Sports Spread Betting Guide

The LetsCompareBets sport spread betting guide starts here, the contents of this page are underneath, the next installments can be viewed by using the links to your right.

What is the spread?

What makes the spread?

What is the spread in sports spread betting?

The sports spread betting company assigns a value to each aspect of the sport event and makes a prediction of the outcome. That prediction is shown as two prices, the difference between which is known as the spread.

The punter makes their own prediction of the actual outcome of the event. If the punter believes the outcome is above the sports spread betting companies' prediction he (or she) bets high, or 'buys' the spread. If he (or she, yes some ladies like to sports spread bet) thinks the outcome will be lower he bets low, or 'sells' the spread.

What makes the spread?

Each event is given a value. Using football spread betting to illustrate this point. A goal equals to one point, or, it could be ten it really doesn't matter as long as it's got a number. A typical spread for goal spread betting is 2.55 - 2.75 with Sporting Index (as an example of a sports spread betting company). As you can see the spread betting company shows the spread as units, i.e. whole numbers, 1, 2, 3 etc; tenths, and hundredths. In others words showing the sports spread bet to two decimal places.

Here is an example of how a typical football spread bet might look. You think a game will produce more than 2.75 goals. Hey presto, the score at full time was 2-1, 3 goals in total. To calculate your sports spread betting profits you subtract the buy price from the numerical value for the end result; 3 - 2.75 (the buy price) = 0.25. If your stake was £10 the winnings would be, £10 x .25 = 2.50.

Cricket is also popular with sports spread betting fans, so, lets see what makes a typical cricket spread.

The sports spread betting company will make a prediction of who will win the match and the margin of victory. This is a type of supremacy bet where the favourite is listed first and the underdog second. If the team that bats first wins the game they are given 1 point for each run they win by. If the team the bats second wins the game, they are awarded 10 points per wicket won by. If the match ties the result is 0. A typical spread might be 41- 51. How the stake converts to winnings is worked out in the same way as with the football spread betting example above.

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The next installment of the sports spread betting guide, which answers the question "is sports spread betting" risky?