Asian handicap betting is a lucrative form of betting that originated in Indonesia. Its popularity has spread among sports bettors worldwide, especially football fans. Coincidentally, football is one of the most popular sports on which the Asian handicap market became a staple.
How it Works
Asian handicap bets include positive handicaps (advantage) or negative handicaps (disadvantage) for the chosen team.
Placing a handicap bet sets a starting result for the bettor’s chosen team while predicting it as a match-winner.
Betting options include no (0), full (+1, -1), half (+0.5, -0.5), and quarter (+0.25, +0.75, -0.25, – 0.75) goal advantage or disadvantage.
Positive & Negative Handicaps
Positive (+) handicaps give a selected team an advantage that an opponent team must catch up with in goals for a bet to be lost. If you choose a handicap bet of +1.5, an opponent’s team must score at least two goals for you to lose your bet. This example is only valid if your team doesn’t score any goals, as each scored goal on your side increases the gap between the starting result altered by the handicap bet and the number of goals the opponent must score for your bet to be lost.
Negative (-) handicaps put your team at a disadvantage by increasing the number of goals they must score to be victorious. Once you place a -1.5 Asian handicap bet, your team must score at least two goals for you to win a bet, or more if their opponents score a goal or few, too.
Betting Outcomes
Depending on a match result and handicap chosen, bettors can win, lose, get a refund, or have two out of three mentioned outcomes combined. For example, a half-lost bet outcome is when 50% of the stake is lost, while the 2nd half is refunded. Similarly, a half-won bet is half won and refunded.
Such outcomes usually happen in the case of quarter bets (+/- 0.25 and +/- 0.75), as placing a quarter bet divides your bet between the two closest halves on each side.
Placing a -1.25 Asian handicap bet spreads your bet across two handicaps: -1 goal and -1.5 goals. Your team scoring two goals with no goals by the opponents will result in a win, but scoring only one goal will be considered a half-lost bet. The reason for such is that your -1 goal handicap is covered by one scored goal, resulting in a theoretical draw. However, the 2nd bet of -1.5 goals isn’t met, as the minimal result must be two goals lead on your team’s side.
Benefits of Asian Handicap Betting
There are many benefits of Asian handicap betting that improve the betting experience and increase profits for bettors who master it.
Asian handicap is a sure way to bring excitement to an otherwise one-sided match, especially compared to the regular 1×2 betting or over/under bets. The number of goals that need to be scored to fulfil both positive and negative handicaps varies depending on the goals scored by the opposing team, which can increase or decrease the gap that teams must meet with more goals during a match. Asian handicap bets will surely keep you on the edge of the seat until the very end.
Betting on an Asian handicap also lowers the risk of losses. The option of a draw is eliminated, resulting in stake refunds for such results. Choosing an Asian handicap of 0 will result in a returned bet if the game finishes with no goals on each side. Similarly, betting on +1 on a team that loses the match by one goal also results in a refund.
Lastly, betting on Asian handicaps produces bigger wins due to higher odds across all sports compared to similar betting markets.
Asian Handicap Betting Tips
Before placing your Asian handicap bets, get familiar with the team you want to bet on and their opponent’s past stats. Although Asian handicap is a simplified form of betting for managing risk on your side, your strategy should be grounded in past games to get a better picture of which selection will provide the most success.
To use Asian handicap to the fullest extent, look for bookmakers that offer free or extra bets for their players based on their deposits, turnover, or losses.
A platform that offers all three is GemBet, with daily sports loss rebates (cashback), unlimited turnover rebates available for claiming at any time, and daily and special deposit bonuses for sports.
GemBet, a Singapore online casino which is active in Malaysia as well, is widely considered one of the safest online betting platforms in South Asia, with thousands of regular and hundreds of premium players from all across the world.
GemBet offers handicap and Asian handicap markets for most of the matches offered on the site, with the most extensive selections given for football.
