An example of Spread Betting
As well as Asian handicaps, another form of betting I get asked about a lot is spread betting. This is a little more complex than straightforward 12x and is something I will go into with a more in depth analysis as the season progresses but the following scenario is a typical example.
Take, for example, a Premier League football match between Manchester United
and Chelsea. The bookmaker offers a spread of 10-11 on the number of corners in
the match. Punters can then ‘buy’ at the higher number quoted or ‘sell’ at the
lower value depending on how many corners they think there will be.If you think that the majority of the game will be played in the middle of the park as the two midfields jostle for position then you would likely induce that there will be few corners and thus ‘sell’ the corners at 10. If you ‘sell’ to a stake of £10, for example, then for every corner there is under 10 you win £10. So if there are only four corners in the match you win £60, however, if the number of corners is more than 10 then you lose. If there are 15 corners then you lose £50 (15-10=5 @ £10 per corner.)
Conversely if you believe that both teams will attack down the wings and thus produce a plethora of corners then you can ‘buy’ the corners. If you again ‘buy’ at £10 per unit then for every corner over 11 corners you will win £10, but for every corner under 11 corners you will lose £10.
This is a form of betting used more increasingly by serious players and is something which over the course of the season I will be introducing to my clients.
