European Handicap and Asian Handicap

The handicap market is one of the most traditional when we talk about sports betting, as it is possible to “even out” the differences between two teams.

What does AH mean in betting? Asian Handicap or AH

The term AH comes from the acronym “Asian Handicap”, which means Asian Handicap translated into English. Depending on the bookmaker you can find the expression in English directly: Asian Handicap, or the acronym HA, or the original expression “Asian Handicap” and the acronym “AH”.

The Asian Handicap can be positive (which gives a disadvantage) or negative (which gives an advantage), taking points or goals away from a team and adding to the other always in the same proportion. In our imaginary Fla X Flu (remember?), Fluminense had the best campaign and the best player of the championship (Ganso). Flamengo, on the other hand, had an irregular campaign and had not been playing well. In this case, Fluminense’s quotation on the betting sites would be low, due to its large favoritism for this match. And Flamengo’s, on the contrary, would be high. How would the Asian handicap work in this scenario? Fluminense could start the match with a negative goal difference and Flamengo with a positive goal difference.

Let’s understand this in a practical way: consider that our betting friend places his hopes on the favorite (Flu), depending on the lines offered by the betting site (we will explain this later), Fluminense starts with a disadvantage of, for example, 1 goal (negative balance of 1 goal). In this case, to win the bet would require Fluminense to win the match by at least 2 goals difference. In case of a simple victory, by only one goal, the result would end in a draw (1 x 0 for Fluminense, minus one goal disadvantage, would end in a 0 x 0 draw).

But that is not the only betting option. Next we will see some more options:

• AH 0
• AH -0.25/+0.25
• AH -0,75/AH +0,75
• AH -1/AH +1
• AH -1.25/AH +1.25
• AH -1.5/AH +1.5
• AH 1.75/AH +1.75
• AH -2/AH +2

Now let’s see how this works in practice.

Single handicap and divided handicap?

We talked above about two types of handicap: European and Asian. These are the best known, although there are also simple handicaps. Let’s take an example. Let’s say the strongest team has a goal handicap of -1. If you bet on them, you will only win the amount if they win the match by more than a goal difference. If they win by only one goal difference, the result is considered a draw, which ends up being negative for the bettor.

The split handicap considers that the difference between the two teams is not very high. In this sense, bettors can split their bets in two different handicaps. Let’s consider that the target team of your bet has two goal handicaps, being these 0 and 0.5. If this team loses, you also lose. If there’s a draw, one of your bets is refunded, while the other is not. But if the team wins, both bets are covered.

What is a level handicap?

A level handicap exists when the differences between the teams is very small or not very significant at all. Imagine that both teams are of the same level. In this case, no handicap of any kind is given. Both start at 0-0, at least in betting terms. For there to be a win for the bettor in this type of handicap, he must choose the team which will score the highest goal difference. In case of a draw, there is a refund for the bettor.