The Thrill of Spread Betting

How to Partake in Spread Betting on Sporting Events
By: Mystery Bettor

This article outlines the expectation of, and getting started with, spread betting. Spread betting is a form of gambling that enables you to win or lose money based on how close or far off you are in your betting. Whether you play online or in a casino, spread betting can be an exciting way to make money or to lose it, depending on how well you understand the betting process.

One fascinating aspect to spread betting is that you can choose whether you want to explore the financial world of spread betting or whether you would rather bet on one of many popular sports. Spread betting enables you to gamble on the outcome of just about any sport, from football to horse racing. Many risk takers derive their excitement from the tricky endeavor of financial betting, in which they can place bets on the ever-changing stock market.

Like other traditional forms of gambling, spread betting has its own historical background. People have been holding contests and placing bets for hundreds of years, from betting on the chariot races in early Rome to placing money on football games today. Many people live for the thrill of betting, for placing their money and potentially risking their funds on an uncertain endeavor.

Spread betting derived its roots from the basic qualities of gambling: placing money on an outcome and winning or losing depending on that outcome. The most addictive part of spread betting is the uncertainty of winning or losing. In spread betting you may potentially win no matter what the final score. The actual numerical outcome of the game, race, or market has no real measure on whether you win or lose. As long as you bet correctly in the higher or lower margin of the outcome, within the proper spread, you will win or lose money.

In order to have a chance at being successful at spread betting, it is important for each player to understand the terms of the game. There are a number of interesting terms that players should familiarize themselves with before attempting to play the game. Although the concept of spread betting is rather simple, if a player is not somewhat familiar with the common terms of spread betting, he may run the risk of placing an unsuccessful bet. Or, he may not understand completely what is happening during the betting process. Therefore, it is important to educate yourself on the common terms of spread betting.

The key to spread betting successfully is the same as playing most any other gambling game. In order to place a bet that has a reasonable chance of winning, you have to employ your knowledge about the game and be smart about your betting. One of the key components of any type of successful gambling is maintaining self-discipline. Establishing a successful method to spread betting, and consistently following it with each wager, maintains a high level of winning performance.

For example, with research on the event to be wagered being a critical part of the method, the bettor should never bypass this aspect and make an uneducated, or on a hunch, wager. One element of the research is knowing how the professionals view the event. In sports wagering, knowing the position of professional sports handicappers will improve the bettor’s success.

Spread betting has the advantage of being able to be played just about anywhere you have access to the outside world. Other popular casino games like poker and roulette have moved to the online world, and so has spread betting. You can choose to place your bets in the sparkling, risqué climate of Las Vegas. Or, you can place your bets from the comfort of your own home by visiting an online firm or casino. Since spread betting has continued to grow in popularity, there has been a significant increase in the number of firms that have opened to accommodate both seasoned pros and newcomers to the world of spread betting.

With spread betting on the rise, there has also been an influx of new players to this particular form of gambling. Fortunately, there are several ways in which a player can train himself on the varying components of spread betting. Like any other form of gambling, the most successful bets are usually—though not always—placed by a player who has taken the time to educate himself about what he is betting on and the rules of the betting process.

Although the concept of spread betting is simple, there are several terms unique to the game that may throw beginning spread bettors off course. Also, what you plan to bet on may determine how successful you are, especially if you do not educate yourself about how to play the game. There are also plenty of sources of information online. However, if you are a beginner, you must weed through the available sites carefully. Spread Betting International and Sports Betting Times are two sites that offer training on spread/sport betting, and strive to minimize this pain with concise, complete, and valuable information.

Spread betting, like any form of gambling, has the potential to be addictive. The key to having fun while spread betting is to get educated about what you are doing. Be aware that spread betting holds the potential for addiction, and most of all, be careful with your funds. Maintain common sense when spread betting, and the activity will continue to hold fun, excitement, and the thrill of the unknown.

Spread Betting on Sporting Events

From: The Rockstar

Spreads in sports wagering
Spread betting was invented by Charles K. McNeil, a mathematics teacher from Connecticut who became a bookmaker in Chicago in the 1940s.[4] The idea became popular in the United Kingdom in the 1980s. In North America, the gambler usually wagers that the difference between the scores of two teams will be less than or greater than the value specified by the bookmaker.

Here's an example: The bookmaker advertises a spread of 4 points in a certain game..

• If the gambler bets on the "underdog", he is said to take the points and will win if the underdog's score plus the spread is greater than the favorite's score. If the eventual score is Underdog 8, Favorite 10: (8 + 4) > 10, so the gambler wins; if the eventual score is Underdog 8, Favorite 13: (8 + 4) is less than 13, so the bet is lost.
  
  
• If the gambler bets on the "favorite", he gives the points and will win if the favorite's score minus the spread is greater than the underdog's score. If the eventual score is Underdog 4, Favorite 10: (10 - 4) > 4, so the gambler wins; if the eventual score is Underdog 8, Favorite 10: (10 - 4) is less than 8, so the gambler loses.

