financial spread betting guide

Wanna Bet: Sports is made for Betting

For most of the year I'm satisfied to follow games without mercenary incentive, but that changes in the fall, when foot meets ball. There's something about soccer spread betting that makes it irresistible especially the Premiership variety. I take rating the teams as a personal challenge, one that spices my every week from the beginning of August. Sometimes people ask me how much I bet on a game - 'None of your business', I reply, but I add that it's not nearly enough to alter my standard of living, win or lose.

So what is Sports Spread Betting?

How many times have you witnessed a goal in the last few minutes of a match just when you were about to pick some nice winnings from a big bet? In such circumstances, would you have settled for 94% of your winnings before the goal was scored? If your answer is YES, then sports spread betting may be your answer!

You see with spread betting you are betting on a range of outcomes referred to as the spread, and you bet whether you believe the outcome will fall above or below the spread. The value set by the bookmaker is known as 'the spread'. In sports gambling, a bookie might predict that Ireland will beat Argentina in the forthcoming rugby World Cup by 10 points. A punter who bets on Argentina is said to 'take the points' and will win their bet if the South American team's score, plus the 10 point spread, is greater than Ireland's score.

And their winnings increase with every additional point. The patriot who gambles on Ireland is said to 'give the points' and wins if Ireland's score minus 10 points is greater than the Argentinian's total. Of course, the reverse holds true as well, and losses clock up for every point in the other direction that the final score adds up to. The principles are very much the same as in financial spread betting, except that in financial spread betting there is no bookie setting the odds or the spread. In effect, the markets dictate this. The market sets the price and the spread betting firm sets the spread around this.

The more popular markets remain supremacy along with the total number of goals - Football is now a very much developed market, for instance Sporting Index commonly offers more than 100 different bets on any live televised match!

Spread betting is by no means a new phenomenon. It has been an integral part of American sports betting for at least a century. Indeed, it is probably its association with the first betting sports scandal involving baseball almost 90 years ago that gave it something of a disreputable aura for many years on this side of the Atlantic.

In sports spread betting a punter can bet on the difference in the scores of two teams playing against each other and whether this will be less or greater than the value specified by the bookmaker.

Sports spread betting is predominantly for punters who are passionate about sport and can back their judgement against bookmakers. Adrenaline and entertainment combine with live sport and 45% of our business takes place during the event. We are the emotional bet. - Richard Glynn

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