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Asian Handicaps

How Asian handicaps work and how to calculate your winnings?

SOCCER betting in Asia is different from betting anywhere else in the world. In the rest of the world you have three basic choices of betting on a game – bet on the home team to win, bet on the away team to win or bet on the game ending in a draw (tie). In Asia the bookmakers eliminate the draw, meaning there are only two choices to bet on in a soccer game.

The bookmakers eliminate the draw by giving the favourite team a handicap. This of course means that their opponents are given an advantage.

It’s easiest to understand it by looking at an example:

Let’s say Spain’s Real Madrid have a match against Italy’s AC Milan in the first round of the Champions League. The game is being played at Madrid’s Bernebeau stadium. Real Madrid are hot favourites to win the game. So, the bookmakers give AC Milan a goal start to even up the two teams. This means that Real Madrid have to win by two goals for bettors on Real to win their bets. If the game ends as a draw then bettors on AC Milan will win, because with a goal handicap advantage, they win. If the game ends with Real winning 1-0 or 2-1 or 3-2 (or by any margin of one goal) then the game is a tie and stakes are returned to bettors on both sides.

In this example, the betting line might look like this:

Real Madrid/AC Milan 0 : 1 1.90 2.00

This could also be written like this:

Real Madrid (-1 goal) 1.90
AC Milan (+1 goal) 2.00

Bettors on Real Madrid get paid at odds of 1.90 on winning bets. This means that if they place a bet of $100 at 1.90 and win, they get paid $190 ($100 x 1.90).

Bettors on AC Milan get paid at odds of 2.00 on winning bets. This means that if they place a bet of $100 at 2.00 and win, they get paid $200 ($100 x 2.00).

BOOKMAKERS will change both the odds and the level of the handicap to reflect the amount of money bet on the game and also injury news and team selection. The handicap line is quoted in ‘quarter ball’ moves. So, in the example above, if Real Madrid announced that three key players had been injured they might move from one goal favourites (+1) to three-quarter goal favourites (+ ¾).

The odds for the game might now look like this:

Real Madrid/AC Milan 0 : ¾ 2.05 1.85

Which could also be written like this:

Real Madrid (-¾ goal) 2.05
AC Milan (+¾ goal) 1.85