The £10 Asian Handicap Betting Sites Worth Placing a Bet With

Updated October 2026

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Asian handicap football pricing arrived at British bookmakers a generation after fixed-odds coupons did, and a generation before most bettors learnt what a quarter line actually does to their stake. The market itself is older than its UK footprint. Hong Kong and Indonesian syndicate shops settled goal-line bets before Premier League shirts carried sponsors, and the system spread west as in-play trading made live handicap pricing routine. The product on the page below sits inside that history: it is a method of pricing a football match so that one side starts the bet a goal ahead or a goal behind, the draw as a betting outcome is removed, and the punter’s choices narrow from three to two. When the line is a whole number the draw is not removed but translated into a push, when the line is a half it cannot be reached, and when it is a quarter the stake splits across two adjacent lines and settles as if the punter had placed two bets rather than one. Each of those shapes pays out, pushes, or loses under a different rule, and the cost to the bettor sits inside the margin the bookmaker builds into the two prices on offer.

This page reads what is actually on offer at the licensed UK bookmakers that price Asian handicap football, how those lines settle in practice, and what the welcome package each one runs costs the person who claims it once the wagering rule, the minimum price and the expiry have done their work. Where research carries a number it is printed; where it does not, the page says so qualitatively and points to where the reader checks. Pricing is current as of October 30, 2026, and the licence claims below were verified against the Gambling Commission’s public register.

Safeguards the punter can call on

A licensed bookmaker in Great Britain runs inside a frame that exists nowhere else in the same shape. The Commission holds the register, GAMSTOP runs the self-exclusion scheme the licence makes compulsory, and a single set of customer-protection duties binds every brand reviewed below.

GAMSTOP and the self-exclusion route

GAMSTOP is the national multi-operator online self-exclusion scheme and a licence condition for every online operator since 31 March 2020. A punter who registers with GAMSTOP is blocked at every GB-licensed remote operator for the period they choose: six months, one year, five years, or five years with auto-renewal. After the minimum period the exclusion stays in place for a further seven years unless the customer asks GAMSTOP to remove it. It covers online sites and apps; betting shops use a separate service, so GAMSTOP alone does not close a high-street door. Betting shops are a different product and a different scheme.

Age, identity and the verification that happens before the first deposit

Minimum age is 18. Since 7 May 2019 the rules have required a name, address and date of birth check before any customer can deposit or gamble with a GB-licensed online operator, including with a free bet or bonus — anonymous play is not a product a licensed site sells. Source-of-funds questions at higher spend are normal under the money-laundering rules and are not, on their own, a problem with the operator.

Deposit limits, vulnerability checks and the wagering cap

Operators must offer a gross deposit limit on a fixed time frame under RTS 12; the first changes have applied since 31 October 2025, a second phase was postponed to 30 September 2026. A check on deposits minus withdrawals above £150 in a rolling 30 days has been in force since 28 February 2025 and is a public-record check (for example, bankruptcy or county court judgments), not an income check and not a credit reference check. Wagering requirements on bonuses are capped at 10x since 19 January 2026 — a £10 bonus at 50x once needed £500 of bets and now needs no more than £100. and this is not yet established.

Where help is found

GamCare runs the National Gambling Helpline. GambleAware funds treatment and education. The NHS runs gambling clinics across England. Gamblers Anonymous runs meetings. A punter who reads this page because the betting has stopped being fun finds those names in this paragraph because they are the right ones, not because the page is paid to put them there.

Live pricing, cash out and what in-play does to an Asian line

A live Asian handicap line moves as the match moves, and a punt on the favourite at -0.5 taken at 1.95 in the fifth minute is a different bet from the same selection at 2.10 after the home side has missed a sitter. The shape of the product is built for that — the draw is gone, so two prices and one market edge is all the in-play trader has to defend.

What in-play trading does to a quarter line

A quarter line such as -1.75 splits the stake across -1.5 and -2.0. If the favourite goes a goal up early, the in-play price on -1.75 moves because half the stake at -2.0 is closer to a push and half the stake at -1.5 is closer to a winner. If the favourite concedes, half the bet at -1.5 is suddenly closer to a loser. A punter who has not seen the split does not know which half the trader is reacting to. The selectioni beneath this paragraph carries a worked example on a -1.75 line in the section that owns the mathematics; the cost of misunderstanding the split is paid in lost stake the first time a 1-0 win does not pay the way it looked like it would.

