Asian handicap explained: half, whole & quarter-goal lines
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How Asian handicap lines in football remove the draw, when a stake is returned in full or in half, & how split bets such as -0.25 & -0.75 are settled.
What an Asian handicap is
An Asian handicap is a football bet in which teams are handicapped “so that a stronger team must win by more goals for a bet on them to win”, according to Wikipedia’s entry on the subject. The favourite is given a goal deficit & the underdog a goal start, & the handicap is applied to the final score before the bet is settled.
A standard match bet, often called 1X2, has three outcomes: home win, draw & away win. Wikipedia says Asian handicap betting reduces these to two “by eliminating the draw outcome”.
Betfair’s exchange help page describes the handicap as a “virtual head start” & says Asian handicaps “are designed to eliminate the possibility of a draw”. Sky Bet calls it “a variant of handicap match betting in football” & says the handicaps come in smaller steps than in other sports because football is low scoring.
Wikipedia says the bookmaker’s aim is a line that puts each side’s chance as close to 50% as possible, so prices sit near even money, at about 1.90 to 2.00 in decimal odds. Decimal odds show the return for each unit staked, including the stake, so £10 at 2.0 returns £20 if it wins.
Where it came from
Wikipedia says the system originated in Indonesia & gained popularity in the early 21st century, though that origin statement is marked as needing a citation. Sky Bet & Betfair both say the bet takes its name from its popularity in Asia.
Citing BetAsia, a publication owned by the journalist Joe Saumarez Smith, Wikipedia says he coined the term “Asian handicap” in November 1998. According to that account, an Indonesian bookmaker, Joe Phan, asked him to translate a method that bookmakers in Asia called “hang cheng betting”. Wikipedia flags BetAsia as a possibly unreliable source for this claim.
Half-goal lines: no draw, no refund
Sky Bet says that where a handicap is a half number, such as 0.5, 1.5 or 2.5, “a draw is impossible”. Since no team can score half a goal, every half-goal bet is either won or lost in full.
In Sky Bet’s example of Chelsea (-1.5) v Portsmouth (+1.5), Chelsea win the market only if they win by at least two goals. If Chelsea win by one goal, draw or lose, Portsmouth win the market.
The same works from the underdog’s side. Unibet’s guide says a bet at +0.5 wins “if the outcome is a win or a draw” & loses on a defeat, while a bet at +1.5 wins on a win, a draw or a one-goal defeat & loses on a defeat by two or more.
Whole-goal lines: stake back on the exact margin
With a whole-number handicap such as 0, 1 or 2, the handicapped result can be level. Sky Bet says “Stakes will be returned when a handicap draw happens”, & Wikipedia calls this outcome a push, meaning a bet with no winner in which stakes are returned.
Betfair’s exchange example is £10 on Arsenal -1.0 at 1.95. The bet loses £10 if Arsenal lose or draw, is void with the £10 returned if Arsenal win by exactly one goal, & wins £9.50 if they win by two or more.
Unibet gives a similar case of Tottenham -1 at 1.80: “if Tottenham do win by 1 goal, your stake is returned”. In Sky Bet’s Chelsea (-2) v Portsmouth (+2) example, a Chelsea win by exactly two goals makes the market a draw after the handicap, & all stakes are returned.
Quarter lines: one stake split across two lines
Quarter lines end in .25 or .75, such as 0.25, 0.75, 1.25 & 1.75, according to Unibet. Wikipedia says a quarter handicap splits the bet between the two closest lines, & Betfair says the stake is “split 50/50 between the two handicaps”.
A line of -0.25 is therefore half the stake on 0 & half on -0.5. Betfair also writes it as “0 & -0.5”, & Wikipedia notes that some bookmakers show it as “0 and ½” or “pk and ½”, short for pick-em.
In Betfair’s example, £20 on Chelsea at -0 & -0.5 is two £10 bets at the same odds. If Chelsea win, both halves win; if the game is drawn, the -0.5 half loses & the 0 half is refunded; if Chelsea lose, both halves lose. Unibet describes the draw outcome as “returning half of your original stake”.
