea of winning more often, here’s how Asian handicap betting works…

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To begin with, the sportsbook operator looks at the match in question and arrives at a conclusion about which team is more likely to win according to previous form, current fitness and other associated variables. The team that is deemed to be the favourite to win is then assigned a handicap which is a figure that will be deducted from the number of goals that it scores (the opposing team therefore having an initial goal advantage equal to the handicap).

For example, a match between Team A and Team B might be offered as follows:

Team A (-0.5) is offered at odds of 1.66
Team B (+0.5) is offered at odds of 2.25

If you fancy Team A to win then you could strike your bet at 1.66 and if Team A wins 2-1 then after applying the -0.5 handicap the score would still be 1.5-1, so the bet would win. However, if the match resulted as 1-1 then it would be 0.5-1 for the purposes of setting bets on Team A and the bet would lose.

If you prefer Team B then you could strike your bet at 2.25. With a +0.5 advantage over Team A, Team B would need a draw or better for this bet to win.

Different handicap figures apply to different teams, depending on their perceived strength, so a team could have a handicap of -1, -1.5 or -2 just as easily as -0.5. In the case of whole number handicaps, application of the handicap could result in a draw (for example, if Team A had a handicap of -1, a 2-1 result would equate to a 1-1 draw) and in those cases Asian handicap bets would be refunded.

Asian handicap betting isn’t something that all football betting fans will want to get involved in, but if you haven’t taken a good look at the concept before then you may well want to do so now. Paddy Power always has a good range of Asian handicap betting markets and so do many other online sportsbook sites, so be sure to look out for them!

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