GENTLE INTRODUCTION TO SPREAD BETTING

Spread Betting is not complicated. Like driving a car, many people decide that it is too difficult without even giving it a try. In fact, once the simple concept has been grasped, it's easy to understand.

But, there's always a but, without taking the time to understand a few basic ground-rules - juggling with chain saws would be safer to long-term health, but once mastered a whole new range of opportunities are presented to make some serious money.

Step this way for an easy introduction to what is without doubt a fabulous way to enjoy a bet on a sporting event, and then have a completely free no-risk practice session courtesy of those jolly nice chaps at Sporting Index.

OK then, so how does it work?

The Spread Betting Firm (bookie) makes a prediction on a particular aspect of a sporting event, such as how many goals will be scored in a game of football.

We simply decide whether their prediction is too high or too low. If we think that they are spot on, we don’t bet. It’s that simple.

Remember Bruce Forsyth’s, ‘Play Your Cards Right’? The basic concept is exactly the same. "Higher Higher! Lower! Lower! The amount we win or lose depends on how right or wrong we are.

With this basic understanding, spread betting is easy to understand. Keep in mind that image of Bruce Forsyth gesturing to the audience on whether a contestant should go higher or lower. They could say, “Sporting Index reckon England will score 250 runs”, ‘what do you reckon? “higher or lower?”

In cricket the bookie will usually predict a spread of runs scored rather than a specific figure, such as 230 - 250 runs but our job is exactly the same with only two things to consider.

Are they right? If we agree England will score 230 -250 runs then we don't bet. Are they wrong? If we think the bookie is wrong, and there will be either more than 250 or less than 230 runs then we decide which one to punt on.

Every time the bookie makes a prediction they are asking us the question… "higher or lower", and that is how simple spread betting can be.

The Grand PooBah of Punters

The Daily Honey

Links

Show me the money

When we choose to challenge one of the camel-coats predictions, we then must decide the size of our betting stake. The amount we win or lose depends on the size of our stake multiplied by how correct or how wrong we are.

Bear with it friends, this is not difficult...... Let’s say that the bookie predicts that there will be three goals in a football match between Barcelona and the Accursed Hamilton Accies of the Scottish Second Division. We reckon that there will be more (Hamilton have a new striker) so we bet higher with a stake of £10 for every goal above three.

All we have to do now is sit back and wait for the outcome

If there were 5 goals in the game, we would have won this..

(5 – 3) x your stake = 2 x £10 = £20.

If only 2 goals had been scored in the game, we would have lost this..

(3 – 2) x your stake = 1 x £10 = £10

This is of course a very simple example, but we don't see the need to complicate matters at this stage as we will be adding to this basic introduction over the next few days and going into greater detail and depth of the subtleties involved in plundering the camel-coated brigade at spread-betting.

Some of the issues we'll be covering in football spread betting will be
Time of First Goal, Time of First Booking, Total Goals, Superiority, Total Bookings, Total Shirt Numbers, Total Corners, Performance Rating, and many others.

We shall of course do this in typical BookieBusters fashion by ripping huge chunks of the myths surrounding spreads away, and poking fun at the camel-coats at every opportunity. A liberal sprinkling of BB Honeys shall adorn our humble efforts, well, it would be rude not to share them with you, and at the end of the series we shall lead the way into the marketplace in our usual carefully considered manner.