What is Spread Betting?
Think of spread betting as an option for the more adventurous bettors. This is where the potential winnings and losses increase – managing risk becomes that bit trickier.
Start off using a spread betting calculator. This isn’t your everyday live betting on a Premier League match. Spread betting requires fundamental understanding of the rules and how the markets work.
Once you’ve mastered the basics, spread betting is an exciting way to test your knowledge and hopefully turn some profits!
Spread Betting Explained
Think of spread betting on sports like playing the financial markets.
Investing in stocks and shares is about trying to predict whether a price will increase or decrease over a certain period. You need to judge when to buy and when to sell to make profit.
In sports spread betting, you are more likely to be predicting how many goals/points will be scored in a given match, how many red/yellow cards will be issued in a soccer game or how many points a team will accumulate over a season.
Spread betting is about ‘buying’ or ‘selling’ based on a line set by the bookmaker. The process of picking your ‘bet’ is the same – you need to have researched whether it will be over or under, then you buy or sell accordingly.
Spread Betting Examples
Overs and unders is often one type of spread betting market that is available on sporting events. For instance, in an NBA basketball game, the total points spread might be set at 156-160 (the combined total to be scored by both teams in the game).
If spread betting in this market, you would sell at 156 or buy at 160.
If you choose to sell, then you are betting that the points tally for both teams in the game will be UNDER 156.
The greater the margin that you are proved correct by, the more you stand to win. If the total number of points scored turns out to be 150, you are right to the tune of six points (156-150 = 6). In this instance, you would win six times your initial stake.
On the other hand, if you had bought this spread bet at 160, you would be wrong by ten points. In this case, you would lose ten times the initial stake you placed. (160-150 = 10).
Similarly, if the total points in the game turned out to be 170, you would lose 14 times your initial stake had you decided to sell at 156 (170-156 = 14).
Had you bought the spread on total points in this game at 160, a 170-point game would result in a ten-point spread bet win (170-160 = 10) and so you would gain a ten-fold return on the initial stake.
Popular Spread Bets
Card points are a popular form of spread bet. If a yellow is given 10 points and a red is worth 30 points, the spread might be set to sell at 50 points and buy at 80 points.
The number of cards you are predicting in the fixture will dictate whether you are a buyer or seller.
In horse racing, you might see this applied to the number of favourites to win on a given day. If the line is set at 2.8-3, you would choose either over or under depending on the number of favourites you project.
In football, you can also see spread betting for the total number of goals, the number of home wins on a day, or even the number of points a team wins throughout a season.
You can choose to bet on the spread for the total goals number of minutes, which involves the time of the goals scored and the number of goals.
The number of options to place spread bets is remarkable, stretching to the total shirt numbers of the goal scorers or multiplying different statistical categories.
Spread Betting FAQs
Spread Betting - How To Get Involved
As is the case with every bet type, make sure to thoroughly research spread betting before getting involved.
There is enough useful information out there to help punters and 888sport customers can read up more on spread betting by scrolling up the page.
What Are The Most Popular Spread Bet Types?
Card betting in football is one of the most popular options for spread bettors. As cards are set with two different values, buying or selling for/against the spread is quite simple.
Spread Betting - Is It For Me?
Spread betting is something that punters usually try their hand at with smaller stakes before getting too involved.
Dipping your toes in the water with spread betting is the way to go as it can be confusing and won’t suit every punter.
A Brief Guide To Spread Betting
Here is an example: let’s say you are watching an NFL game and the total match points mark is set at 53-57. If spread betting on this particular market, you would either sell at 53 or buy at 57.