World Cup Asian Handicap Betting

This lengthy section aims to provide an unbiased analysis of the best online bookies, bookmakers and sportsbooks to use when placing Asian handicap bets on the football World Cup. If you are looking to skip all the content and get straight down to betting, then just below are my recommendations for which operators will offer you the highest odds, the most comprehensive range of markets and bet types, the broadest range of deposit and withdrawal options, and maybe even the odd valuable bonus or special promotion.

This analysis gives us a small list of the bookies that will be top-rated for offering Asian odds and handicaps across the matches of the 2022 World Cup tournament.

Before we get to the bookies sorted by region, here is a quick word about the matches. Whether you’re looking for the best asian odds and tips or predictions on matches involving Australia, Argentina, Brazil, England, Germany, Spain, the US (or anywhere in between!), there’s a section below dedicated to analysis and predictions on the games of the day that will help you make a selection.

In this tips section, I’ll be publishing links to well-written overviews of the games and occasionally making my write-up to pinpoint where the asian handicap value lies.

Best Asian and African Boky/Bookies for World Cup 2022 Asian Handicap Bets

Asia is where it all began, and the African market is the fastest-growing for online sports betting.

Punters in Asia and Africa are spoilt for choice of reliable boomakers, with several bookies fighting each other to offer reduced margin odds and capture as much local business as possible. If you want an Asia bookie for England v Italy, Uruguay v Costa Rica, or Columbia v Greece, they’ll all be offering AH odds.

It’s worth noting that the term Asian bookies essentially refers to bookmakers servicing that geographical region, but they operate similarly to bookmakers worldwide. But there are some fairly noticeable differences in how operators in Asia work. These differences can be crucial for punters.

• They often provide a deeper range of Asian handicap markets.
• Asian bokies sometimes offer better value bonuses.
• You can often get significantly better odds on your match selections through the lower margins.
• You’ll find much higher betting limits.
• The variety of football betting markets extends to those such as in-play, goal markets, corners, and other special soccer bets.

     Bet365.com is one of the worlds leading bookies offering every type of bet you’d want, live in-play betting, and a range of bonuses and promotions. They are simply the #1 choice for betting online from Asia and one of the leading bookmakers that offer asian handicap odds.

     188bet – One of the most reputable Asian bookmakers around and also has some of the best Asian handicap odds. What makes 188bet particularly appealing for Asian players is that it allows accounts to be held in a wide arrange of currencies, including Indonesian Rupiah (IDR) and Malaysian Ringgit (MYR). In addition, 188 bet allows deposits to be easily facilitated through players’ local bank accounts.

    Betfair – The biggest and best betting exchange that also runs a respected sportsbook offering every type of odds and markets.

• SBObet
• 1xBet
• 22Bet
• Dafabet
• W88
• Sportsbet.io
• 888Sport

The good news is these Asian bookmakers are not just open to punters from Singapore, India, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and even China and Vietnam. If you’re a resident living in Europe, North America, or Australia, some of these operators will also allow you to open an account. You can confirm your eligibility to hold an account by checking with the bookie’s Customer Support team or by checking the terms and conditions pages on their site or app.

You’ll find the operators we’ve listed are all appropriately licensed, too, so as long as it’s legal for you to deposit cash in a gambling account and place bets, you will be safe to sign up.

Overall, they’re widely recognised as the best for the Asia region. They serve punters with great products and worthwhile promotions, and betting with Asian odds in this year’s World Cup Finals is worth considering the Asian region bookies.

As we’ll see, many of them do also serve UK and European Customers alongside those in African countries like Cameroon, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, and Zambia.

Best UK and European bookmakers for World Cup Asian Handicap betting

If you are from the UK, you may want to stick with the names you know. There are many operators to choose from, most of which are highly regarded and have been in business for many years.

Some of these European-focused bookmakers also have a more global presence and are open to Asia region bettors. You’ll see they appear in the lists under multiple regions.

Aside from those above, others include Bet-At-Home, VCbet, Coral, Skybet, William Hill, Blue Square, and Boylesports.

Bet365 is undoubtedly the best bookmaker for the UK and European bettors due to its size, fantastic reputation and ability to provide some of the best Asian handicap odds. For the latest betting offers, visit the World Cup promotions page or the bet365 review.

Asian handicap sportsbooks in South America

South America is a huge sports gambling market that’s only recently opened up as countries have passed legislation that makes betting legal. If you’re in Colombia, certain Argentinian provinces, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, or Paraguay, you’ll be placing any handicap bets under a regulated framework.

