Most punters are familiar with fixed-odds betting, where players bet on an outcome and are given odds based on the likelihood of that outcome.
But another form of gambling has been growing in popularity over the past few years, especially in the UK. It’s called spread betting, and while the risks are higher than fixed odds, so are the rewards.
Spread betting is often seen as the thinking man’s bet, for the serious punter.
Mathematics plays a key role in analyzing outcomes. In essence, a punter places a bet that the difference in the score between two teams will be less than or greater than the bookies spread. A bettor can either bet that the score for the underdog plus the spread exceeds the favorite or that the favorite’s score minus the spread is greater than the underdog’s score. Let’s look at this example:the spread betting market for Manchester United versus Tottenham fixture:
Supremacy Manchester United/Tottenham 0.4 – 0.6
Total Goals Manchester United/Tottenham 2.7 – 2.9
Total Corners Manchester United/Tottenham 11.5 – 12
Bookings Manchester United/Tottenham 34 – 38
If you think that Manchester Utd will beat Tottenham, then you would “Buy” at 0.6. If Manchester Utd win by one clear goal (1-0, 2-1, 3-2 etc), you would win 0.4 (1-0.6) times your original stake. For every goal more than one they win by, you would win your original stake again. However if the game is a draw or Tottenham win, you would lose 0.6 + 1 for every goal that Tottenham win by. So let’s say you lay a £10 “Buy” at 0.6 on Manchester United, the profit/loss table would look something like this:
Result of 1-0 to Manchester United = £4.00 Profit
Result of 2-0 to Manchester United = £16.00 Profit
Result of 3-0 to Manchester United = £26.00 Profit
Result of 0-0 to Manchester United = £6.00 Loss
Result of 1-1 to Manchester United = £6.00 Loss
Result of 2-2 to Manchester United = £6.00 Loss
Result of 1-0 to Tottenham = £16.00 Loss
Result of 2-0 to Tottenham = £26.00 Loss
Result of 3-0 to Tottenham = £36.00 Loss
So in general, if you “Buy”, you want the result to be higher than the point that you bought at. If you “Sell”, you want the market to finish below the point you sold at. So another example from the above prices is the corners market, if you “Buy” at 12 you want to see more than 12 corners in the game and so on.