Spread Football Betting Example

It’s in the best interest of anybody involved – leagues, teams, players, and fans, everyone – if sporting events are competitive. No one would like to watch blowout after blowout every time. But at times, very strong teams match-up against very weak sides. But is there anything that can keep such contests interesting? Enter the Spread, also known in some sporting events as the handicap.

A ‘spread,’ especially in football betting is essentially a prediction of what you think will happen, expressed as SELL-BUY range. Assuming that the ‘spread’ for Total Goals in a football match may be 2.8 – 3.0, it means that if you think that the market, or the outcome, will end up higher than the said range, you’d BUY. But if you believe that it will end up than the said range, then you’d SELL.

Yan Zhylinski Updated: 29 September 2021

Are you still not getting it? Below is a much simpler example of sports spread betting that will help you understand the entire concept of spread betting, especially in football much more clearly:

Assuming that two teams are scheduled to face each other in the Champions League quarter-final match, and you believe that a certain in-form striker will get a bagful. Let’s say you are wagering at Bovada Sportsbook who are quoting Player A Goal Minutes at 29-32, and you decide to buy $2 at 32. The striker continues with his blistering form and scores a hat-trick, with goals coming in the 23^rd, 52^nd, and 77^th minutes.

The above leads to Player A’s Goal Minute make-up of 23 + 52 + 77 = 152, something that leads to a profit of $240 ((152 -32) x $2). However, assuming that the striker fails to have such a hot night, managing to score only once in the 23^rd minute, it means that you end up with a loss of $18 ((23 – 32) x $2).

In this space, we will make a good attempt to cover much about the spread betting market. We will touch on how spread betting market works, differences between spread betting and fixed odds, leagues and competitions where you can spread bet, and football spread betting trends, to mention but a few.

How does spread betting work?

Even though spread betting isn’t a popular type of betting, lately, it seems to be slowly catching up with other popular types of betting. So, how does spread betting work? It’s quite simple than you may imagine. In football, for example, spread betting works by playing on a ‘spread’ or a prediction on the number of things you believe will happen in match, such as the total number of points or goals in a match. Below is how spread betting works in a soccer match:

Step 1: Choose a spread market on an upcoming match of your choice. For example, you can choose a ‘spread’ on the Total Goals to be around 2.8 – 3.
Step 2: Now, you need to decide whether the you think the final outcome will either be higher or lower than the spread.
Step 3: In the event that the final outcome is higher (that’s more than 3 goals scored in a match), you would buy. However, if lower (fewer than 3 goals), you would sell.
Step 4: When it comes to this type of betting, your gains or losses depend on the difference between your buy or the sell level and the final outcome, multiplied by your initial stake.

With sports spread betting, the more right you get everything, the more multiples of your stake you can potentially win. However, if you get it wrong, and the more multiples of your stake, you may end up potentially losing.

Your stake is the amount of money that you decide to wager, per point movement, meaning that a $10 bet on something like total goal minutes could win or go on to lose $10 per goal. As a bettor, therefore, it’s important to choose your stake properly for different spread betting markets.

Difference between Spread Betting and Fixed Odds

Should you be new to the whole concept of spread betting, chances are that fixed odds betting is the primary form of betting that you’ve encountered previously. However, in comparison to sports spread betting, you’ll notice a revelation of some limitation of the more traditional form of betting.

A good example is horse racing – a sport mostly associated with fixed odds betting. Here, it can be extremely difficult to gain handsome returns backing a favorite in the race, especially if it’s odds-on. But with sports spread betting, you have a larger space to manoeuvre. For example, let’s say that the favorite looks strong at Cheltenham and the fixed odds price of the horse is 2/5. However, its Race Index spread – where 50 points will be awarded to the first placed horse, 25 to the second placed one and 10 to the 3^rd placed horse might be 35-38.

Assume that you place £10 wager, and a horse wins. If you had placed a fixed odds wager, then your winnings would only be £4. However, if you had placed a spread bet, it means that your winnings would be £120 ((50 -38) x £10). Another downside that comes with fixed odds is that it requires you to make more of an exact prediction as opposed to a majority of spread betting markets.

Assuming you are a cricket fan and heading into the Ashes, you intend at wagering on how many runs Australia’s star batsman will make in the first innings on the First Test. This player is being offered at a fixed odds price of 3/1 to score 80 runs or a figure higher than that. At the same time, the same player’s Batsman Runs spread is 56 – 60.

You decide to choose to place £2 fixed odds bet. Should the player you are wagering on goes on to have a cracking first innings, and managed to score 120 runs, sadly, you aren’t rewarded by your fixed odds bet since the player will have exceeded the target. Here, your fixed odds would be £6 whether they 90, runs, 100 runs, 110 runs or more. However, the £2 spread bet would have earned you a handy profit of £120 ((120 - 60) x £2).

