What is an Asian Handicap in Soccer Betting?

If you’ve just started betting on sports, you’ll come across lots of betting options and new terms. One of the most confusing ones is the Asian Handicap, a type of bet that gives one of the teams a virtual advantage and is becoming quite popular in Colorado sports betting. However, most people ignore this bet type as it’s a bit tricky to understand, but it’s one of the best betting options as it reduces the number of outcomes and makes it possible to bet on heavy favorites.

If you’d like to explore handicapping, this guide is for you. It will help you understand the concept and obtain more value from your wagers.

What is Handicap Betting?

Handicap betting is a method used by bookmakers to even out a game by giving an advantage to the weaker team. It is mostly used when a game has an outright favorite.

For example, when Manchester City faces Sheffield United in the Premier League, City’s odds will be small and unattractive. A handicap bet makes it possible to raise these odds and bet on City. In the game, you can pick Manchester City at a -2 handicap.

This bet means that you are backing City to win the game by three or more goals. This can be something like 3-0, 4-1, or 4-0. You can also bet +2 on Sheffield United, which would mean that you are giving the team a 2-goal advantage. If Sheffield wins, draws, or losses by a single goal, you’ll win your bet. If the team loses by two goals, your money will be refunded, something that is known as a push.

What is Asian Handicap Betting?

Now that you understand general handicapping, we can look at Asian handicap betting. This is a more refined style of handicapping that originated from Asia, hence the name. The advancement of handicapping comes in that it eliminates the need for a push (refund). This means that you can only lose or win your bets, which brings up your chances of winning from 33% to 50%.

To achieve this, the type of betting splits the goals into halves or even quarters. This means that you can bet on Manchester City with a handicap of -2.5 or even -2.25.

How Asian Handicap Betting Works

We’ve mentioned that betting on Manchester City +2 means that they need to win by 3 or more goals to win your bet. If they win by 2 goals, your wager is refunded.

Now, betting on Manchester City -2.5 means that there’s no chance for a draw (and a refund) as there’s no half a goal. Therefore, if City wins by 2 goals, you’ll lose the bet. If they win by 3 goals, you’ll win the bet.

If you bet on Nottingham Forest +2.5, you’ll win the bet if the team wins, draws, or loses by less than 3 goals. This is because they’ve managed to cover the spread, which 2.5 minus the 2 goals they’ve lost by.

However, things get a bit complicated when it comes to Manchester City -2.25. This is because this type of handicap combines two outcomes. If your wager is $100, it is broken into:

• $50 for Manchester City with a -2.0 handicap: If City win by 2 or more goals, you’ll this part of the bet. And if they win by 1 goal, draw, or lose, you lose the entire bet.
• $50 for Manchester City with a -2.5 handicap: If City win by 3 goals or more, you win both sides of the bet. If they win by 2 goals, you’ll lose this part of the bet (and win the other one). If they lose, draw, or win by 1 goal, you’ll lose both parts of the bet.

As you can see, if City win three goals, you’ll win the two bets. If they win by 2 goals, you will have a half win/half loss. This is called a two-way or double handicap, and it offers a great chance of finding value.