30th May 2002 - issue 15

1. Background

As the name suggests this type of betting originated in the Far East , amongst the heavy gamblers we have all heard of. This is now becoming increasingly popular amongst European sports bettors as the mechanics and appeal of this type of betting are gaining greater understanding. This type of betting is now a standard offering for many of the mainstream bookies. In the p2p world, Betdaq have offered Asian Odds for a while, and now Betfair have launched their own Asian Odds service in time for the World Cup with an impressive selection of options available on each match.

To the uninitiated Asian Handicap betting can seem rather complicated. However it is worth taking the time to get to understand the workings of this system, as there are sure to be some great opportunities for bookie free bettors, who make the effort.

2. Understanding Asian Handicap betting

Asian odds only apply to betting on soccer matches. The purpose of this type of betting is to remove the draw as a possible result, and to handicap the team that appears to be the strongest. There are a variety of different types of Asian Handicap bets which can be quite daunting to the uninitiated. The key things to understand are:

Where the handicap ends with +0.5 it gives you the benefit of the draw.

Where the handicap ends with -0.5 it gives your the opponent the benefit of the draw.

Where the handicap is zero (level) or a whole number the stakes are returned in the event of a draw (with the handicap taken into consideration if appropriate)

Where a team has a handicap of 1 (or more) that team has one (or more) goal head start

This is fairly straight forward. It gets more complicated when you see two handicaps for the same bet eg -0.5 & -1.0. This means that you are effectively placing two bets, half at -0.5 and half at -1.0. This does not affect the outcome of your bet in the event of a positive result, however it means that half of your stake is returned in the event of a draw if the handicap is against you, and you winning only half of what of you would have done from the draw if the handicap was in your favour.

Some bookies offer ¼ and ¾ prices, but as they are not currently used by the bookie free sites, I will not complicate things by discussing them here. If you want to find out about this www.asianhandicap.com has more information. This site explains the impact of all types of Asian Handicap odds and it also has a useful odds calculator. Betfair also has a good help section, although overall I would recommend the Betdaq help section as being particularly clear and easy to understand. If in doubt the easiest thing to do is to go part way though the process of placing your bet on Betfair, as the betting slip spells out in the clearest possible terms your profit/loss in the event of each result. Just make sure you don't click on confirm by mistake until you are ready to place the bet.

3. Profiting from Asian Handicap betting

At this time of writing the spread between backers and layers on Betfair and Betdaq is wider than on straight betting, giving a greater chance of getting your bet accepted at favourable odds. On Betfair some options currently have no offers at all, which looking at it cynically could give you the opportunity to offer pretty poor odds, which could with the lack of competition be accepted, especially as many potential opponents may not fully understand this type of betting. Obviously the danger is that without any other odds on offer as a reference point, you may get it badly wrong yourself so make sure that you understand what you are doing.

The advent of Asian Handicap betting on Betfair and Betdaq has added to the ever growing variety of bets that can be placed on the same match. On Betfair for example you can bet the whole variety of Asian Odds bets, you can bet on eg England supremacy, and you can also bet on the match result. This combined with the wide variety of bets that can be placed on Play121 gives us the opportunity to offer numerous subtle variations of essentially the same bet. Anyone who can fully understand the mathematics, probabilities and returns available will be able to make offers to maximise their potential returns from each of these options and will be able to spot the stand out value amongst the bets on offer.