That doesn’t mean you won’t be able to place a bet on a World Cup match using Asian odds if you don’t live in one of those countries. Still, you should check closely with any gambling operator you choose before committing to creating an account, depositing, and attempting to place any wagers.

Bet365 should be high on your list of options, as in many other global regions. Other operators running handicap odds in South America include:

• 1xBet
• Pinnacle
• Betway
• Bettson

Best North American (US/Canada) Sportsbooks

Note that for the US or North American residents, the options are pretty cut and dried – if you’re not in a state where sports betting has been regulated, you’re limited to a handful of sportsbooks which, although low in number, are highly regarded and trusted. In addition to Bet365 and William Hill, others include Sportsbetting.ag and Pinnacle Sports.

In the US regulated betting markets, and provided you’re in a state where you can use a licenced sportsbook, you’ll be able to bet Asian handicaps on the USA national football team at gambling sites like Fanduel Sportsbook.

Followers of the Canadian national team can bet at many of the sportsbooks we’ve already listed.

Best Asian Handicap Australian Bookies

Australian punters are well know for their betting activities, and you’ll find that the Aussies among you looking to place World cup Asian handicap bets will have your own handful of betting operators that focus solely on Australia.

Sportsbet.com.au, Sportingbet, Luxbet, and IASbet are all options for Aussie punters that haven’t made the top sites list, but still offer good alternatives.

What’s the best Asian odds bookmaker for World Cup bets? 

Previous experience has shown some online bookmakers are significantly better than others for World Cup Asian handicap betting, both in their reliability, safety, free bets offers, and most importantly – their ability to provide the best odds on the goals advantage markets.

These are the operators’ anyone interested in betting on football will want to see in a list of Asian handicap betting sites

The five most important factors to bear in mind when choosing your online sportsbook are:

• Your country of residence, whether it’s legal for you to place bets, and which bookies offer Asian handicap bets in your region or country.
• Which sportsbooks offer the widest coverage of bets and betting markets.
• Whether there are any special welcome offers or incentives to open accounts with specific bookmakers. These will typically take the form of a deposit bonus, and occasionally as a reload bonus for a second or third deposit.
• Whether any are offering special promotions to ongoing registered Customers.
• How easy it is to deposit funds into your betting account (and of course to withdraw your winnings).

Taking these five key factors into account, you can greatly reduce the number of options.

While we’ve already seen an extensive list of the most reputable online sports betting sites for betting Asian handicaps on a per country or region basis, it’s not too hard to take into account many reports and opinions from experts within the industry and come up with a shortlist of a handful that will meet all of our criteria to the best effect.

• Bet365
• William Hill
• Vbet
• 22Bet
• Betway

What is Asian handicap betting? Handicaps explained

To the untrained eye, Asian handicap betting (previously known as ‘hang cheng betting’ in Asia) can seem quite complicated and confusing. Luckily this is not the case, as many World Cup fans will find out.

There are some major differences between handicaps and traditional fixed odds.

Essentially, instead of providing three different betting outcomes for a sports match (i.e., win/lose/draw), Asian handicap betting reduces this to two options: win or lose. The betting method is typically applied to football matches as football is one of the most popular sports where a draw is a regular occurrence.

The draw outcome is removed by applying a ‘handicap’ to the stronger team in a match. The football team that is perceived to be a weaker or lesser team is given a positive handicap of goals, ranging from one-quarter or 0.25 of a goal to multiple goals.

The idea is to create a situation where the odds of either result are as close to 50/50 as possible by making sure the strongest team on paper is handicapped. This method of handicapping is best explained through a number of examples in the following section. However, if you are looking for a in-depth explanation then you can find it on our page on ‘what is Asian handicap betting?’

What is an alternative asian handicap bet?

Standard asian handicaps eliminate the possibility of a draw. With alternative handicaps, your bet is actually split and placed across two different handicaps in such a way that you end up with your stake returned if the scoreline is a draw after the handicap has been taken into consideration. It’s perfectly described here.

What is a European handicap?

A European handicap has pretty much the same effect as the alternative asian handicap. It reintroduces the possibility of the draw by quoting the odds for the difference between the teams based on a whole goal difference. So, the underdog has to overcome a goal difference meaning they could make it a draw by overcoming that difference.

World Cup Asian Handicap betting examples

Let’s explore an example of World cup Asian handicap betting to get a better feel for the betting method.

1 goal handicap: France (+1), Brazil (-1)

In this example, France is seen as the underdog and has been given a +1 goal handicap, while Brazil has been given a -1 goal handicap i.e. a 1-goal handicap is applied to the game. Essentially this means that the score at the start of the match is a virtual score of France 1-0 Brazil.

If we then decide to back Brazil with -1 goal:

• If Brazil wins by 2 or more goals then we win the bet e.g. If Brazil scores three goals and France scores a single goal, the final score would be 3-1 to Brazil, and the effective handicap score would be Brazil 3 – 2 France.
• If Brazil wins by 1 goal then the bet is returned e.g., If Brazil scores one goal and France does not score, the final match score would be 1-0 while the effective handicap score would be Brazil 1 – 1 France.
• If Brazil draw or lose then the bet is lost e.g., If both Brazil and France do not score, the final match score would be 0-0 while the effective handicap score would be Brazil 0 – 1 France.

This is an example of full-goal handicaps. It is also possible to get quarter, and half goal handicaps which again are covered in the Asian handicap betting explained page. Needless to say, these might be for a 0.75 handicap or a 1.5, for example.

Benefits of betting with Asian odds

Now we’ve seen the basic concepts of Asian handicap betting, it’s not hard to recognize that it offers significant prospects of being the best option for placing wagers on the 2022 World cup matches.

The big benefit of Asian handicaps is that instead of having to place bets where the odds are low, and you have to stake large sums on short-priced favourites to win a small amount of money (e.g., bet £/$/€200 to win £/$/€20), you can place bets on simple handicapped outcomes (i.e., win or lose) on the same match or team and get much better returns.

In addition, you will often get significantly better odds on Asian handicap betting than fixed odds because the best bookmakers specifically aim for low returns in their profit margins (normally around 2-3%). They do this to remain competitive with a large number of competitors, particularly in countries across Asia.

Latest 2022 World Cup Asian Handicap odds by football match

To get the best deals from any form of betting you need to know which bookmaker or sportsbook offers the best odds. Why leave money on the table by taking worse odds with one bookie than you could get with another?

Odds will change all the time in the lead-up to a match, and of course, if you’re betting in-play, they’ll be changing during the match, too. So, it’s won’t be practical to list all the different odds on offer here.

Fortunately, there are plenty of places to compare and get up-to-date Asian handicap odds. You can of course go direct to the bookies themselves, but the best solution is one of the sites which compare live stream odds. I’ll list the best of them right here when we get closer to the first matches.

The World Cup 2022 national team qualifiers

There will be no shortage of experts making predictions on the outcome of individual World Cup contests or the likely winners of the early rounds, the knockout stage, the quarter and semi-finals, and the final game itself. Many of the predictors will be using extensive knowledge and data to make those predictions, and they’ll be worth following when considering your bets.

But it feels great when you arrive at a successful selection using your own skills and knowledge. Clearly, there will be a significant volume of emotional and patriotic bets in the tournament. Still, one way to arrive at your selections is to understand the background of the teams and how they qualified for the finals of the competition.

So, let’s see how some of the leading nations made their way to the finals of the tournament:

South America – CONMEBOL

Conmebol is the name of the South American Football Confederation. Teams from South America have won nine previous FIFA World Cups, an unsurprising figure given the quality of the national teams and the fact they qualify by fighting it out in the strongest soccer confederation in the world.

For the 2022 event, the qualifying national teams from Conmebol are Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, and Uruguay.

Europe – UEFA

The qualification for European countries is hard-fought among sides in the region, with the 2022 European qualifiers providing 13 places in the Qatar final games.

The Union of European Football Associations teams making it to the finals include the  Netherlands, England, Wales, France, Germany, Portugal, Poland, Denmark, Switzerland, Serbia, Belgium, Croatia, and Spain.

North, Central America, and Caribbean – CONCACAF

National teams making the finals from qualification in the North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) are traditionally those least likely to proceed much further than the early rounds. The 2022 finals see appearances from Costa Rica, the USA, and Mexico.

The remaining teams come from the other regional confederations the AFC, OFC, and CAF.

Best Asian handicap tips and predictions of the day

The World Cup qualifiers, groups, and teams are known. No doubt the managers of each national team know who is going to be lining up for their starting games. But each match will best be analyzed on the day to take into account any team or environment changes, how well each team are performing as the tournament progresses, and of course what the handicap odds are on offer.

This section is reserved for tips on the matches and teams where the best value Asian handicap odds are available, and where you can get them. Check back regularly for daily updates where we’ll be determining the most lucrative betting opportunities based on current odds, team and player stats, and scoring averages as the tournament progresses. 

With normal levels of luck, and by using soccer knowledge and our convictions, we should be able to identify the value in the asian handicap markets. 

Group stage match reviews 

The Group stages are a tricky time for any team, even the most fancied. The most important thing for any side is to avoid elimination, and that sometimes makes for nervous performances.

For the canny punter, the Group stages can offer some fantastic value Asian odds opportunities. This is particularly true where a victory by a good margin (or even holding an opponent to a low number of goals) is of the utmost importance.

You’ll also need to consider other aspects of how a game might unfold. An example might be that if a team goes one goal up, it may encourage their opponents to take more risks through the rest of the game resulting in a potentially higher score – more likely in favour of the heavy favourites. Another example may be where the Golden Boot might play a part in how a player performs. These aspects will be particularly useful to take into account if you’re monitoring your handicap bet in running/play.

It’s also worth noting that underdogs can play above themselves in the early rounds of any World Cup. There are plenty of examples of this in previous tournaments where highly fancied teams have been held to reduced margin victories or even in some cases draws or losses to lesser opponents.

In this section, we’ll be seeking full match previews with expert analysis of both sides in each game, predictions on how the games will unfold, and betting recommendations around which types of bets offer the best value. On the day of the matches, I’ll be posting links to the information here which will help make any selections for those games.

There are several expert resources that provide Asian handicap tips, so we’ll be looking for those coming in the form of an online sports magazine and offering a truly great source of match write-ups and predictions.

Next Matches – Group stage

• 20th November – Qatar vs Ecuador
• 21st November – England vs Iran
• 21st November – Senegal vs Netherlands
• 21st November – USA vs Wales
• 22nd November – Argentina vs Saudi Arabia
• 22nd November – Denmark vs Tunisia
• 22nd November – Mexico vs Poland
• 22nd November – France vs Australia
• 23rd November – Morocco vs Croatia
• 23rd November – Germany vs Japan
• 23rd November – Spain vs Costa Rica
• 23rd November – Belgium vs Canada
• 24th November – Switzerland vs Cameroon
• 24th November – Uruguay vs South Korea
• 24th November – Portugal vs Ghana
• 24th November – Brazil vs Serbia

Asian odds comparison on World Cup games

If you’re betting with reasonably small sums of money then you won’t need to be worrying too much about the difference in Asian odds at different bookies. Most of the major bookies offering AH odds are going to have them set fairly similarly, and for small wagers on any World Cup match, it’s not going to make a great difference to your profit margin by shopping around.

But if you’re betting with larger sums or regularly, you’ll want to be looking for the best odds you can get. A small difference in odds can make a big difference in profit on larger bets.

To achieve this it’s critical to be using an Asian odds or AH comparison tool.

These are tools which list all matches and compare each handicap with the odds on offer against it and for both teams, and they’re updated in real-time. AH odds fluctuate all the time depending on the weight of money for any specific outcome, and they can fluctuate wildly.

Finding a good Asian handicap comparison tool which shows all the World Cup matches in an easy-to-understand format is not as easy as it sounds. Most I’ve looked at are complicated to use and not very pretty/user-friendly.

So what’s a good one?

Take a look at the image below which shows the best AH odds comparison chart I’ve found. This is an example section of a table from the tool which shows the odds for the Columbia v Greece game in a previous World Cup tournament.

You’ll notice that it lists the goals handicaps in the left-hand column, and moving across shows the odds for that handicap on the home team (1) and the away team (2). Of course, neither are home or away, but I’m sure you know what I mean.

You can then click on ‘compare odds’, and a dropdown will open which shows bookies’ current offers.

This tool can be found at Oddsportal.com, and it is the best comparison tool for Asian odds in World Cup matches that I’ve found, just click on the image to see the rest of the comparison table for this and other games.

Asian handicap charts, converters, and tables

Calculators and charts will help you work out the odds for any games where you’re intending to bet. Before the tournament starts, we’ll publish an asian handicap chart here. For now, you can visit these websites for some useful converters (for converting 12x odds into handicap), charts, or tables.

Bettify converter.

Calculators.bet gives you a way of working out the odds on a minus 0.25 handicap.

Valuepunter Asian Handicap table/chart

Different types of Asian odds

In addition to handicap odds and the ‘standard’ decimal odds, there are other types recognised in the Asia region – they vary slightly for Malaysia, Indonesia, and Hong Kong. Of course, it doesn’t matter what you play, the payouts are the same. However, you do need to know what you’re betting for, and what you’re going to win with your bet.

So let’s take a brief look at some of the types of Asian odds. I don’t need to explain decimals, so we’ll focus on Malay, Indonesian, and Hong Kong using some examples to illustrate.

Hong Kong Odds

• Odds example 0.650 – payout $0.650 (or appropriate currency) for every $1 staked
• Odds example 3.650 – payout $3.650 (or appropriate currency) for every $1 staked

Malay Odds

You’ll see these stated as a negative or positive number which is never bigger than 1, with negative meaning the underdog, and positive indicating the favorite.

• Odds example -0.650 – the risk or bet is 0.650 to win 1 unit.
• Odds example +0.650 -the risk is 1 to win 0.650.

Indonesia Odds

Betting with Indonesian odds is essentially the same as you’ll see in American markets where 3 or more figures are used. However, for Indonesia, these are displayed as 1 digit followed by a decimal point.

• Odds example 1.65 – the risk is 1 unit to win 1.65.
• Odds example -1.65 – the risk is 1.65 to win 1 unit.

What are the alternatives to Asian handicap betting?

We’ve already seen that betting with Asian odds will give you just about the best chance you can get of successfully making a profit on the World Cup matches. Of course, handicaps are not the only way to bet, and there are several alternative options.

The bookies will be offering thousands of different markets on games throughout the tournament. All of our recommended bookmakers can also be used for placing other types of bets, ranging from straight win/lose/draw wagers on matches through to number of corners, goal kicks, penalties, both teams to score etc. You name it, someone will be offering odds on it.

You’ll also be able to get involved with many of these alternative betting types by combining them with special promotions the bookies are running for the tournament. These will either be running for the duration of the event or, perhaps more interestingly, appearing as daily betting offers on specific World Cup matches

Perhaps one of the most interesting alternatives is spread betting. With this, you’ll also be seeing markets for anything from total numbers on the back of goalscorer’s shirts to the number of penalties converted or the total number of goals in the entire tournament.

Spread betting can be volatile. You can win a lot of money, and you can lose a lot. If you’re interested then I’d advise caution….maybe only use it to play up some winnings from any successful Asian handicap wagers.

Sporting Index is the place to go for the widest range of spread betting markets. New Customers get £500 as cashback on losses, and there’s a free bets promotion running specifically for the World Cup.

Want something on top of your World Cup sports betting? 

So, what do you do if placing handicap bets on the World Cup is not for you? Maybe you’re looking for something entirely different than bets on matches. Maybe you’re in between games, you’ve already placed your Asian handicap bet, and you want something to pass some time and have some fun outside of football and the World Cup.

If that’s the case, the simplest and most obvious alternative is to play some casino games. The great news here is that while playing games in an online casino is an enjoyable form of entertainment in its own right, there’s a way to enhance that enjoyment by taking advantage of the promotions run by casino operators that specifically have a World Cup bias. 

More info and useful resources

The official FIFA World Cup website is likely to be one that most World Cup followers will be visiting regularly, but let’s see some other resources that’ll be useful before and during the tournament that will help with our asian handicap betting:

Social networks

Not surprisingly, our subject will be covered extensively across the most popular social networks. Indeed, these networks are key locations for getting updates on matches, scores, and tournament standings. Both Facebook and Twitter will be inundated with posts and tweets related to World Cup Asian handicap betting. Either of these will offer valuable ways to keep up to date on what’s happening on the betting front:

• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Instagram

Videos

You’ll not need to look any further than Youtube for dozens of valuable videos about World Cup Asian handicap betting, but both Rumble and Vimeo are suitable alternatives.

Newspapers and sports websites

Famous English newspaper The Guardian has a useful section on World Cup 2022 news and updates. This will be valuable for team news in the run-up to the first matches and during the rest of the early rounds.

From a perspective of sports websites, you won’t need much more than you can find on this page of realmoney.games.

Summary

There was extensive interest from punters across the world in handicap soccer betting during the last two World Cups, indicating we could be heading for an event where betting with Asian handicap odds surpasses any level seen before.

Asian handicap betting offers advantages over traditional fixed odds, a fact that many bettors in the Asian regions near Qatar seem likely to recognise and take advantage of.

So, for the FIFA World Cup matches of 2022 and over the course of the tournament itself, seeking betting tips and betting with Asian odds will surely attract the attention of many football fans looking to place bets on the performances of their national teams.

There are plenty of bookies and sportsbooks lining up their books for the games, and there will be many opportunities to return a profit with your football bets using your sports betting knowledge. Using handicap odds is the best way to enhance your winning chances and enjoy the tournament for more than just the high-quality action on the pitches and in the stadiums of Qatar.  

FAQ

We’ve seen most of what you’d need to know to begin taking advantage of Asian handicap bets while the World Cup tournament is under way in Qatar. But you may have one or two unanswered questions, so let’s try to round up this analysis with some responses that should tidy up any loose ends.