You may already have already heard about the betting market known as ‘Asian Handicap’. It is a form of betting that started in the far east – hence the name.
To understand why Asian Handicap bets were created, you must understand the football betting market. In any football game, there can only be three outcomes in a match. A team can either win, lose or draw.
Generally, Asian punters only like to bet on sporting events with a solid outcome. That means a player or a team either wins or loses. There is no possibility of a draw, for example, a tennis game. Two players, with one winning and one losing.
What Is An Asian Handicap?
Football is one of the few sports worldwide where a draw is a fairly common outcome. With traditional fixed odds, draws are treated as an additional outcome to the game. In other words, bettors lose when they place a wager on either team to win, and the game is drawn.
But the Asian market is huge for bookmakers, so they needed to create a system that effectively removes the possibility of a game being drawn. The idea was to create more betting interest in games even if the two teams were completely mismatched.
So with Asian Handicap betting, the chance for a draw is eliminated by using a handicap that forces a winner. This creates a situation where each team has a 50-50 chance of winning.
The way of doing this is to ‘handicap’ a team. In the same way that horses are handicapped with extra weight in the saddles, football teams can also be handicapped. Now if you think the players run around with bars of lead in their boots, you’re mistaken!
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The way of handicapping a team is much simpler. You just give the team they’re playing against a 1.5 or 2.5 goal head start.
The .5 makes a draw impossible, as no team can score half a goal.
The Example
Take a look at this example of an Asian Handicap. Chelsea is playing Chester City at home in the FA CUP 4th Round. Normally you couldn’t get a decent bet on this game.
Chelsea’s odds would be so low that it wouldn’t make it worthwhile betting on them. And Chester’s chances of actually winning the game are remote. But with the Asian Handicap, this game becomes far more interesting.
Chelsea is expected to beat Chester City, so the bookmakers have set the handicap on Chester City at +2.5. Effectively Chelsea are 2.5 goals down before the game has kicked off. So if you want to back Chelsea, they must win by 3 clear goals.
Alternatively, you could back Chester if you think they can avoid defeat by 2 clear goals or less.
So there you have it, a simple rundown of a typical Asian Handicap football bet. The bets can get more complicated, especially if two teams are fairly well-matched, but I will get into that another time.
If you are interested in placing Asian Handicap bets, the following bookmakers offer them on Premiership and most European League games. Betfred Bookmakers, Betfair Bookmakers, and Ladbrokes Bookmakers.
Explain It to me again, but like I’m Stupid?
Alright, kiddo, let’s pretend we’re playing a game of soccer in the backyard. Now, let’s say I’ve been playing soccer for many years, and you’ve just started learning the game. It wouldn’t be fair if we played without any changes, would it? I might score way more goals than you, and that wouldn’t be much fun.
So to make it fair, we develop a way to level the playing field, just like in Asian Handicap betting. This is a special type of betting that’s used in sports like soccer.
Imagine that before we start our game, we pretend you’re already ahead by 2 goals. That’s your ‘handicap’. So even if I score a goal making it 1-0 in the actual game, because of your handicap, you’re still winning 2-1.
Now, people betting on our game can choose who they think will win, considering this handicap. If they think I can score more than 2 goals, they might bet on me. If they think you can keep your lead, they would bet on you.
This makes the betting more interesting and fair, especially when one team is much stronger than the other. Just like our backyard soccer game, it gives the underdog a fair chance and makes the game more unpredictable and fun. And that, my little friend, is how Asian Handicap betting works.
Don’t Cancel Us!
The term “Asian Handicap Betting” isn’t racist because it refers to a form of betting originating in Asia, specifically Indonesia, and has nothing to do with racial or ethnic discrimination.
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The term “Asian” in “Asian Handicap” is simply a geographic identifier, indicating where this particular betting format was first popularized. It’s akin to how “French Fries” or “Mexican Tacos” denote the origin or popularization of certain food items, not the ethnicity or race of the people consuming them.
“Handicap” in this context is a sports and betting term. It refers to the practice of making a sporting event more even by giving an advantage (or disadvantage) to one of the teams or players. It’s a way of levelling the playing field to make the betting more balanced and interesting.
Just like the term “European Roulette” doesn’t discriminate against any race or ethnicity, “Asian Handicap Betting” also has no racial or ethnic implications. It simply denotes a specific type of betting practice. So don’t cancel The Game Hunter just yet!
Asian Handicap Betting is a great way to maximize profits and level the playing field for bettors of all levels. In fact, it’s fast becoming one of the most popular forms of betting in Europe and Asia. It involves handicapping the odds in favour of the underdog (or against the favourite) to even out the chances of winning.
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