What are Asian Handicaps?

Asian Handicaps (AH) have been gradually introduced by bookmakers in the UK during the past five years, but this concept has been in existence in Far East Asia for approximately a decade.

AH offers an alternative to the traditional match result market.

Whereas the match result market offers three possible scenarios, win, draw, lose, AH offers two options, therefore increasing punters' chances of getting a return.

Bookmakers usually price up AH using multiples of 0.5. The favourite would be minus (-) in the AH, while the underdog would be plus (+).

For example, if Chelsea were playing at home against Man Utd, they would be favourites, but the handicap would be minimal given how closely matches the two sides are. The likely AH odds would be Chelsea -0.5, Man Utd +0.5.

If the score finishes 0-0 Chelsea lose in the handicap.

Conversely, Man Utd would win in the AH as +0.5 is added to the final score, making the result in the AH 0:+0.5.

The odds for AH are usually based on decimals rather than fractions.

As a guide, if Man Utd were offered at odds of 1.800 based on +0.5, a £5 stakes would win you £4. As such, the odds would be equal to 10/11 in fraction terms.

Virtually every UK bookmaker now offers Asian Handicaps and their websites will have inbuilt tutorials which may prove useful when betting on this market for the first time.  Check out VCBet, Ladbrokes and StanJames.