Asian Handicap Explained

Introduction
Asian Handicap betting, as the name implies originates from Asia by bookies who offer a better chance of winning than conventional fixed odd betting. The popularity of this form of betting which has started in Asia has spread to the West, especially in the UK, with many online bookmakers catering for this type of betting.

Asian Handicaps Vs Fixed Odds betting
With Asian Handicap Betting (also called Hang Cheng), it eliminates the possibility of a draw result. The perceived weaker team will get a handicap from the bookies to balance the odds so that is an equal probability for each team to win the game. There will be only two outcomes for the bet, "home win" or "away win". "Handicap" means that a perceived weaker team has received a virtual head start, effectively leading the game with ¼ goal, ½ goal, ¾ goal, 1 goal, 1 ¼ goal, etc. There are perhaps some confusing terminology, for instance half-handicap (1/2 goal), and quarter handicap (1/4 goal). It will be explained thoroughly in this article.

Advantages of Asian Handicap

You eliminate the possibility of a draw result, increasing your main winning chance from 33.3% to 50% in a single game.

Depending on the handicap you can win your bet even if the team you bet on don't win the game.

You can bet on a team you believe will lose the game, but because of a big handicap you can still win the bet. Typical here is when the favourite team wins the game with only one goal.

When following the match 'live', tension is high since a single goal can take you from losing to winning (or the other way around).

If you place multiple bets (accumulator), the number of possible outcomes is much less than in fixed odds (home/draw/away bets. E.g a treble bet, where all 3 selections must be correct). The number of outcomes is 2 x 2 x 2 = 8. With fixed odds betting the number of outcomes is 3 x 3 x 3 = 27.

Advantages of Fixed Odds

A very high number of bookmakers to choose from.

Bankers. It is possible to bet on "sure" games, which might be suitable for an accumulator.

Bigger odds on outsiders (underdogs).

Much easier to find value bets. You only need home-draw-away estimations, in Asian Handicap it is required that you are able to predict exact results

Asian Handicap Explained
The following table shows how Asian Handicaps works. It may seem complicated at first look, but it is actually very simple to understand.

-	Home	Away	Home	Away	Home	Away	Home	Away	Home	Away
Handicaps	0	0	0	1/4	0	1/2	0	3/4	0	1
Result	-		-		-		-		-
0:0	Push	Push	Lose Half	Win Half	Lose All	Win All	Lose All	Win All	Lose All	Win All
1:0	Win All	Lose All	Win All	Lose All	Win All	Lose All	Win Half	Lose Half	Push	Push
0:1	Lose All	Win All	Lose All	Win All	Lose All	Win All	Lose All	Win All	Lose All	Win All
2:0	Win All	Lose All	Win All	Lose All	Win All	Lose All	Win All	Lose All	Win All	Lose All

-	Home	Away	Home	Away	Home	Away	Home	Away	Home	Away
Handicaps	0	1 1/4	0	1 1/2	0	1 3/4	0	2	0	2 1/4
Result	-		-		-		-		-
0:0	Lose All	Win All	Lose All	Win All	Lose All	Win All	Lose All	Win All	Lose All	Win All
1:0	Lose Half	Win Half	Lose All	Win All	Lose All	Win All	Lose All	Win All	Lose All	Win All
0:1	Lose All	Win All	Lose All	Win All	Lose All	Win All	Lose All	Win All	Lose All	Win All
2:0	Win All	Lose All	Win All	Lose All	Win Half	Lose Half	Push	Push	Lose Half	Win Half

The table shows your winnings for given results at a given handicap. There are basically 4 scenarios. No handicap given, a quarter-handicap (¼,¾,1¼, etc) given, half-handicaps( ½ ,1½,etc) given or full-handicap (1, 2,etc) given. Examples are given below.

Example 1. No handicap given => 0:0 Handicap.
In a 0:0 handicap you will get you money back if the game ends in a draw (0-0, 1-1,2-2, etc. ).

Home	Away	Handicap	Home Odds	Away Odds
Arsenal	Man.United	0:0	1.90	1.90

Let’s say you bet $100 on Arsenal to win. If Arsenal wins the game, whatever the score is, you win $190. If Arsenal and Man. United draw, ‘push’ situation occurs and u get back your $100. If Man. United wins the game, you will lost your bet of $100.

Example 2. A quarter handicap given.
Case (i) 0:1/4 handicap
When a perceived weaker team got a 1/4 goal start, you will either lose 50 % or win 50% if the game ends in a draw. A 1/4 handicap is actually 2 handicaps, one of 0:0, and one of 0: 1/2.

Home	Away	Handicap	Home Odds	Away Odds
Arsenal	Man. United	0:1/4	2.05	1.75

Let’s say you bet $100 on Arsenal to win. If Arsenal wins the game, whatever the score is, you win $205. If the game ended in a draw, you lost half of your bet and get back only $50. If Man. United wins the game, you will lost your bet of $100.

Case (ii) 0:3/4 handicap.
If you have bet on a team with a ¾ goal start, you will lose 50 % if your team loses by 1 goal. For all other results you will either win 100% or lose 100% depending on which team you backed with your bet. A draw (and thereby a "push" situation) is impossible.

Home	Away	Handicap	Home Odds	Away Odds
Arsenal	Man. United	0:3/4	2.60	1.35

Let’s say you bet $100 on Arsenal to win. If Arsenal wins the game by a goal, you win half of your bet at $180. If Arsenal wins by more than a goal, you win $260. If the game ended in a draw or Man. United wins, you will lose your bet of $100.

Example 3. Half handicap given => 0:1/2 handicap.
When a perceived weaker team got a 1/2 goal start, you will either lose 100% or win 100%. A draw (and thereby a "push" situation) is impossible.

Home	Away	Handicap	Home Odds	Away Odds
Arsenal	Man. United	0:1/2	2.35	1.55

Let’s say you bet $100 on Arsenal to win. If Arsenal wins the game, whatever the score is, you win $235. If the game ended in a draw or Man. United wins, you will lose your bet of $100.

Example 4. Full handicap given => 0:1 handicap
When a perceived weaker team got a 11goal start, you can either lose 100%, win 100% or draw (and thereby a "push" situation).

Home	Away	Handicap	Home Odds	Away Odds
Arsenal	Man. United	0:1	2.75	1.35

Let’s say you bet $100 on Arsenal to win. If Arsenal wins the game by a goal, ‘push’ situation occurs. There will be no winners. If Arsenal wins by 2 goals or more, you win $275. If the game ended in a draw or Man. United wins, you will lose your bet of $100.

The same analogy can be used to analyses games with handicaps of (0:1 ¼, 0:1 ½, 0:2, etc) with reference from the table above.

Conclusion
I hope with the explanations above, punters can have a general idea how Asian Handicaps works. Can this type of bet enhance the chances of winning? Some would say yes, some say maybe. To bet on Asian Handicaps or stick with conventional Fixed Odds bettings, the choice is yours.