Cash out and the cost of closing a position early

Cash out is offered by most of the brands reviewed below on the markets their terms permit. A punter who closes a -1 favourite at 1-0 up cashes out at a price set by the trader, not at the price the bet was taken at, and the gap between the two is the trader’s edge on top of the original margin. Cash out is convenient; it is not a free option, and the price offered is rarely the price the same selection would be available at on the in-play exchange.

Live streaming and the data underneath the price

Several brands run live streams of football and tennis. Matchbook streams horse racing and greyhounds on its exchange, bet365 streams football across most European leagues, and BetVictor runs enhanced live race streaming alongside racing data. A live picture helps a punter read the match, but it does not move the price against the trader, and the margin built into the line is the same whether the punter watches on the operator’s stream or on television.

Forecasts, strategy and the cost of chasing a system

A system that wins on Asian handicap is a system that prices more matches right than the market does. There is no such system publicly documented, and any tipster selling one is selling the same product every other tipster sells.

What a tipster actually sells

An Asian handicap tipster sells predictions. The price on each prediction sits inside the margin the bookmaker builds, and the edge the tipster claims to carry is paid for in subscription fees, not in the price of the bets. A tipster at 55% on -0.5 lines at average odds of 1.95 is selling a 2.5-point edge over the market, before the margin is paid back to the bookmaker, and the 2.5 points is the part of the subscription that disappears into the tipster’s bank account rather than the punter’s. No number on this page can say whether any particular tipster is accurate; the audit cannot say so either.

Bankroll discipline and staking plans

A staking plan sets the size of the next bet as a fraction of the current bankroll. Flat staking, level staking, Kelly staking and proportional staking each do something different to a bankroll over a losing run, and the difference is in the variance, not in the long-run return, which is determined by the edge the punter carries. On Asian handicap lines the variance is higher than on outright winner markets because half a goal is a smaller increment than a whole one, and a sequence of small losses on half-goal favourites compounds in a way a single outright winner loss does not.

The argument against following predictions

A prediction is a forecast of an event, not a forecast of the price. A forecast of Arsenal -0.5 at 1.95 says nothing about the 1.95, and the price the bookmaker offers on Arsenal -0.5 tomorrow is set by a different trader. The punter who bets the prediction without checking the price has paid the subscription and the margin and is left with the value the bookmaker chose to leave on the page.

Asian handicap lines and how each one settles

The market on this page covers four shapes of line. Each shape settles under its own rule, and a punter who does not know the shape of the line they are on does not know the shape of the bet they are placing.

Whole-number lines and the push

On a whole-number Asian handicap line such as -1 or +1, a result that ends level after the handicap is applied is a push and all original stakes are returned. A bet on a -1 favourite that wins 2-1 wins; a bet that wins 1-0 pushes; a bet that wins 1-2 loses. The push is a feature, not a refund: the punter who backs a -1 favourite at 1.95 and the match ends 1-0 has neither won nor lost, and the stake returns intact. The bookmaker’s margin on whole-number lines is harder to calculate than on half-goal lines because the push must be priced in alongside the two outcomes.

Half-goal lines and the elimination of the push

On a half-goal Asian handicap line such as -0.5 or +1.5, no push is possible because nobody can score half a goal. A bet on a -0.5 favourite at 1.95 wins if the favourite wins by any margin and loses otherwise. The two outcomes are settled by a single goal, and the price on each outcome reflects that binary. The margin on a half-goal line is the cleanest calculation in the market, because the two outcomes are mutually exclusive and exhaustive.

Quarter lines and the split stake

A quarter-line Asian handicap such as -1.75 splits the stake across two adjacent lines (-1.5 and -2.0), so a 1.75 line is roughly a bet at 1.5 and a bet at 2.0. A £100 stake at 2.29 on a -1.75 favourite that wins by one goal loses on the -1.5 half (£50 at the price) and pushes on the -2.0 half (£50 returned). A 2-0 win refunds £50 on the -2.0 half and wins on the -1.5 half, a return of £164.50 against a £100 stake. The split is invisible on the betting slip until settlement, and a punter who does not know the split has placed two bets without knowing it.

What the margin does to the prices on offer

A bookmaker’s margin is built into every price. A two-way market at 1.90 / 1.90 in decimal odds — or 9/10 in fractional — pays out £0.95 per £1 bet across both outcomes on average, and the £0.05 the bookmaker keeps per £1 is the margin. A market at 1.85 / 1.85 keeps more per £1, and the difference shows up as a longer losing run for the same strike rate. The margin on half-goal lines is easier to read because the two outcomes settle by a single goal; the margin on quarter lines is harder because the push and the win are both priced in alongside the loss. The numbers below carry the calculation; the work above carries the trade-off.

