If you happen to love soccer, or should we say football, and you are interested in online betting, you might have noticed an increasing popularity of a betting method with a peculiar name - Asian Handicap.

What is it? How do you place a bet with it? Is it really as complicated as it seems to be? Should you give it a try?

All sorts of similar questions may pop up in your mind. And if you are not familiar with this betting form, you may keep on shying away. But the truth is you shouldn’t feel so intimidated and you shouldn’t avoid it, because it can make your online betting experience much more payable.

How come? Let us explain in more details how does it work.

Here is everything you need to know about the Asian Handicap.

What is Asian Handicap

The Asian Handicap is a specific form of betting. It originates from Indonesia, and essentially, it eliminates the tie result. What does that mean? It means that Asian Handicap removes the possibility of a draw and actually increases your chance to win the bet.

Simply put, in the standard 1X2 wagering there are three possible betting options - win, lose, and draw - and there is a 33% of chance for each outcome. In the Asian Handicap there are only two options - win or lose - and therefore a 50% chance for success.

This kind of betting creates a multilevel betting environment between competing teams. Handicap is expressed in goals or in positive and negative points, where negative points are given to the favorite team (also called a top dog), and positive points go to the underdog. In that situation, a bookmaker’s goal is to make a handicap line that can produce a winning chance as close to 50% as possible.

If you ever tried to bet using Asian Handicap, you might have seen those strange lines of ¼ or ½ of a goal and you might have wondered what do they stand for. All those -0.5 or +1.75 points may seem a bit confusing, but here is an explanation.

This system is a form of a so-called spread betting, a type of wagering on the match outcome, where the payoff is based on the accuracy of a wager, rather than a win or lose result. Handicaps usually range from 0.25 to 2.5 or 3 goals, with the increase by ¼, ½ and ¾ of a goal. What makes Asian Handicap most interesting is that handicaps actually predict the game's final score.

Single, Level, Split, and In-Play Asian Handicap Explained

Let us assume that you want to bet on the Champions League football matches and that you want to try the Asian Handicap betting. What should you do, and what does the single, level, and split betting options mean?

First and foremost - the basic element in Asian Handicap betting is perceived abilities of opponent teams.

Let us now take the example of the Roma vs. Real Madrid match within the Champions League. In this particular case, Real Madrid would be perceived as a favorite team and Roma would be the underdog. We will use this example to tackle the issues of the level, single, and split bets.

Level Asian Handicap

If you choose to look at these two teams as the same in their abilities and assume they both start the game with equal chances of winning, you would opt for a level Asian Handicap. It means that there is no perceived difference between teams, so they both start the game with 0 goals.

In that case, if you placed a bet on Roma and Roma wins, you will win as well. If Roma loses, you lose. And if it’s a draw, it would be a void bet and your stake would be returned.

Single Asian Handicap

If there is a large perceived difference between the two teams, it would be best to go with a single Asian Handicap betting. In our particular example, it would mean that Real Madrid, as a top dog, will be given handicap before the start of the game. The handicap will mean the negative points for this team.

In that case, you can bet on Real Madrid with the start of -0.5 goals, for instance. So, if Real Madrid wins the match, you win the bet. If it’s a draw or they lose, you lose as well.

In case you bet on Real Madrid with -1 goal, for example, you will win the bet only if Real Madrid wins by 2 goals or more. If they win by 1 goal, it would be the void bet. And if it’s a draw or they lose, you also lose.

Split Asian Handicap

If you are not sure about the perceived difference between the opponent teams, but you still want to try this form of betting, you should opt for a so-called split Asian Handicap to help you increase your chances for a win.

In this case, you can choose, let’s say, to bet on Real Madrid for both -0.5 and -1 handicaps (that will also include -0.75). So, if Real Madrid wins the match by 2, you win. If they win by 1, you win half the stake, meaning that the half of your bet would be multiplied by your odds, and the other half would be returned. And if it’s a draw or they lose, you lose as well.

The same goes for betting on + 2 and + 2.5 for the underdog (it will include 2.25 as well) for instance. If your team wins or loses by 1 goal, or if it is a draw, you will win. If they lose by 2, you will win the half of stake, and if they lose by 3 or more, you are going to lose the bet, too.

In-Play Asian Handicap

There is one more specific way of Asian Handicap, and it refers to the live betting practice. So, if a game already started, do not stress about it, you can still bet with this method. And more importantly – you can still win.

If you want to go for the in-play/live/in-running betting, bear in mind that the handicap is going to be derived from the moment you jump in and place the bet, regardless of the result.

Let’s say you want to bet on -1 for a host team and let’s say you place your bet in the middle of the game, while the result is 0:4. Now, that result would immediately be locked as it is, and it would represent the starting result for your bet all the way throughout the match. So, if the final result is 2:4, your bet will win.

Conclusion

To wrap it all up, Asian Handicap is an alternative to a standard 1x2 betting system, and it provides various benefits for your online betting experience..

Some of the key points of Asian Handicap betting include:

You can bet during the game and trade handicaps in-play

It gives you more opportunity to win because even if the team you backed loses the match, you can still win the bet

Many professional bettors use this method, as it offers a better value, especially for the highly favored team

It can provide a better return on investment in a long-term period

We hope that this article has helped you become more familiar with Asian Handicap betting. As you can see, once you get into the system of placing bets using this method, you will be able to perceive all the benefits it provides to professional bettors..