Spread Betting

If you are familiar with the world of online sports betting, chances are you have heard of spread betting. The type of betting we are talking about here is not to be confused with the point spread which is actually a form of fixed odds betting. In this case, spread betting is a completely different type of bet altogether where punters have no idea how much they will win or lose once the bet has been placed. If this doesn’t make too much sense, here is how it works:

Understanding Totals

In a way spread betting is very similar to totals betting. Totals betting is where a punters place a bet on a specific value, either higher or lower than the amount set by the sports betting sites. Let’s look at a simple example. Let’s say we are betting on the total number of points scored in an NBA basketball game. The online bookmaker would choose a total of say 171.5. Now, we can either decide to bet over or under the total. If we bet under, we are predicting the total number of points to be 171 or less.

If we bet over, we are predicting the total number of points to be 172 or more. With standard totals betting, if we are right, we are paid out whatever the sports betting odds were at the time we place our bet. If we are wrong, we lose out bet. This is where spread betting is different. With spread betting, wagers are settled by how much we are right or wrong with no set win/loss amount. This means punters can win many times their stake or lose many times their stake.

A Typical Spread Bet

Let’s go back to our example of the basketball game. Sports betting sites would start off by setting a spread. In our case the spread could be 170 and 172. We can either choose to bet under 170 or above 172. Our wins or losses are determined by how many points we are away from the point spread. With spread betting, punters first choose how much they want to stake per unit. Let’s say wager $10 per unit. If we bought over 172 at $10 and the total point number was 175, we would win $30.

Big Wins and Big Losses

Similarly, if we bought under 170 at $10 and the total point number was 165, we would win $50. This means that spread betting has the potential to pay out many times your total stake. While this might sound amazing, it also works the other way round. The sports betting odds in spread betting can also work against you.

If we bought under 170 at $10 and the total point number was over 172, we would lose $10 for every point over the line. If the total number of points got as high as 178, we would lose $80. Spread betting on mobile or online is very risky form of sports betting. While it has the potential to pay out many times your original stake, you can also lose large sums of money with the wrong bet.