A line of -0.75 is half on -0.5 & half on -1. Betfair’s example is £10 on Porto at -0.5 & -1.0 at odds of 2.0: a defeat or draw loses £10, a one-goal win wins £5 on one half while the other £5 is void, & a win by two or more wins £10.
Positive quarter lines mirror these results. Wikipedia’s table shows a +0.25 bet winning half on a draw, & a +0.75 bet losing half on a one-goal defeat.
Worked examples: -1.25 & -1.75
A line of -1.25 is half on -1 & half on -1.5. In a Betfair betting guide using Brentford (+1, +1.5) v Manchester City (-1, -1.5), City must win by two clear goals to win the bet in full.
If City win by only one goal, the -1 half is a handicap draw & the -1.5 half is a Brentford win. Betfair says “You would stand to receive half your stake back if you bet on Man City to win but you would lose the other half”, while Brentford backers get half their stake returned & the other half paid as winnings at the stated odds.
Sky Bet’s Chelsea (-1, -1.5) example settles the same way, & it notes that “a £1 bet is two 50p bets on each handicap”. Wikipedia’s table also lists a -1.25 bet as a half loss on a one-goal win.
For -1.75, Wikipedia gives the example of $100 on Everton -1.75 against Newcastle at odds of 2.29. If Everton win by exactly two goals, $50 is refunded on the -2.0 line & $50 wins at 2.29 on the -1.5 line, which Wikipedia states as “a total return of $164.50, or a $64.50 profit”.
Wikipedia adds that behind the quoted price, the split can be arranged so each leg carries half the potential profit rather than half the stake. It illustrates this as $35.71 on -2.0 at 2.80 & $64.29 on -1.5 at 2.00, though the result for the bettor is the same half win & half push.
How bets are settled
Betfair says “The settlement score is the result with a given handicap applied”, & that score is used to settle bets. If a bettor backs Arsenal -0.5 & Arsenal win 1-0, the settlement score is 0.5-0 & the bet wins; a 0-0 draw gives -0.5-0 & the bet loses.
On an exchange, where bettors can back an outcome or lay it (bet against it), a void result returns money to both sides. Betfair’s example is a lay of Arsenal -1 when Arsenal win 1-0: the settlement score is 0-0 & the bet is voided.
Betfair also says commission on its Asian handicap markets is taken from total winnings across all lines, & its help page says these markets are available on desktop only, not on its mobile app.
Sky Bet’s rules say Asian handicaps are singles only, meaning they cannot be combined into accumulators, & that their odds “are always shown in decimals”.
A line of 0 refunds the stake on a draw. Unibet likens this to a draw no bet market, & Betfair says a zero goal start “effectively means ‘Draw – No Bet'”.
Questions
What does Asian handicap -0.25 mean?
The stake is split equally between a 0 line & a -0.5 line. If the team wins, the bet wins; if it loses, the bet loses; on a draw, half the stake is returned & the other half is lost, according to Unibet & Betfair.
What does Asian handicap -0.75 mean?
Half the stake is on -0.5 & half on -1. In Betfair’s example of £10 at 2.0, a one-goal win makes a £5 profit with £5 void, a win by two or more makes £10, & a draw or defeat loses £10.
What does Asian handicap 0 mean?
The bet wins if the team wins, loses if it loses & returns the stake on a draw. Unibet & Betfair both compare it to draw no bet.
What does Asian handicap +1.5 mean?
The team starts with a 1.5-goal lead, so Unibet says the bet wins if the team wins, draws or loses by one goal. It loses if the team is beaten by two or more.
Why is the draw removed?
Wikipedia says the handicap cuts the three outcomes of a 1X2 bet to two by eliminating the draw. With whole-goal lines a level handicapped score is treated as a push & stakes are returned.
Sources
Sources checked 30 October 2026. Information only. 18+.
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