The shortlisted operators and what each one costs

The ten brands below are licensed by the Gambling Commission for remote general betting standard (real events), and each one prices Asian handicap football markets at varying depth. The table that follows is the landscape; the write-ups that follow are the cost.

The licence landscape at a glance

The licence numbers are those on the Commission’s public register against each trading name. The account number is the Commission’s internal reference and is what a reader enters into the register’s business-name search. Each brand runs on its own terms page for what it offers on Asian handicap markets and how it settles them; the punter who checks the brand’s own settlement rules before betting pays a small price in time and saves a larger one in surprises at settlement.

Unibet — the established name with a free-bet welcome

Unibet states it has operated since 1999, and its UK site is run by Platinum Gaming Limited, Gibraltar, under Gambling Commission account 45322. The site’s sports welcome offer is “Get £40 in Free Bets when you bet £20”: a deposit and sports bet of £20 or more at minimum odds of 2.0 (1/1), with free bets expiring within 7 days of issue, for new GB customers using a debit card or instant bank transfer. Asian handicap prices are listed on the major European leagues and on the Premier League at depth that lets a punter stake on whole, half and quarter lines at the same fixture. The free-bet stake is not returned on a win, and the value of the offer depends on the price the punter takes the free bet at, because the payout is the winnings only. A free bet of £10 at 2.0 returns £10 in winnings on a win — half what a £10 cash stake would have paid.

Unibet suits the punter who wants a single account at a long-established name, will read the wagering rule before claiming the welcome package, and is content with the price the bookmaker offers rather than the price an exchange would lay. The cost is the margin built into the line and the seven-day clock on the free bet, which expires before a busy weekend’s football is finished if the punter does not stake it on Saturday.

Dabble — the social-feed newcomer

Dabble’s welcome offer is “Bet £10, Get £10 in Free Bets” on a first deposit for new customers, with minimum odds applying, a 7-day free bet expiry and the stake not returned. Dabble Sports UK Ltd holds Gambling Commission account 65677, and the brand runs a social-feed product that lets punters follow other customers’ bets. Asian handicap pricing is on the major football leagues; the depth of the market at lower leagues is shallower than the established names.

The social-feed product is the differentiator, and a punter who likes seeing what other customers have backed has something to use. The cost is a small welcome package relative to the longer-established names, a 7-day clock on the free bet, and the minimum-odds floor on the qualifying bet, which a punter must clear before the free bet is issued. The welcome offer is light, and the social-feed product is what the brand is selling.

Matchbook — the exchange model

Matchbook is a betting exchange where customers bet against other users, with Bet Builder, multiples, in-play betting and live streaming of horse racing and greyhounds. Triplebet Limited holds Gambling Commission account 39504 under the remote betting intermediary category. Asian handicap markets are priced by back and lay customers, not by the operator’s own traders, and the prices reflect what the exchange’s users will back and lay at rather than a margin the operator has set.

The exchange model suits the punter who wants the thinnest margin and is willing to leave part of a bet unmatched at the price they want. The cost is the commission charged on net winnings, the liquidity at off-piste fixtures, and the fact that a price on the exchange is not guaranteed to be available at the size the punter wants to stake. A punter who places a £1,000 back bet on a -0.5 favourite at 2.0 finds the available stake is what other users have laid, and on a low-liquidity fixture that stake is small. Matchbook suits the punter who reads the order book and accepts that the price on the page is the price somebody else has set.

Octobet — the racing-led book with football markets

Octobet offers Best Odds Guaranteed on UK and Irish horse racing, up to £150 per customer per race, and prices Asian handicap football across the major leagues. Octopus Game Limited holds Gambling Commission account 62545. The brand’s racing product is the differentiator, with BOG paying the higher of the morning price and the starting price on UK and Irish racing; the football product is functional rather than deep, with Asian handicap lines on the Premier League and the European competitions and shallower depth at lower-tier fixtures.

Octobet suits the punter who bets on both racing and football and wants a single account that pays BOG on the racing leg. The cost is the football market depth relative to the established names, the £150-per-customer-per-race cap on the BOG payout, and the absence of a listed welcome offer on the app store.

BetVictor — the racing-heavy book with Smart Stats

BetVictor offers Best Odds Guaranteed on UK and Irish horse racing, enhanced live race streaming and a BetFinder feature for finding racing bets, alongside Smart Stats. BV Gaming Limited holds Gambling Commission account 39576. Asian handicap football pricing is on the major leagues at depth comparable to the established names.

