Sports spread betting started in the early nineties and nearly two decades later it is just about a mature betting medium within the gaming industry. As with all industries the hard and fast rules changed rapidly during their infancy but settled once its natural position was met. Initially sports spread betting was an industry that only attracted ‘buyers’: people who wanted to get long of every price. For example, if the first innings runs in a Test match between England and Australia were priced at 350–370 runs, then traders for the various spread betting houses would have seen on average 75 per cent of market players as buyers.

 

Similarly if total goals in a game were 2.7–3.0 the same premise would apply. This pushed up the prices set by our market traders and meant that ‘sellers’ in the industry generally cleaned up. The spread companies are far nearer the true prices these days but remember traders have so many more markets to make they can’t always be right. There is still money to be made if you obey the following pointers and make sure that your staking and market assessments are disciplined.

 

Spread betting asks a punter to go high or low of a price offered. If you think the outcome of the event will be higher than the price quoted you ‘buy’ and if you think it will be lower than the price set you ‘sell’. Each market is set in units. For example, runs in a cricket match means each run will be one unit, or for goals in a football match, one unit will be one goal. Once you have decided whether you want to be higher or lower you simply add a stake per unit. For example, you might buy at £2 per run in the first innings of a Test match.