It’s nearly 20 years
since Jonathan LineHive, former boss of City Index, launched sports betting to
the nation. LineHive was the founder of sports spread betting in this country –
he instigated his new venture in 1986 and it was followed by Sporting Index six
years later, in 1992, with IG Sport commencing in 1993.
Over the past six
years, City Index has stopped providing sports spread markets, but other
companies such as – Spreadex, Cantor Sport and Sports Spreads – have entered
the sports spread betting merry-go-round.
Nevertheless, if
you’re new to spread betting, then you haven’t necessarily missed out. If you
have waited almost 20 years to open a spread account, it could prove to be a
wise move. In the past, the chief criticism directed at spread betting firms
was that they never made their product available to the average punter in the
bookies. The spread betting game was aimed at the wealthy consisting of ex-City
traders and those who could take the occasional big loss.
At last, the spread
firms have reduced the minimum stakes. To appeal to a broader betting audience
many have launched sister websites to accommodate smaller punters. Nowadays
spread betting is a choice of punting that many previously unwilling to try it
are taking up.
If you’d like to
have a go at a spread bet but have never quite understood it, remember this:
spread betting is the closest thing in gambling to Bruce Forsyth’s Play Your
Cards Right. You, the punter, face one question and the answer is: higher or
lower? The more frequently you are right, the more you win; the more often
you’re wrong, the more you lose. Spread betting is exhilarating, it sure beats
the straight win/lose scenario of fixed-odds betting.
Sports spread
betting is divided into three groups:
1. Total Bets
These are
deliberated by the total number of times in a sporting event an
eventuality happens, for instance corners in a football match, aces served in a
tennis game, or runs is a test match.
Chelsea are set to
play against Arsenal and the corners spread is fixed at 10-11 – this is the
bookies’ prediction of the number of corners there will be in the match.
You would like more
than the price so you buy (higher) at 11. You have been proved correct, because
there are 14 corners. You bought at 11; there were 14, so the difference is 3.
Profit at a £10 stake is 3×10=£30
2. Supremacy and Match Bets
The main point of
this bet is not necessarily that your teams wins, but by how many points.
England is playing Scotland in the Six Nations.
The bookmakers raise
the price up at 46-50 – this is their prediction that England will beat
Scotland by between 46 and 50 points.
You feel the game
will be closer than the spread suggests so you sell (go lower) at 46. You still
feel England will win, but the odds of 1/10 in the high street don’t
appeal.
Nevertheless,
England are in sublime form and win 60-3. You sold at 46, the result was 57
(the variance of 60 and 3), so you are 11 points ‘wrong’. Loss at a £10 stake
is 11×10=-£110
3. Performance and Index Bets
These markets will
give point values to the winner, second place, third place and in some
cases, down to eighth place in football, horseracing etc.
The majority of
these types of examples are at horse race meetings every day. Spread firms
offer a performance index on the favorites for the day and the jockeys competing.
They use the same
method. Winner =25pts; runner-up =10pts; third =5pts. If there’s a joint
favorite, you are on the lowest racecar number.
Frankie Dettori is
at Ascot and is in six races. The spread on his performances for the day is
46-50.
You believe he will
get more points on the basis of the index scoring system than the spread
suggests – you buy the spread at 50.
Dettori wins two
race, is runner-up twice and is not placed with the remainder of his
races. The winner’s get 25 points each runners-up get 10. So the make-up
(result) is 70. You bought at 50 and the make-up was 70, so the difference is
20.
Fundamentally, this
is how it works. It doesn’t explain, though, what the advantages are for a
punter. Why should you set up a spread betting account? The exhilaration –
and risk – of big gains and losses is what appeals to many punters,
nonetheless, this form of betting comes into its own when the favorite on the
fixed odds markets are virtually unbackble.
If England has a
game against Romania in rugby union, everybody knows England will win, but will
they do so by between 98 and 102 points? In football, if England gets a game
with the Faroe Islands, England are 1/10 to win the match, but will they
win by five goals?
That is where spread
betting offers punters better value for money. If you research your bets
appropriately you can figure out when to buy and when to sell, It increases the
interest to betting on an event where the winner is predictable.
Take note, more
people buy than sell. The spread market makers are aware that there’ll be a lot
of buyers – in that, 65 per cent of the entire sports spread betters
buy rather than sell – so on markets the spread is consistently inflated too
high.
This knowledge
should be acted upon. It means that the markets veer towards people who
sell. In horse racing if, for instance, you sell winning lengths at each
meeting throughout the season you will make money (length is the difference
between first and runner-up each race of a meeting). Additionally, if you sell
corners in each live game in the Premiership this season you will make money.
Sure, you will encounter the odd disaster but gambling is all about
patience and the profits will roll in at the end of the season.
Better spread than dead
One more crucial
rule in spread betting is to go against the norm. In the earlier rugby
international example, practically everyone would want to bet on England beating
Romania therefore, the spread on points supremacy goes from 98-102 to 106-110.
The dealer feels the price is worth 102, but as the weight of money has seen it
rise, this is the moment for you to step in and go against the trend by selling
at 106.
In spread betting
the in-running service is equally crucial. The majority of firms provide
betting when the event is in play, allowing you to take a profit or limit a
loss at any time. For instance, you might want to buy corners before the
game at 11-12, but if there are eight corners in the first-half, the spread
will move to 15-16 at half-time. You can finish your bet by selling at 15 at
half-time, thereby guaranteeing yourself a profit of three points.
The most important
skill in-running knows when to get in and get out. This is a skill in itself,
inasmuch as ever since betting exchanges were introduced a new form of gambler
has emerged. People are not known as gamblers now. They have become traders.
They get in and get out as soon as they can make their £100 profit.
High risk, high returns
This can’t happen
all the time so you must remember to cut your £100 loss when it goes against
you as well. Spread betting is a high-risk style of gambling because for every
big winner there is a big loser. When you put on a bet with a fixed-odds bookie
you know exactly what you are going to win or lose but with spread betting it’s
not that straightforward. A £10 buy of the corners is not identical as a £10
buy of the runs in the test match – clearly, there will be many more runs in
cricket than corners in football, so the volatility of the market is much
greater.
Always check the
volatility of the market or ask the trader what the stop-loss is, which limits
what you win or lose: corners maintain a stop loss of 10, so a £10 buy is a
£100 maximum bet. Cricket team runs maintain a stop-loss of 200, so a
£10 buy is a £2,000 max bet. Spread betting is the most exciting style of
gambling out there but be careful. Spread bets carry a high level of risk to
your capital. Only gamble with monies that you can afford to lose. Never has a
truer word been said.
How to get started
At this time, if you
start up an account with Sporting Index, after five settled bets you will
receive a £100 supremacy bet on a football match. After another five settled
bets they will provide you with another £100 free supremacy bet on a football
match. At IG Sport you will be given a £100 supremacy bet after five settled
bets.
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