Asian Handicap 0 or Draw No Bet: Which Gives the Better Price?
AH 0 and Draw No Bet settle identically, and so do +0.5 and Double Chance. I tested which price pays more, and the Asian line won almost every time.
Marcus WhitfieldAsian Handicap & Draw No Bet specialistReviewed by Oliver Hartley, Editor-in-Chief6 min read
Asian Handicap 0 and Draw No Bet are the same bet. A win pays, a draw refunds the stake and a defeat loses, so the only thing that separates them is the price. I tested which one pays more across 22 European divisions from 2016/17–2025/26. I compared the Asian price with the Draw No Bet price built from the 1X2 odds, then ran the same test for +0.5 against Double Chance.
The answer is not close. On 11,089 level-line matches the AH 0 price averaged +4.9% more for home sides and +4.8% more for away sides. The +0.5 line beat synthetic Double Chance by +3.5% on both sides. If you prefer straight results without handicaps, my free 1X2 picks page covers those, but this study is about getting paid more for an outcome you have already chosen.
Test 1The Asian line pays more than the same bet built from 1X2
Each bar shows how much higher the Asian price was than its synthetic twin, averaged over matches. A synthetic Draw No Bet price is what you get when you take the 1X2 win price and pay for the draw refund out of it. That route stacks the 1X2 margin on top of the cost of the insurance, and the chart shows what that costs you.
Level-line bets carry the larger premium, at +4.9% for home sides and +4.8% for away sides. The +0.5 comparison against Double Chance is smaller, at +3.5% for home and away alike, but it points the same way.
View the data: asian price vs the same bet built from 1x2
| Asian price premium | |
|---|---|
| Home, AH 0 vs DNB | +4.9% |
| Away, AH 0 vs DNB | +4.8% |
| Home +0.5 vs 1X | +3.5% |
| Away +0.5 vs X2 | +3.5% |
For a bettor this is the simplest edge available, because nothing about the prediction changes. If I have already decided I want a side protected against the draw, the only question left is where the price is best. On these numbers, the Asian market gave the better price.
Test 2The Asian price was higher in the vast majority of matches
An average can hide a handful of extreme matches doing all the work, so I checked how often the Asian price came out higher in each match. For home sides at AH 0 it was higher in 94.0% of matches, and for away sides in 93.3%. The +0.5 lines were slightly less one-sided, at 90.1% for home and 88.5% for away.
The grey sliver where the two prices matched is thin, and the slice where the synthetic price won is small in every row. This is a consistent pattern, not a few outliers.
View the data: how often the asian price was higher
| Asian higher | Same | Synthetic higher | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home, AH 0 vs DNB (11,089) | 94.0% | 1.1% | 4.9% |
| Away, AH 0 vs DNB (11,089) | 93.3% | 1.5% | 5.2% |
| Home +0.5 vs 1X (3,596) | 90.1% | 2.4% | 7.5% |
| Away +0.5 vs X2 (10,815) | 88.5% | 2.5% | 9.1% |
The main caveat is that these are one major bookmaker's recorded odds, and the Asian and 1X2 prices may have been taken at different times. That timing gap probably explains some of the matches where the synthetic price came out higher. A separately quoted Draw No Bet market could also be priced differently from one built out of 1X2.
Test 3Identical results, but the Asian price loses far less money
Because the outcomes are identical, the table isolates the effect of price on flat-stake returns. Backing every home side at AH 0 returned −4.0% at the Asian price and −7.0% at the synthetic Draw No Bet price. Away sides returned −1.5% against −4.6%.
The +0.5 rows follow suit. Home sides returned −4.0% at the Asian price and −7.2% at synthetic 1X, and away sides returned −2.4% against −5.7%.
| Bet | Matches | Avg Asian price | Avg synthetic | Return, Asian | Return, synthetic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home, AH 0 vs DNB | 11,089 | 1.92 | 1.83 | −4.0% | −7.0% |
| Away, AH 0 vs DNB | 11,089 | 1.94 | 1.85 | −1.5% | −4.6% |
| Home +0.5 vs 1X | 3,596 | 1.91 | 1.85 | −4.0% | −7.2% |
| Away +0.5 vs X2 | 10,815 | 1.91 | 1.85 | −2.4% | −5.7% |
I want to be clear that none of these returns is positive. Backing everything blind still lost money, even at the better price. What the table proves is narrower: across 25,500 comparisons, taking the Asian price cut the loss on every line.
Test 4The AH 0 premium has held up in every season tested
A pattern that only shows up in one or two seasons is usually noise, so I split the level-line premium by year. For home sides it ranged from +3.0% to +6.3%, and for away sides from +2.6% to +6.2%. It stayed positive throughout.
The earliest seasons sit at the bottom of that range. The gap widened noticeably in 2019/20 and has stayed at the higher level since, with the latest season the highest for both home and away sides.
View the data: ah 0 premium over synthetic dnb by season
| Home | Away | |
|---|---|---|
| 2016/17 | 3.0% | 2.6% |
| 2017/18 | 3.5% | 3.2% |
| 2018/19 | 3.7% | 3.2% |
| 2019/20 | 5.7% | 5.6% |
| 2020/21 | 5.6% | 5.5% |
| 2021/22 | 5.1% | 5.4% |
| 2022/23 | 5.0% | 5.2% |
| 2023/24 | 5.2% | 5.3% |
| 2024/25 | 5.4% | 5.5% |
| 2025/26 | 6.3% | 6.2% |
I would not read the recent rise as a trend to bet on. What matters is that the Asian line was never the worse option in any season of the sample, which is the kind of stability I look for before I change a habit.
Lab verdict
| Level line: take Asian | When the Asian line is 0, the AH 0 price beat synthetic Draw No Bet in 94.0% of home matches, by +4.9% on average. Building Draw No Bet from 1X2 odds is the more expensive way to place the same bet. |
|---|---|
| +0.5 beats Double Chance | Home and away +0.5 both paid +3.5% more than synthetic 1X or X2, with the Asian price higher in 90.1% and 88.5% of matches. Compare the two prices before placing any Double Chance bet. |
| Better price, not profit | Every flat-stake return was negative, from −1.5% at best to −7.2% at worst, so the premium reduces the house edge but does not remove it. Treat it as a way to price a bet you already like, not as a system. |
Questions bettors ask
Is Asian Handicap 0 the same as Draw No Bet?
Yes, they settle identically: a win pays, a draw refunds and a defeat loses. In this sample the AH 0 price averaged 1.92 for home sides against 1.83 for Draw No Bet built from the 1X2 prices.
Is Asian Handicap +0.5 the same as Double Chance?
Yes, +0.5 wins if your side wins or draws, exactly like Double Chance. Across 10,815 away +0.5 matches the Asian price averaged 1.91 against 1.85 for synthetic X2.
Does backing every away side at AH 0 make a profit?
No. Backing every away side at AH 0 returned −1.5% at the Asian price and −4.6% at the synthetic Draw No Bet price, so the better price only reduced the loss.
I'm Marcus Whitfield, and I write about Asian Handicap and Draw No Bet markets, where the line itself usually tells you more than the headline price.
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