A Deeper Look at Asian Handicapping

The sport of soccer (football) is no doubt one of the most popular in the world and keeps fans everywhere thrilled as they root for their team. And going beyond just the entertainment aspect of soccer, people also love the game because it represents lots of bets for gamblers to make during the season which adds even more excitement to these soccer matches.

And a lot of the betting in the world of soccer involves the usage of the European Decimal System and Las Vegas odds. But a handicapping method that has arisen from the Far East is rapidly gaining popularity in the soccer world. This method is called Asian Handicapping which has been well received ever since its induction into the sports betting world. Here’s a look at how it works.

Asian Handicapping Basics

There’s no doubt that soccer is a game that sees a lot of ties. The games are typically low scoring and some matches don’t even see a goal scored the entire time. The fact that many soccer matches end in ties can result in quite a few losses for bettors since most fixed odds bets see people losing money in a draw. So Asia’s answer to this was to develop a system where ties would be eliminated in wagers and bettors everywhere would benefit from this change.

What the Asian Handicap does is essentially give bettors a 50-50 chance to win by creating a goal spread. People are either betting for the favored team to beat the goal spread or wagering that the underdog will cover the goal spread. The goal spread almost always gets decidedly bigger when the two teams are very unevenly matched. The best way to understand this is by taking a look at a mock Asian Handicap line:

Game: Chelsea vs. Manchester United

Handicap: 0 : 1 ½

Judging from this example, Manchester United is definitely the favored team though they aren’t overly-heavy favorites. Still they are starting the match one and a half goals in the hole as far as the betting goes, meaning Manchester United will have to win the game by two goals for people who wager on them to get paid. A one goal win won’t get the job done.

On the other side of the coin is Chelsea who starts the game with a one and a half goal advantage which means that they could potentially lose the game by one goal and still achieve victory for those who bet on them. But if they lose the game by two goals or more then those who wagered on them will be losing too in terms of money.

Quarter Goals

The Asian Handicap seems really easy to understand on the surface. This is especially true for those who commonly bet on professional basketball and baseball as the systems are quite similar. However, the Asian Handicap can also get kind of complicated when the concept of quarter goals are thrown into the mix. An example of a line featuring a quarter goal is as follows:

Game: Chelsea vs. Manchester United

Handicap: 0 : 1 ¼

Now this achieves the same concept that the line before with the half goal did but there is a different significance attached to the quarter goal. When betting with a quarter goal, gamblers must be aware that this can actually split their wager. When the bet is split, a person can actually win and tie or lose and tie with their bet.

For example, say a person laid $2,000 on Manchester United to cover the spread. Well, their bet would split with $1,000 going on the “1” goal mark (which would tie if Manchester United won by 1 goal) and $1,000 would go towards the one and a half mark where a person can only lose or win. A person could also win or lose both bets if Manchester United either won by 2 goals or if the match ended in a tie.

Moving Lines

One last thing to note with the Asian Handicap is that the lines may start at one point in the beginning of the week and shift one way or other as the week rolls on. This is because handicappers will need to shift the action on the match one way or the other to get bettors to wager more heavily on a certain side. Gamblers should especially be conscious of the Asian Handicap since it seems to move a lot more than do normal fixed odds lines.