Which Types of Sports Spread Bets are available?

Which Types of Spread Bets are available?

1. Total Numbers Bets

These bets are placed on the totals of a certain sporting event; for example goals in football, number of runs in cricket, points in rugby or number of shots in golf.

Example: Total Runs in Cricket

If England win the toss to bat against South Africa at the Oval, Sporting Index might predict the total number of runs they score at 350. Their spread would be 325-350:

Market So Far
Quote
Stake
Action
England 1st Inns Runs
325
350 SELL BUY

If you think the pitch is good for scoring and England are on form to score heavily, you would go higher (buy) at 350 for your stake of £2 per run. If England go on to score 416 runs in their 1st innings, you would have won (416 – 350) x £2 = £132.

Alternatively, if you thought England would have done poorly you would go lower (sell) at 325. You would have lost 91 times your stake (i.e. £182). You could have limited your loss by opening a limited risk account.

2. Supremacy and Match Bets

Supremacy and Match Bets are not interested in totals, but the margin of victory. In this market the bookies will give you a prediction by how many points one team would beat the other by. This gives you the opportunity to support or oppose either team in the match. So not only do you have to predict who will win, but by how much.

Example: Rugby Supremacy Market

Sporting Index might predict the England Rugby team to beat France by around 8 points, as a result they will quote a supremacy of 7 – 10 points.

Market So Far
Quote
Stake
Action
England / France
7
10 SELL BUY

If you thought England would win by a margin of more than 10 points you would go high (buy) at 10 for the stake of your choice, in this case, £5.

If, for example, it turned out to be a tight match, with England scraping home 11 – 6, the supremacy would be 5. As a result you would have lost 5 times your stake
(10 – 5) x your stake
= 5 x £5
= £25 loss

Alternatively, if you thought England would win by fewer points, or even lose, you would go lower (sell) at 7.

3. Performance and Index Bets

Where points, runs or goals cannot measure the success of a certain sporting event the spread betting bookies have come up with an ingenious method to measure success. They use a Performance Index, assigning possible events with a number of points, enabling them to make quotes on a variety of other sporting events.

 

Example: Racing Favourites Index

In racing, for example, they award different number of points to the winner, runner-up, third place and so on. The Racing Favourites Index measures how the favourites perform in each race at a particular meeting. A winning favourite is awarded 25 points, a second place 10 points and a third place 5 points.

At an Ascot jumps meeting, the favourites quote might be 56 – 60 points:

Ascot Racing
7 Races, First Race: 2.15pm.
Market So Far
Quote
Stake
Action
Favourites
56
60 SELL BUY

If you had a good look at the form and decided that the favourites should perform better than we predicted you would go high (buy) at 60 for £5. In the end two of the favourites won, two came second while one ran on into third. On the basis of the scoring system, the result (make up) was 75 (25 x 2 + 10 x 2 + 5).

Had you bought at 60 you would have won 15 times your stake.
15 x £2 = £30

 

Example: Total Bookings in a Football Match

A typical scoring system for the total bookings in a football match would be
– 10 points for a yellow card
– 25 points for a red card
If a player receives a yellow card and then a second yellow card i.e. red card then he is awarded 10 + 25 = 35 points.

In the Rangers v Celtic Old Firm derby, Sporting Index might offer a Bookings quote of 54-58. Meaning they expect around 3 yellow cards and a red card:

Celtic v Rangers
Sunday, 2pm. Live on Sky Sports PPV.
Market So Far
Quote
Stake
Action
Bookings
54
58 SELL BUY

You think that this is under estimating the usual violence on the pitch and expect at another red card. That would make 2 red cards (25 points each) and 3 yellow cards (10 points each) = 80 points in total, so you decide to buy £5 per point at 58. If, you thought this would be a well-behaved match you would sell at £5 per point at 54.

It may turn out to be great match with only two yellow cards (total make-up 20 points). If you BOUGHT £5 at 58 you would lose (58 – 20) x £5 = £190, but if you SOLD £5 at 54 you would win (54 – 20) x £5 = £170.

 

Remember – You always BUY at the higher quote and SELL at our lower quote.