Of importance to note, though, is that with spread betting, you can lose more than your initial stake, unlike fixed odds betting. In the scenario of spread betting, the pay-off solely depends on the accuracy of the wager as opposed to the simple ‘win or lose’ outcome. A spread bet can either win or lose more money based on a range of outcomes. The more the outcome moves for or against you, the more you win or lose. Fixed odds betting offers a more flexible approach allows a bettor to choose the terms of their bet(s) and be quoted odds on it.

Leagues and competitions where you can bet on the spread

Many bettors tend to believe that spread betting applies to football/soccer only. However, that’s not the case at all. There are several leagues and competitions where you can bet on the spread too. Many bookies offer spread betting, especially on major leagues and other tournaments that take place in several places across the globe. The following are some leagues and competitions where you can place spread bets:

Football (EPL, MLS, La Liga, Serie A, Ligue 1, Eredivisie etc.) – You can bet on Corners, Total Goal Minutes, Player Goal Minutes, Bookings, Match Performance, Shirt Number and much more.
Horse Racing (Cheltenham, Aintree, the Royal Ascot, Grand National etc.) – Bet on Winning Distances, Jockey Performance, Match Bets, SPs, Favorites and much more.
Cricket (Ashes, the Marsh One Day Cup etc.) – Bet on Runs, Fall of Next Wicket, Bowler Performance, 4s, 6s, Wides among others.
Rugby Union – Bet on Time of First Try, Total Points, Total Tries, Match Performance, Tryscorers’ Shirt Numbers and much more.
Greyhounds – Get to wager on Traps, Racecards, Race Index Favorites, Starting Prices and many more other available spread betting options.
Tennis (Wimbledon, Grand Slam etc.) – Place spread bets on Total Points, Supremacy, Total Games, Cross Courts, Index-based bets and many more.
Golf – You can wager on Finishing Positions, Leaderboard Index, Match Bets, Hotshots Index, Player Under Par, Winning Score and so much more.
Darts – Bet on Supremacy, 25-0 Index, Outright Index, Highest Match Checkout, Total Legs, among others.
Basketball (NBA, Euroleague, College basketball etc.) – Get to wager on Points Supremacy, Total Points, Supremacy Plus, Binary, Team Points and so much more.
American Football – Bet on NFL, Touchdown, Supremacy, Team Performance, Points, and Field Goals among others.
Snooker – Here, you can bet on Index, Supremacy, Points Binary, and Frames among others.
F1 – Bet on Drivers’ Race Index, Championship Index, Podium Car Numbers, Live Index, and Matchbet among other types of bets.

As you can see from above, you can place spread bets on several leagues and competitions. Some bookies have gone an extra mile to offer point spread betting in politics! This was something that was unheard of several years back.

Football Spread Betting Trends

Traditionally, spread betting was the reserve of only a few professional bettors who worked mostly in the financial sector. Spread betting used to be one of those popular derivative products that financial analysts used to speculate on the financial markets such as indices, forex, shares or commodities. They used to do all this without taking any ownership of the underlying asset. All they had to do was to place a bet on whether they though the price would fall or rise.

However, things have significantly changed today on matters to do with spread betting. Spread betting is no longer a reserve of professionals many of which work for some top banks and other successful investment firms across the globe. Among other football trends that are now with us, the concept of spread betting in football is one of those latest trends that many bettors across the globe now try when placing football bets.

Now more than ever, players with the intention of realizing some cash are investigating and trying their luck on football spread betting. While points spreads can bring about some goofy situations in football betting, nevertheless, it’s a trend that’s picking up very fast. Before their popularity, most people thought that spread betting isn’t an ideal way of making some bucks. But at the end of the day, bettors all over the globe seem to be enjoying spread betting, and it’s slowly turning out to be the staple of the industry.

Since spread betting comes with the advantage of increasing your bankroll should all your predictions go right, football bettors seem to embracing this trend in mass. A recent study established that besides the normal ‘win, draw, lose’ type of betting, lately, a majority of players are opting to try spread betting too. With a range of potential outcomes, chances are that one bet may sail through if others fail, something that can guarantee you some wins, however small.

Spread the risk and trade out

Spread betting is advantageous for several reasons worth noting. However, the biggest reason as to why you may want to try this type of betting is the fact that you spread the risks. As mentioned earlier, with fixed odds, you choose the terms of a bet and stick to the odds that the bookmaker quotes. Even if your bet wins, you get the exact odds that the bookmaker quoted. Much worse, it’s a bit risky since you may lose everything at once. Fixed odds are ideal but only if you are on the early stages of learning and experimenting about sports betting.

With spread betting, though, among other things, you get to spread the risks. A spread bet can win you some good cash –that’s if you are right- based on a range of outcomes on a sports betting event that you wager on. If you happen to be a cautious player, you may want to try spread betting since you’ll be spreading the risks as you get to wager on your favorite sports. Thereafter, you can trade out all or part of your winnings. Of importance to note is that spread betting is highly risky, and if you don’t get things right, you may lose everything. That’s why you may want to try this form of betting as a means of spreading risks.