Spread betting is becoming increasingly popular as people tire of the same old type of bets that are on offer from traditional bookmakers. It is a concept that made its name in the world of finance and has more recently been adapted to the field of sports by the likes of Sporting Exchange and IG Sport 101 Game.
If you are new to the concept of spread betting, this guide will aim to provide you with some basic information as to how it’s done, the risks that are involved and the companies that facilitate it.
So how does Spread Betting work?
Think of the typical type of bet you will be able to place with a sports book. You are basically limited to wagering on whether such or such team/horse/player will win the game, score the most points, or so on. With spread betting you are able to gamble on the accuracy of your bet. Let’s use the following example to explain how the accuracy of your bet will determine how much you could potentially win or lose
Just imagine you wanted to place a bet on how many corners there will be in a Spanish League match between Barcelona and Real Madrid. The spread betting company will provide you with a spread that is basically the number of corners they feel is the most likely of occurring. If this spread was 7-8 then this means they think that 7-8 corners in this particular match is the most likely. Your job then is to choose whether there will be more, or fewer corners in the match.
When making your decision on which way this match will go you have two decisions: Buy or sell? If you think there will be more than 8 corners within the match then you should buy. If on the other hand your opinion is that it there is more likelihood in there being fewer than 7 then you should sell. So if you bought at £5 per point and there were 9 corners you would win £10 (9-7 x £5). If you sold then for every corner less than 7 you would win £5. For example if there were 6 shots your winnings would be £5.
Is Spread Betting risky?
Spread betting, like all types of gambling can be risky if you are not sensible. Many people will say that having a potentially unlimited downside can make you lose lots of money. Although this is true to a certain extent, you have to be careful with any form of gambling and make sure not matter what happens – you only lose what you can afford to.
What websites provide Spread Betting?
The number of spread betting facilitators is increasing all the time although there are a couple of great ones that have been on the market for a while now. Sporting Index is probably the most popular of them all and provides a huge range of markets that you can bet on as well as very fair spread as well. The first website to offer sports spread betting is IG Sport who again are very popular for what they do.
The Premiership Season 2009/10
Saturday 8th August
We are less than a month away from the start of the highly anticipated 2009/10 Barclaycard Premiership season and it must be said there seems to be a portential lack of lustre compared to previous seasons. Of course
O.K. this summer has seen a number of massive snubs for Premiership teams and there hasn’t been a huge array of foreign talent that has been brought in to replace the players that have left but I for one think this is a good thing. Over thae past ten years or so, there have consistently been more and more foreign players being brought in. Don’t get me wrong I am no Xenophobe, but you must admit that lately the Premiership seems to be increasingly losing its Englishness.