Football spread betting

by Harry

Football has now become the most bet on sport in the world. This is basically down to the excitement and action it brings which has given rise to it's popularity in almost every, if not all countries across the globe.
When they think of betting, most people think of traditional fixed odds betting where you bet your stake on the odds given for a particular market and then your winnings are calculate from the stake multiplied by these odds.

For example, if Manchester United are listed to win against Everton at 1.5 to 1, then for every £1 you bet you will get £1.5 back. Manchester United are favourites here with Everton listed at 5.5 to 1 for the win. Because United are favourites the odds are low and you don't get much back if they win.

Spread betting acts to make each site of the market more equal. When you spread bet you will see a set of two numbers like this: SELL 60 - 65 BUY. You are basically betting on if you think you think the actual result will fall higher or lower than this 'spread'. For every point/unit the actual result move away from the spread number that you bet on you will win your stake multiplied by the amount the spread moves.

We can use an example with football spread betting. For a football match you might see a spread for total goals in a match like this: SELL 2.8 - 3 BUY.

If you think there will be more than 3 goals in the match then you should BUY. Lets say £10 per goal for this example.

If the match then finishes with 5 goals you would have won £20.

Here are the calculations: 5 goals - 3 that you bought at = 2 goals. 2 goals multiplied by £10 per goal = £20 profit.

If the match only finished with 1 goal then you would lose £20

Here are the calculations: 1 goal - 3 that you bought at = -2 goals -2 goals multiplied by £10 per goal = -£20

If you thought before the match that there would be less than 3 goals, the you would have selected SELL at 2.8. The same calculations apply to work out the winnings/loses.

About the Author
We specialise in football spread betting and are here to help as much as possible.