We’ve put together a short video to explain exactly what spread betting is and how to do it.
Just click the video below to get stuck in.
With spread betting there are three key points which set it aside from traditional betting.
- Spread betting is very different to normal fixed odds betting. With fixed odds betting you either win or lose. With spread betting the more right you are the more you can win and the more wrong you are the more you can lose.
- With spread betting you can lose more than your initial stake. It’s really important that you remember that.
- Traditional bookies do not accept sports spread bets. The main platforms that do accept them are Spreadex and Sporting Index.
Example:
Spread betting uses ‘lines’ rather than odds. For a football match the line could be as follows:
Liverpool 1 – 0 Manchester United
- If you think Liverpool will win by more than one goal you would BUY them at 1. If you think Manchester United will win you would SELL Liverpool at 0.
- If you bought Liverpool at 1 and they won 3-0 you would win 2 times your stake because they have won by two more goals than the line. (3 minus 1 equals 2)
- If you bought Liverpool at 1 and they won 4-3 you would break even as Liverpool have won by 1 goal – the same as the line.
- If you bought Liverpool at 1 and they drew 2-2 you would lose 1 times your stake because they did one goal worse than the line (the line has basically settled at 0 rather than +1).
How to place a sports spread bet on Spreadex:
For this tutorial, we’ll use Spreadex but other platforms work in exactly the same way.
- Click ‘Sports’ located at the top of the Spreadex webpage.
- Choose the sport and event you’re interested in placing your spread bet.
- There are numerous markets and they are all displayed as lines (as shown in our example above) with two separate options.
- The numerical gap in the middle of these lines is called the ‘spread’ and that is effectively the bookies’ margin (and how they make their money).
- Whatever the market, you need to decide whether you are going to bet higher or lower.
- For example, if you think there will be more total goals then ‘X’ you would click the Total Goals market, enter your stake and then select ‘BUY’
- If you think there will be fewer goals than ‘X’ you would click the Total Goals market, enter your stake and then select ‘SELL’
IMPORTANT: Remember, your stake is NOT the amount you can lose. If the final result is 10 goals higher or lower than you thought it would be, you lose 10 times your stake. Because of this, it’s really important you stake sensibly and only risk what you can afford to lose.
