Do you remember a few weeks ago when Chelsea beat Southampton by 3.5 goals? Man, they really smashed them didn’t they? Of course you don’t because it’s a ludicrous question, and when you first take a look at Asian Handicaps it can all seem incredible ludicrous. How can a bet involve +0 goals, or -1.25 goals anyway? Well, we’re here to help you get to grips with Asian Handicap Betting. Read on to find out more about Asian Handicap betting and what stats to look for to get the best out of you betting.

Asian Handicap Betting

Asian Handicap betting is still relatively new here in Europe, but in Asian markets it’s long been the top dog of betting, in American sports too when you hear people speak about ‘the spread’ it’s the same thing, for example the Atlanta Falcons take on the Denver Broncos soon in a preseason friendly where the spread is at 1.5 points, with the Falcons being the favourites. So, in Asian Handicap terms, it’s the same. With the Falcons being the favourites to win (currently around 1.80) the bookies reckon they’ll win by at least 1.5 points and we can take that bet for better odds; Falcons -1.5 is 1.91.

At its most basic Asian Handicap betting gives an advantage to the underdog and a handicap to the favourite. Let’s look at a Premier League example, on the opening weekend Bournemouth take on newly-promoted Sheffield United at Dean Court. Currently, the Cherries are clear favourites, available at 1.90 to win the match, while Chris Wilder’s Blades are around 4.0 to get their campaign off to a flying start.

Now, to find the Asian Handicap line we need to find where the odds are the most similar between the teams, have a look:

Here we can see that the Asian Handicap of 0.5 is where the bookies have placed the line. Now, let’s say we fancy Bournemouth to win this match and we take the bet, for the bet to win we just need Bournemouth to win the match, if the game ends in a draw or a Sheffield United win we lose our bet. However, if we were to bet on Sheffield United +0.5, we have the advantage of if the match ends in a draw or an away win then our bet wins. Still though, you’d reckon Eddie Howe’s men would win their first home match of the season against a newly-promoted side.

Asian Handicap Betting Examples

Where things can get confusing is the introduction of 0.25 and 0.75 to bets, some bookies have these bets as, for example, Home +0,+0.5, whereas most bookies will just write it as +0.25. Let’s take the 0.25 example, if a home team are slight favourites at AH -0.25. If the match ends in a draw or loss, the bet loses. For the .75 AH, let’s take another example from the open round of Premier League fixtures, West Ham vs Manchester City. The Asian line has been set at 1.75 goals, as you can see here:

So, let’s say you bet on West Ham +1.75 at 1.94, for this bet to win a few things can occur; West Ham beat City, the match ends in a draw, they lose by one goal and the bet will be a half win should they lose by 2 goals. If Manchester City win the match by 3 goals or more your bet will lose.

It takes some getting used to but once you get the hang out it using Asian Handicap is a cinch. We’ve made a table here for you, just bookmark it and you’ll easily see what factors need to happen for your bet to win or lose.

Asian Handicap Betting Stats

Regarding stats that you need to keep an eye on; you need to be familiar with how many times a team has covered the handicap in previous matches and in previous head to heads too. It can be tempting to just look at how many times they’ve covered ‘the spread’ as the Americans call it, but be careful, this just means the Asian line in previous matches, what you need to look for is how many times they’ve covered that specific line in previous matches. Of course injuries can play a huge part in whether you think backing a favourite or underdog is better.

On the Bet Dynamo Insights page you can drill deep into the stats and see if teams are scoring regularly, if they’re scoring Over 1.5 and 2.5 goals and keeping Clean Sheets, these will give a good indication of how they’ll do against an Asian Handicap line.