Smart Stats is the differentiator for a punter who wants in-race data on the same screen as the betting slip. The cost is the absence of any welcome offer documented on the App Store listing for this audience, and the same trading margin on Asian handicap lines that every other fixed-odds bookmaker carries.

Bet Ahoy — the small welcome package

Bet Ahoy’s welcome offer is “Bet £10 & Get £10 in Free Bets”, made up of a £5 sports bet and a £5 acca. Bet Ahoy Ltd holds Gambling Commission account 100094. Asian handicap pricing is on the major football leagues. The acca component of the welcome offer is the differentiator for a punter who backs accumulators; a £5 acca free bet that pays winnings-only at the combined price can be worth more than a £5 sports free bet at a single price, depending on the legs. The cost is the split structure, which forces the punter to clear two free bets within the expiry rather than one, and the smaller welcome package than the longer-established names.

bet365 — the depth and the Bet Builder

bet365 offers Bet Builder+ (combining markets from one event into a single bet, available pre-match and in-play), Super Boosts, Winnings Boosts on Bet Builders and selected singles, and daily Bet Boosts. Hillside (UK Sports) ENC holds Gambling Commission account 55148. Asian handicap pricing is at the deepest level in the market, with lines on the Premier League, the Championship, the European competitions and lower leagues at whole, half and quarter increments, alongside in-play trading across the football calendar.

Bet Builder+ is the differentiator for a punter who wants to combine markets from one match into a single bet. The cost is the trading margin on every line, which is the same margin as every other fixed-odds bookmaker, and the absence of a welcome offer documented on the App Store listing for this audience. A punter looking for depth at every fixture and the in-play product is paying the trading margin the bookmaker has set; a punter looking for the thinnest margin goes to the exchange.

Betmaster — the football-led product

Betmaster is operated by BM Solutions GB Ltd, registered in Malta, and states it holds Gambling Commission account number 65699. Asian handicap pricing is on the major football leagues. The product is functional rather than deep at lower-tier fixtures, and the brand does not run the same welcome offer as the established names on the App Store listing for this audience.

Betmaster suits the punter who wants an alternative to the bigger brands and is content with the depth at the major leagues. The cost is the absence of a welcome offer documented for this audience, the trading margin on every line, and the shallower market at lower-tier fixtures than the established names.

Betfred — the high-street name with the football coupons

Betfred’s app features Bet Builder, Sub Switch, Racing Post data, Extra Places, live casino and bingo. Petfre (Gibraltar) Limited holds Gambling Commission account 39544. Asian handicap football pricing is on the major leagues and on the Championship and League One at depth. The high-street heritage is the differentiator for a punter who values a familiar name.

The cost is the trading margin on every line and the lack of a welcome offer listed on the app store for this audience. Betfred suits the punter who wants a single account at a name they have walked past on the high street for years and is content with the football pricing the brand offers.

William Hill — the BOG-led book with the most legible racing terms

William Hill pays Best Odds Guaranteed on UK and Irish horse racing from 8 AM on the day of the race, on both single and multiple bets; it does not apply to ante-post, tote or pari-mutuel bets. WHG (International) Limited holds Gambling Commission account 39225. Asian handicap football pricing is on the major leagues at depth comparable to the established names.

The BOG terms are the most legible in the market: the 8 AM start, the scope (single and multiple, no ante-post) and the absence of a cap are stated on the operator’s help page in plain language. The cost is the trading margin on the Asian handicap lines and the lack of a welcome offer listed on the app store for this audience.

What the licensed UK market looks like from above

The ten brands above are licensed by the Gambling Commission for remote general betting standard (real events), and each one holds a place on the public register against an operating company that is not always the same as the brand name. Several brands run under one licensee — Unibet and Platinum Gaming Ltd, BetVictor and BV Gaming Ltd, Betfred and Petfre (Gibraltar) Ltd, William Hill and WHG (International) Ltd — and the punter who checks the register finds the operator, not the brand, on the licence line.

What the register proves and what it does not

The public register proves a brand holds a licence, the licence category, and the operating company. It does not prove the brand is offering Asian handicap at a given fixture, at a given price, or with a given settlement rule. Those are the brand’s own product, and a punter who bets without reading the brand’s settlement rules for Asian handicap markets is reading only half the contract.

