Sports spread betting

A fixed-odds bet is a price on a named result. 5/2 the favourite. You are right or you are wrong. Sports spread betting is a number you buy or sell. Total goals in a match quoted 2.6–2.9. You buy at 2.9 because you think there will be more. Every tenth of a goal above 2.9 is money. Every tenth below it is money the other way. The stake is per unit, not a single lump that dies at full time. The hat is the point. The risk is the size of the miss.

Worked buy. Quote 2.6–2.9, you buy at 2.9 for £10 a tenth. The match finishes 3–1, four goals. You are 1.1 goals above your buy. 11 tenths × £10 = £110. If it finishes 0–0 you are 2.9 below. That is £290 out. The size of the miss is the size of the result. That is the point, and the risk. A 5/2 single cannot do that to you. A spread can, cheerfully, in ninety minutes.

In Britain a sports spread firm sits under the bookmaker and financial rules that apply to that product. On this Index the Sports spread filter currently holds Spreadex, Sporting Index and StarSpreads. StarSpreads is an Irish Revenue bookmaker, not a UKGC file. Read the company page before you send a bank statement. This desk will not pretend a Dublin stamp is a Birmingham one because the quote looks familiar.

This is not an NFL point-spread parlay and it is not a financial CFD. Those are teasers and financial spread. Different hat, different regulator. A teaser moves a handicap on a coupon. A spread firm sells you a number by the tenth. If you mix them up, the Saturday coupon is not the one that will look silly.