Introduction To Spread Betting.
Whilst spread betting carries much higher risks than ordinary betting on a race or sporting event, it can also produce incredible returns on a relatively small bet. Using an online betting website to place spread bets is an ideal way to try out spread betting; as you can usually start off with very low stakes, thereby minimizing your risk.
What is a spread bet?
In this section we’ll use horse racing as an example of how spread betting works. However, you’ll probably find you can set up a spread bet online for just about any sport or event. Ordinarily when placing a bet on a horse race, you’d place a certain amount of money on a single horse, in a single race at the ‘odds’ on offer for it. Anyone starting out betting will invariably place their first few bets in this way; and may well find it to be a rewarding and exciting pass-time. It’s not unusual for people using an online betting website, who find that they have a ‘knack’ for identifying winning horses, to then want to find ways of giving themselves more of a challenge in the bets they make. One way they can do this is by setting up a ‘spread bet’ with the online bookmaker. In spread betting you don’t just bet against the likely end result of a race, instead you bet for or against something happening in that race. A simple example here might be how many horses fall in a race or the distance by which one horse beats another etc.
Types of online spread bets.
Without getting too technical, there are three main types of online spread bets that you can place: Total bets, Match bets and Performance & Index bets. The first two of these work on a very similar principle and can be explained along the following lines.
Total spread bets - are bets against a certain event occurring during a game or race. You might place a bet against the number of times an ‘ace’ service is made in a tennis match between two particular players. The online bookmaker will make their prediction as to the total number of ‘aces’ to be served. Let’s say they believe there’ll be at least 9 but not more than 10, so the ‘total’ spread’ is 9-10. You might believe that in actual fact there will be more than 10 ‘aces’ served in the match. So, you place a stake against the bookmakers prediction that the actual number will be higher than 10. If, at the end of the match, the number of ‘aces’ turned out to be 12, two higher than the bookmaker predicted - you’d get twice (two times) the value of your stake back in winnings; as the difference between the book makers prediction and the actual outcome was 2. However, you need to remember that if you predict the wrong way - you’d end up owing the difference times your stake!
Match spread bets - work the same way, but you’d typically be betting that you can predict the winner of an event and the margin of victory better that the bookmaker can.
Performance & Index spread bets - are more complex. Here, for a sporting event, the likely-hood of certain things happening are given points. eg Predicting which three horses with come in 1st, 2nd & 3rd in a race. Each horse in the correct position gets so many points. If your prediction beats the bookmakers, you win the points difference times your stake. (NB. The converse being so if you lose.)
Spreading the risk with a spread bet!
In placing a spread bet you’re not just betting on any one single outcome; so you’ll find that online betting companies will allow you to alter your bet as the sequence of events that you’ve placed a spread bet on is in operation. You can do this to try and increase your winnings; although by and large people will use this facility to minimize any loss they think they’re heading for, having made an injudicious prediction.