Spread Betting

There are two types of spread betting, sport and financial. Both work by predicting if the bookie has it right or wrong, the more right you are the more you will win. In spread betting it's impossible to know how much you will win or lose before the event is over. It can be very unpredictable, but as with fixed odds betting, as long as you are sensible and understand how the game works, you will enjoy the most enjoyable form of betting there is without the risk of ending up in the poor house!

How does it work?
Here are two of examples:

1. Supremacy
This is a market predicting one team's dominance over another. here we will predict how many more goals a team will score against their opponents.

Example:
We might make Chelsea favourites to beat Arsenal by 0.1-0.5 goals. Therefore, if you think Chelsea will win you might bet high at 0.5 for the stake of your choice, in this case, £50 a goal.

If Chelsea win the game 4-1, their winning margin (make-up) would be 3 goals.

Had you gone high at 0.5 you would have made 2.5 times your stake. (3 - 0.5) x your stake = 2.5 x £50 = £125

But if Arsenal had won 1-0, the same bet would have lost you 1.5 times your stake. (0.5 - -1) x your stake = 1.5 x £50 = -£75

2. Favourites Index
This refers to how well the favourite performs in each events at a particular meeting?
Favourites is awarded 25 points for winning, 10 points for second place and 5 points for third place.

When an event has joint favourites, the horse with the lower race card number is considered to be the favourite.

Example:
At an Ascot jumps meeting, our favourites prediction might be 57 - 60 points.

If after looking at the form you decided that the favourites will probably perform better than predicted you might bet high (buy) at 60 for £2. Suppose that two of the favourites won, two came second and one was third. On the basis of the scoring system, the result (make up) would be 75.

Having gone high at 60 you would have won 15 times your initial stake. (75 - 60) x your stake = 15 x £2 = £30

If however the favourites index had resulted in only 50 points, the same bet would have lost you 10 times your wager. (60 - 50) x your stake = 10 x £2 = -£20

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