Asian betting refers to a form of betting employing a handicap system in order to eliminate a draw or a tied result. In football for example, the standard way of betting is on the home team, the away team, or the draw. This is generally known as 1X2 betting, and the chance of a winning bet is one in three, or 33%. Now in the Asian handicap system the three options are reduced to two. By putting a handicap on one team or the other, depending on the perceived chances of each winning, the odds can be somewhat evened out. So with only two options the chance of winning is now 50%. This sounds good, does it not?
However, the system can seem complicated to many at first since you may see quoted odds such as Manchester City -0.25 where there is what is termed a split handicap, or in other words a quarter goal handicap.
Basically in the Asian system a handicap is intended to even things out in a football match situation or whatever the sport is, so a handicap or disadvantage is given to the contender most likely to win, and an advantage or positive in handicap terms is given to the underdog. The handicap, in football anyway, refers to the number of goals, or fractions of goals, that the respective teams start out with before the match.
The handicap is displayed as one goal, half a goal, or quarter of a goal, and can be either positive or negative depending on whether it is assigned to the perceived favourite or to the underdog. For example, a team given a +1.5 handicap means that the team is seen as the underdog and has a one and a half goal lead from the start.
Now taking the simplest case where there is a full goal handicap note that you might win, lose, or have a void outcome depending on the result of a match. For if say, a -1 handicap is not beaten but matched then your bet has neither won nor lost – it is voided and your stake is returned.
If you bet on a team +1 however, then a win or even a draw for the outcome would give you a winning bet. The possibility of having your stake returned rather than being completely lost helps to lower your risk when betting this way compared with the more usual 1X2 market type, but inevitably the lower odds on offer will reflect this.
Where there is less obvious difference between the ability of two opposing teams then a handicap might involve fractions of a goal. This can mean in effect splitting your stake so that a handicap of -0.25 is really 0 and -0.5. In this instance if your team wins the match then you win the bet, if they draw then you lose just half your stake, whilst if they lose the match then you lose the bet and all your stake.
Thus Asian betting removes the draw and hence most of the bias between two teams, possibly giving better value, and certainly so where there is a heavily favoured team.
Often you can nowadays see on Betfair a specific new market which gives a clear full goal advantage of one, two or three to each team with corresponding odds, and since this does away with fractions it is easier to understand for most people, whilst achieving roughly the same effect as using the Asian choice.
In reality when betting on football many people give their team a slight advantage by simply using the draw- no- bet option available on exchanges, or by simply laying the opposing team which ends up being much the same. It is certainly the case that you have many more options for betting on an exchange since many of the markets just mentioned are not available at the ordinary bookmaker.
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