What the licence does not do

The licence does not insure the punter against a losing run. The bookmaker’s margin is built into every price on the page, and a punt on a -0.5 favourite at 1.95 that loses is a loss the punter paid for in the margin, not a loss the licence prevented. The licence insures the punter against the operator vanishing with the funds in the account, against the absence of a complaints route, and against the absence of GAMSTOP coverage; it does not insure the bet.

What an unlicensed brand would offer

An unlicensed brand runs on its own house rules, with no GAMSTOP coverage, no Commission complaints route, no approved dispute-resolution body, no British consumer redress if funds are withheld, and no obligation under the 10x bonus cap or the £150 vulnerability check. The price on an Asian handicap line at an unlicensed brand is not necessarily better or worse than the price at a licensed one; the difference is in the protections around the price and the recourse if something goes wrong. This page lists licensed operators only, because the protection question is settled before the price question is asked.

How the law frames the bet

The Gambling Act 2005 covers Great Britain — England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland is outside the Act and runs on its own older law, and a GB licence does not regulate a Northern Ireland customer. The punter who bets on a licensed UK site from Belfast is still on a site licensed in Great Britain; the punter who bets on a licensed UK site from Dublin is on a site licensed in Great Britain serving a customer outside the licensing jurisdiction.

What may be bet on at a GB-licensed bookmaker

No statutory list of permitted bets or markets exists. An operator holds a licence for a category — remote general betting standard (real events) for the brands above — and offers markets under its own rules and the Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice (LCCP). Asian handicap football markets fall under that category, and the brand’s own settlement rules govern how each line pays out. Esports are treated like any other event; virtual events are a separate licence category; bets on politics, TV shows and novelty markets are offered by GB bookmakers and no statutory prohibition was found.

In-play, exchanges and the spread betting carve-out

In-play betting is offered by GB bookmakers and the controls are the operator’s licence conditions and customer-protection duties, not a statutory prohibition or a statutory permission. Betting exchanges run under a betting intermediary licence, which is the licence Matchbook holds. Financial spread betting is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, not the Commission — Spreadex, for example, holds an FCA licence for spread betting and a Commission licence for fixed-odds betting, and the punter who takes a financial spread position is on a different product from the punter who takes a fixed-odds position. Spread betting losses can exceed the deposit, and that risk sits on the spread-betting side, not the fixed-odds side.

Advertising, the bonus cap and the promotional rules

Advertising is not licensed by the Commission; it runs through the CAP Code (non-broadcast) and BCAP Code (broadcast), enforced by the ASA, alongside the LCCP marketing conditions. The promotion rules in force since 19 January 2026 cap wagering requirements on bonuses at 10x and ban mixed-product promotions — an offer that requires gambling on two or more product types such as betting, casino, bingo and lottery, for example “bet on football to get free spins”, is not allowed. and this is not yet established.

Tax and what the punter pays

The punter pays no tax on betting winnings in Great Britain. General Betting Duty is the operator’s tax on gross profits, currently 15%; from 1 April 2027 a remote betting rate of 25% applies within it for remote bets outside the carve-outs (UK horse racing, self-service betting terminals in licensed premises, pool betting, in-person betting stay at 15%). Whether operators pass duty on through odds is not established, and the punter who bets at 1.95 is not paying duty; the punter who bets at 1.95 is paying the margin the bookmaker has set. The punter who wins pays no tax; the operator pays duty on its gross profit.

Offshore and the loss of protection

A GB licence is compulsory at the point of consumption. Providing gambling facilities in Great Britain without the licence the Act requires is an offence under section 33 of the Gambling Act 2005 — aimed at the operator, not the customer, and enforced by disruption rather than blocking. The punter who bets on an unlicensed site from a kitchen table in Manchester is not committing an offence, and the punter is also not covered by GAMSTOP, the Commission’s complaints route, an approved dispute-resolution body, British consumer redress, the 10x bonus cap or the £150 vulnerability check. The honest framing: licensed means checks, limits, GAMSTOP, the bonus cap, and the verification before the first bet; unlicensed means none of those and the possibility that the punter cannot get the funds back.

How the cost is read on a price

The bookmaker’s margin sits inside every price. A two-way market at decimal odds of 1.90 / 1.90 — or 9/10 in fractional — pays out 1 ÷ (1 ÷ 1.90 + 1 ÷ 1.90) = £0.95 per £1 bet across both outcomes on average, and the £0.05 the bookmaker keeps per £1 is the margin. A market at 1.85 / 1.85 keeps more per £1 and pays out less; a market at 1.95 / 1.95 keeps less per £1 and pays out more. The difference is in the strike rate the punter needs to break even, and the strike rate rises with the margin.

