Spread Betting >The Bookmaker

From: The Muscle

A bookmaker, bookie or turf accountan is an organization, or a person, that takes spread bets and pays winnings depending upon results and, depending on the nature of the bet, the odds.

Range of events
Most bookmakers in the United States offer spread betting merely on college and professional sports. However, in the United Kingdom they offer a wider range of wagering, including each-way spead betting on golf, football and tennis, and especially horse racing and greyhound events.

They also specialize in novelty events such as betting the probability that it will snow on Christmas Day, the outcome of political elections and reality television contests such as I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, Big Brother and The X Factor, or that aliens will be found on Mars.

Operational procedures
By adjusting the odds in his favor or by having a point spread, the bookmaker will aim to guarantee a profit by achieving a 'balanced book', either by getting an equal number of bets for each outcome, or (when he is offering odds) by getting the amounts wagered on each outcome to reflect the odds. When a large bet comes in, a bookmaker can also try to lay off the risk by buying bets from other bookmakers.

The bookmaker does not generally attempt to make money from the bets themselves, but rather profiting from the event regardless of the outcome. Their working methods are similar to that of an actuary, who does a similar balancing of financial outcomes of events for the assurance and insurance industries.

Legality

Bookmaking may be legal or illegal, and may be regulated; in the United Kingdom it was at times both regulated and illegal, in that licences were required but no debts arising from gambling could be enforced through the courts. Now, since the inception of the National Lottery, not only is it completely legal in the UK, it is a small contributor to the British economy, with a recent explosion of interest with regard to the international gaming sector industry. However, gambling debts still remain unenforceable under English law.

Bookmaking is generally illegal in the United States, with Nevada being a notable exception. In some countries, such as Singapore, Sweden, Canada and Hong Kong, the only legal bookmaker is state-owned and operated. In Canada, this is part of the lottery program and is known as Sport Select.In the United Kingdom, trusted legal bookmakers are members of IBAS, which is an industry standard organization which resolves to settle disputes.

Spread Betting >The Point Spread

From: The Graduate

Understanding the point spread
Lately I have been upset with the confusing documentation about spread betting provided online. Here at Spread Betting International, we decided it is important to explain spread betting in a way that is easy for even novice bettors to understand. So that is our objective, and in this post I will address the point spread.

The definition of point spread is the predicted scoring differential between two opponents as quoted by a sports book. The point spread is also called the line. If you have bet on a sporting event in the past, but have never bet on the point spread, this will ease the process and explain how it works.

How the point spread works

When two teams meet on the playing field or on the basketball court, one team is typically better than the other, or in a more favorable position because of factors like playing at home. If all you had to do was to pick the winning team in a game, everybody would simply wager on the best team, or the home team in a even matchup. However, this would bypass all the lines, burning the odds makers, and allowing the bettors to collect their winnings at a high rate.

Point spread example

Lets take, for a hypothetical situation on one of the types of football bets (using the point spread), that the Kansas City Chiefs were visiting the Detroit Lions and Detroit was established as a six-point favorite at game time, which is commonly written as Detroit -6. Kansas City would be the underdog and displayed as Kansas City +6.

If you bet the favorite, Detroit has to win by more than six points to win your bet. Remember, the Lions are favored by six points, so we subtract six points from their final score on a spread bet. If Detroit were to win 27-20, Lions bettors would win their wager. If the Chiefs were to win the game by any score and you picked the Chiefs you would win not including the extra six points. If the Lions were to win, 20-14, it would be exactly six and a push, so you would get your money back.

Betting against the spread (ATS)

In the sports betting industry the acronym ATS is used to label a team's record when betting against the spread. ATS records are a valuable tool in sports handicapping. You should always factor the team’s ATS record before making a wager. Here’s why..

A team may be playing great, winning a lot of games and having a 5-0 record. However, at the same time they could have a dreadful ATS record of 0-5, because they are overvalued by the general public and the odds makers, and are just barely winning these games. Although on the other hand, a team’s record could be 2-3, but playing in a lot of close games as the underdog, and have a good ATS record of 4-1.

Bookmaker's interest

Have you ever wondered why the point spread can change, or move, over time? Here’s why. In order to guarantee a profit for the house, a bookie needs to create even action on both sides of a particular game. In a perfect world the bookie would have 50 percent of the handle (or bets) come in on the underdog and 50 percent on the favorite.

This ensures that the sports books are guaranteed a profit because of the 10 percent commission, or "vigorish" (vig) charged on most sports wagers. This is why there is "movement" on the point spread. If a game is being bet more heavily on one side, the bookie must move the spread to attract interest on the other side, in order to balance the action.

Spread betting myth

Many people decide that it's too arduous without ever giving it a try. In fact, once the simple concept has been grasped it becomes exceedingly painless to comprehend. Just determine if you think the odds makers' prediction is too low or too high, and then wager accordingly. It's that straightforward. Learn the basics, so you and your wallet are not spread too thin, but rather spread very wide.

So stay with us at Spread Betting International, and Sports Betting Times, to help you obtain this type of education and become successful with sports betting.

Spread Betting >Definition and Purpose

Spread Betting
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Definition
Spread betting is any of various types of wagering on the outcome of an event, where the pay-off is based on the accuracy of the wager, rather than a simple "win or lose" outcome, which is known as money-line betting. Fixed-odds betting is a form of wagering against odds offered by a bookmaker, an individual, or on a bet exchange.

A spread is a range of outcomes, and the bet is whether the outcome will be above or below the spread. Spread betting has been a major growth market in in recent years, with the number of gamblers well into the millions. As with all gambling, however, spread betting carries a high level of risk.

Purpose
The general purpose of spread betting is to create an active market for both sides of a wager, even if the outcome of an event may appear a priori to be biased towards one side or the other. In a sporting event, for example, a strong team may be pitted against a historically weaker team. Persons betting on the event normally would be likely to favor the better team, to such an extent that there would be very few, if any, betting on the team perceived to be worse.

The use of a "point spread" evens out the market towards an equal number of participants on each side of the wager. This allows a bookmaker to make a market by accepting wagers on both sides of the spread. The bookmaker charges a commission and acts as the counterparty for each participant. As long as the number of participants on each side is roughly equal, the bookmaker is unconcerned with the actual outcome; profits instead come from the commissions.