Spread Betting Explained

What is Spread Betting

Spread Betting has become increasingly popular over the last few years and this is hardly surprising seeing that it is much more exciting than the fixed odds betting. This type of betting is in some ways similar to Asian Handicap since the general idea is for a punter to have the same chance of winning regardless of which side he takes. Your winnings and losses are based on the accuracy of your bet, or how right/wrong you are.

How Does Spread Betting Work

Let us first give you an idea how this works. If a bookmaker expects around 15 or 16 corners to be taken in a match, the spread will be set at 15-16. If you believe more than 16 corners will be taken, you can ‘buy’ €10 a point at 16. This basically means you win €10 for every corner after the 16th, but if fewer corners than 16 are taken, you can lose quite a bit of money.

If there are 21 corners in the match, you will earn (21-16) x €10 = €50
But, if just 13 corners are taken, you will lose (16-13) x €10 = €30

You can also ‘sell’, which means to bet on the outcome to be lower than the spread set by the bookmaker. The more right you are, the bigger the winnings and vice versa.

Just as the odds drop when everyone is backing the favourites, the spread can also change regardless of how the market moves and this is something that punters can take advantage of by both buying and selling points on the same game. This is called trading and this way, punters can win money regardless of the outcome of the match.

Spread Betting During In-Play

Let us say you buy a point at 11 while the spread is set to 10-11, and due to market movements, spread changes to 14-15. You can then sell at 14, which means you will earn money no matter what happens in the game. If there are 15 corners taken, you win (15-11) 4 times the stake for buying at 11 and lose just one time the stake (15-14) for selling at 14. This is why most of the spread betting is done in play, since that is the best way to take advantage of the market movements. This is similar to trading at Betfair and it should be your ultimate goal with the spreads.

You have already seen that the risk involved is much bigger than with the fixed odds soccer betting, but the potential winnings can be huge at times and this is what makes everything so exciting. You never know how much money you stand to win or lose when placing a bet and that’s why the spread betting is mostly for high rollers.

By simply betting on your favourite team to win, your winnings will be the same no matter how big the winning margin is, but by buying a point at the spread, every goal they score can mean more money for you. This also adds to the excitement.

Everyone has, at least once, missed out on a big payoff after seeing the team they backed concede in the dying moments of the game but with the same scenario in spread betting you will just win a little less money, which definitely beats winning nothing at all. It will probably take you some time to get acquainted with the spread betting but once you get the general idea, you’ll be having a blast in no time.

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