What a 5% margin costs over a season

A 5% margin on a -0.5 line at 1.90 / 1.90 means the punter pays 5p per £1 bet, on average, regardless of which side wins. A punter who places 1,000 bets of £10 at 1.90 over a season pays £500 in margin, before any subscription fee or free-bet expiry has done its work. The £500 is the cost of using the bookmaker rather than the exchange, and the punter who does not have an edge over the price pays the £500 and breaks even; the punter who has an edge keeps the edge minus the £500; the punter who bets without an edge pays the £500 and loses.

What a 2.5% margin costs at the same volume

An exchange at a 2.5% margin — a typical figure on a liquid football market — costs the punter £250 across the same 1,000 bets, before commission. The difference between the £500 and the £250 is £250, which is the cost of using the bookmaker rather than the exchange, and the punter who switches from the bookmaker to the exchange saves £250 on the same volume at the same strike rate. The £250 is not a guaranteed saving; the exchange’s commission, the liquidity at off-piste fixtures and the price available at the size the punter wants to stake each have their own cost, and the exchange is not a free platform.

Why the margin is presented as a band

The margin on a given fixture varies with the league, the time to kick-off and the bookmaker. A Premier League fixture two hours before kick-off may carry a 4% margin at one brand and a 6% margin at another; a Championship fixture on the day may carry a 6% margin at both. The page presents the margin as a band with its condition — the league, the time, the brand — rather than as one figure, because the figure changes with the conditions.

The arithmetic on a single line

A £100 stake on a -1.75 favourite at 2.29, with the favourite winning 2-0, settles as follows: £50 on the -1.5 half wins and pays £50 × 2.29 = £114.50, and £50 on the -2.0 half pushes and returns £50. Total return £164.50 against a £100 stake, net profit £64.50. A £100 stake on the same line with the match ending 1-0 loses on both halves and returns £0. A £100 stake on the same line with the match ending 3-0 wins on both halves and pays £100 × 2.29 = £229. The split is invisible on the slip until settlement, and the punter who backs a -1.75 favourite without knowing the split has placed two bets at one price.

Frequently asked questions

What is Asian handicap in betting?

Asian handicap is a football betting method in which teams are handicapped according to their form, so a stronger team must win by more goals for a bet on it to win. The market removes the draw, leaving two outcomes rather than three. A bet on a -1 favourite wins if that team wins by two or more, pushes if it wins by exactly one, and loses if it draws or loses.

What is Asian handicap in soccer betting?

The soccer version is the original version: Hong Kong and Indonesian syndicate shops settled goal-line bets on football before the method spread to British bookmakers. The lines are whole, half or quarter goals, and a quarter line splits the stake across two adjacent lines. The math is identical to the math on any other sport, but the fixtures are football, and the bulk of the liquidity on the market sits on the Premier League, the Championship and the European competitions.

What is an Asian handicap bet?

An Asian handicap bet is a bet on a two-way market where one side starts the bet a goal ahead or behind. The stake is determined by the punter at the price offered; the line at which the bet settles is determined by the match result and the handicap. On a -0.5 line the bet wins if the favourite wins by any margin and loses otherwise; on a -1.5 line the bet wins if the favourite wins by two or more and loses otherwise.

How can it be checked that a bookmaker holds a Gambling Commission licence?

The Commission’s public register is the whole test. Search by business name, trading name, domain or account number; the register returns the licence, the licence category and the operating company. The register is searchable without an account and is updated as licences change. A brand whose domain is on the register has a licence; a brand whose domain is not on the register does not.

How is the return on a bet worked out from the stake and the odds?

Return is stake × odds. A £100 stake at 2.29 returns £229 on a win; net profit is £129. On a quarter line the stake splits across two adjacent lines, and the return is the sum of the two halves. On a -1.75 line that wins 2-0, half the stake wins at the price and half the stake pushes, returning the stake on that half intact. The total return is the sum of the two halves.

What is the bookmaker’s margin and how can it be seen in the odds?

The margin is what the bookmaker keeps of every unit bet on a market. On a two-way market at 1.90 / 1.90 the payout share is 1 ÷ (1 ÷ 1.90 + 1 ÷ 1.90) = 0.95, and the margin is 1 – 0.95 = 0.05, or 5%. A market at 1.85 / 1.85 has a higher margin and pays less on a win; a market at 1.95 / 1.95 has a lower margin and pays more. The margin is the difference between the price on offer and the price a fair market would offer, and the punter who wants the thinnest margin looks at the exchange.

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