Spreads are frequently, though not always, specified in half-point fractions to eliminate the possibility of a tie, known as a push. In the event of a push, the game is considered no action, and no money is won or lost. However, this is not a desirable outcome for the sports book, as they are forced to refund every bet, and although both the book and its bettors will be even, if the cost of overhead is taken into account, the book has actually lost money by taking bets on the event. Sports books are generally permitted to state "ties win" or "ties lose" to avoid the necessity of refunding every bet.

A teaser is a bet that alters the spread in the gambler's favor by a predetermined margin, often six points— for example, if the line is 3.5 points and the bettor wants to place a teaser bet on the underdog, he takes 9.5 points instead; a teaser bet on the favorite would mean that the gambler takes 2.5 points instead of having to give the 3.5. In return for the additional points, the payout if the gambler wins is less than even money. At some establishments, the "reverse teaser" also exists, which alters the spread against the gambler, who gets paid at more than evens if the bet wins.

Spread bets on the total (over/under)
In addition to the spread bet, a very common "side bet" on an event will be the total (commonly called the over/under or O/U) bet. This is a bet on the total number of points scored by both teams.

Suppose the Bears are playing the Giants and the total is set at 44.5 points. If the final score is Bears 24, Giants 17, the total is 41 and bettors who took the under will win. If the final score is Bears 31, Giants 24, the total is 55 and bettors who took the over will win.

Check out the scoreboard. If this was Bears/Giants game situation and you were holding the over ticket, what needs to happen for you to win? What if you had bet on the under? In either case, the winning over/under wager has not been determined, so the final 1:33 will be very exciting!

The total is popular because it allows gamblers to bet on their overall perception of the game (e.g., a high-scoring offensive show or a defensive battle) without needing to pick the actual winner.

In the UK, these bets are sometimes referred as spread bets, but rather than a simple win/loss, the bet pays more or less depending on how far from the spread the final result is. Example:

• In a soccer match the bookmaker believes that 12 or 13 corners will occur, thus the spread will be set at 12-13. A gambler believes that there will be more than 13 corners, and 'buys' at £25 a point at 13. If the number of corners is 16, the gambler wins (16 - 13) = 3 x £25. If the number of corners is 10, the gambler loses (13 - 10) = 3 x £25.
  
• A 'sell' transaction is similar except that it is made against the bottom value of the spread.
  
• Often "live pricing" will change the spread during the course of an event, allowing a profit to be increased or a loss minimized.

In North American sports betting many of these wagers would be classified as over-under (or, more commonly today, total) bets rather than spread bets. However, these are for one side or another of a total only, and do not increase the amount won or lost as the actual moves away from the bookmaker's prediction. Instead, over-under or total bets are handled much like point-spread bets on a team, with the usual 10/11 (4.55%) commission applied.

Many Nevada sports books will allow these bets to be used in parlays, just like team point-spread bets, making it possible to bet, for instance, "the Vikings and the over," and be paid if both the Vikings "cover" the point spread and the total score is higher than the book's prediction. (Such parlays usually pay off at odds of 13:5 with no "vig," just as a standard two-team parlay would.)

In 2004 Cantor Fitzgerald launched the spread betting exchange Cantor Spreadfair, which matches up spread bettors opposing views and allows them to bet with each other. This removal of the faceless bookmaker allows clients to bet at the spread size and monetary level that they request, and in turn this creates a tighter spread margin, which in turn allows users to lose less and win more than with the non-exchange spread-betting firms.

The mathematical analysis of spreads and spread betting is a large and growing subject. For example, sports that have simple 1-point scoring systems (e.g., baseball, hockey, and soccer) may be analysed using Poisson and Skellam statistics.

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.

Spread Betting >Welcome to Spread Betting International

From: Mystery Blogger (Athlete of the Year)

I want to provide a brief introduction on the purpose of this new site. The intent is to offer information, knowledge, perspective, advice, and insights on the world of spread betting. Spread betting is the methodology of creating a business market for wagering (or investing if you prefer) on the outcome of a designated event.

The intention of spread betting is to mathematically place odds on the outcome of various factors associated with the event, for which an individual may place a wager on these outcomes. Spread betting is generally associated with wagering on sporting events, however the trading of options on the stock market, can also be considered a form of spread betting.

Spread Betting International will provide daily spread betting content in posts, links to valuable resources and insights, educational information, strategic suggestions, and personal perspectives from yours truly. Mystery Blogger has over 20 years exposure to spread betting in both his business and personal life. Having wagered on countless sporting events, as well as being a daily trader of stock options, the term 'expert' has been used, but loosely, of course.

The focus of the site is on sports betting, not options trading. Specifically, professional football, baseball, and basketball betting will be targeted. Mystery Blogger will also post pages with content aimed at wagering for each of these sporting events. These pages are located at:

Sports Betting Times

Football Betting Weekly

Baseball Betting Report

Basketball Betting Journal

I hope you will check them all out. It will take some time to add all the valuable content I have planned for these sites, so patience please. There will be daily updates to all blogs, so please check back often.

One last thing... Mystery Blogger has a number of "power identities" that he calls upon when blogging. Get the scoop on this here!!