Asian Handicap is 2-way betting on the outcome of football games where the draw is eliminated. As the name suggests it originates from the street markets in East Asia, but with the expansion of the online betting industry Asian Handicap became very popular worldwide. Advantages over the traditional 3-way (fixed odds) betting are the increased mathematical chances of winning on a single bet from 33.3% to 50%, the higher returns - while the fixed (1X2) odds rarely pay back more than 90-91% to the punter in Asian Handicap the payout is reaching 98%, also the possibility to have a bet winning or the stake returned even in case of loss for the selected team - for some bigger handicaps.
"Handicap" means a fictive head start given to the presumed weaker team (the underdog) - virtually leading the game by 0.25 goal, 0.5 goal, 0.75 goal , 1 goal, 1.5 goal, 1.25 goal etc. You must either select the favored team to overcome
this handicap or back the underdog to hold it. The
handicap value could be also 0 goals, such as when both teams are presumed equal in their
chances to win. The Asian Handicap bet is settled by adding the handicap
to the actual result of the game. For example if Wigan have received a 0.5 goal advantage against Blackburn (Wigan +0.5) and the game ends with a draw, Wigan virtually win the game by half a goal. The bet on Blackburn is winning simply if they win the game, no matter with what result. With 0, 1 and 2 goals handicap the bet result could be a virtual draw and in that case all stakes are refunded. For example if Man United are set one goal down to Middlesbrough and they win exactly by 1 goal, the Asian Handicap result is draw (stake will be refunded).
Note that bookmakers and betting sites use various ways to display one and the same the handicap (using decimal or fractional values), so don't get confused for example when we advice +0.25 and you see "pk and +0.5" at Pinnacle. 0.5 may be presented as 1/2, 1.25 as 1 1/4 etc. Split handicaps (which are explained below) are also displayed as "0 and 0.5" or "pk and 0.5" for the 0.25 goal handicap, "0.5 and 1" for 0.75 goal handicap etc.
It looks a bit more complicated with the split (quarter) handicaps (0.25 goal, 0.75 goal, 1.25
goal etc.). Note that 0.25 is average value of 0 and 0.5, 0.75 is average of 0.5 and 1,
1.25 is average of 1 and 1.5. In this case your stake is
actually split in half into 2 separate handicap bets. For example, if you bet 10 units on -0.75
goal handicap, in fact you bet 5 units on -0.5 and 5 units on -1 goal handicap. If your team wins by 2-1, half of your bet is winning with the given odds (that going for the -0.5 handicap) and the other half of your stake will be refunded.
One more example with the split handicaps - let's say we bet 50 EUR on Torino +0.25 against Parma, with odds 1.80. If Torino wins, it is clear that we'll take 90 EUR. If the game ends with a draw, half of our stake is winning (25 EUR x 1.80 = 45 EUR) and the remaining 25 EUR are refunded, overall we get 70 EUR. On the opposite, if we bet on Parma -0.25 and the result is draw, 25 EUR will be refunded but the other half of our bet will be lost.
It is very important to note that in live betting Asian Handicap bets usually apply for the remainding time of the game, not for the whole 90 minutes. Be sure to check the bookmakers rules first.
In fact many Asian Handicap lines cover practically the same thing as other options available on the betting market - the 0 goals (level ball) handicap is equal to "Draw no bet", the +0.5 handicap is same as backing the underdog at "Double chance", most easy is the -0.5 handicap which is nothing different than betting on the win in the classic fixed odds (1X2) way.
Below is a table with the possible outcomes if you back a team with the relevant handicap:
