When it comes to sports betting, Asians are known to spend widely; staking wagers on nearly every sport to which bookmakers offer betting propositions. In fact the point spread betting market originated in Asia, specifically in Indonesia . In most sportsbooks, wagering on the point spread is termed as Asian handicap.
What is Asian Handicap or Point Spread Betting?
Asian handicap betting is largely offered on football and basketball matches. The betting proposition here aims to equal the chances of winning on matches, in which a supposedly weaker team is pitted against a stronger team. That way, sports punters will be encouraged to stake their money on the underdog team.
In handicap betting, the stronger or favorite team gets handicapped, which denotes a punter cannot just win because the favorite team scored more goals than the underdog. A certain number of points will be added or deducted to the score of the favorite team, before wagers on the team can be considered as winning bets.
Examples of Asian Handicap or Point Spread Offers
Some bookmakers offer point spread betting by handicapping the favorite team via points deduction made on their final score. The point deduction will then be added as a headstart score of the underdog team, The system evens out chances of winning wagers on both teams.
Let us say, a bookmaker expresses this betting proposition by, a minus (-) 2 points on a team that is generally expected to score 2 points higher than its current opponent. On the other hand, the weaker team automatically gets a plus (+) 2 points on its final score. Supposing the game ends with the favorite as the winner with a final score of 2, while the weaker has 0, those who wagered on the favorite cannot be considered as winners just yet.
As far as the betting score is concerned, the final score of the favorite team is 0 because of the 2-point spread deduction (Final Score 2 – Point Spread 2 = 0) The weaker team on the other hand scored 2, because despite the 0 final score, it had a headstart score of 2. This is only as far as settling wagers are concerned, which makes it possible to win from wagers staked on the underdog, albeit depending on the proposition.
Although a number of major EU-licensed bookmakers also operate Asia-facing sportsbooks, not a few punters prefer those originating from the Asia-licensed sector. Mainly because, Asian sportsbooks have lower margins, or that amount being charged as commission by bookmakers.
The pussy888 mobile gambling platform one, ordinarily offers up to 4,000 betting markets across a wide range of sports franchises and events; from football, to basketball, tennis, baseball, formula one racing and many more. Low margins therefore allow Aisan punters to place more bets either on a single sport or across a wide selection of sports products.
After all, offering cheaper or lower prices is a typical Asian business model because the goal is to sell massively.