A Guide to Spread Betting on Sport

Good lines of enquiry include the weather and how conditions affect the ability of contestants in your chosen sport. For example, horse racing is heavily influenced by the quality of the grass and some horses perform better in damp conditions than others. Checking the forecast and analysing the weather will then allow you to back the horse that has enjoyed more success in those conditions. When this is combined with other factors such as their odds and their ranking when racing at the course previously, you’ll be able to choose a market where you have a good instinct to buy or sell.

Your good judgment needs to extend beyond the bet-making process as sports spread betting odds will change for the duration of the match, game or race. If you’re enjoying a period of profitability or experiencing loss, knowing when to walk away from a stake before things turn sour is important.

You might wish to invest in a stop-loss limit that will prevent you from losing too much money. For instance, if you predict that there will be a goal in the second-half of a football match and learn that someone scored within the first couple of minutes, the losses that you’ll make will be stemmed to a certain point as the stop-loss limit will kick in.

Starting off with small bets and working your way up will do wonders for your confidence. If you place a £50 stake when you’re fresh-faced in spread betting, there are a number of things that might not go to plan. For example, what if you were unsure of what a particular market meant? What if you made a poor judgment because you didn’t do your homework, one of the learning curves which many betting enthusiasts make? In these cases, using stakes of 10p or 20p enables you to discover what it’s like to bet with real money without enduring too much liability if things go wrong. Even spread betting in smaller quantities is a thrill, especially as it is a World apart from playing in simulation mode.

Opening your eyes to brand-new markets offers an incentive to learn something new. It’s rather boring and uninventive to place a stake on the outcome of a match, because it’s what everyone else does. Instead, you should try to explore exciting markets such as the amount of corners there will be in a match, or indeed, the point in the match when the first goal will be made.

Without being pessimistic, you need to constantly gauge risk in order to be truly successful. By knowing and realising the worst possible outcome that could arise from a spread bet, you will know what you’re up against and whether it is worth the risk. Even though taking a chance is a vital part of making a sports spread bet, being sensible and realistic will prevent any stupid mistakes that could have been avoided.

As you prepare to make your stake, consider how volatile the market is. Some components of football have some stability for example, and you may wish to bet in these markets if you do want more certainty on the potential deviancy from the original spread. For example, 95 per cent of all football matches do not have more than a total of eight goals, and so getting involved in the market that estimates cumulative goals in a match won’t usually bring too many nasty shocks.

If you want to enjoy success and gain kudos in the spread betting world, don’t be afraid to be inventive with the opportunity to create your own bets. Combining multiple markets into one bet and creating a stake is customisation that’s difficult to enjoy anywhere else in the betting world, and it’s a chance that you should seize with both hands. The lack of restrictions regarding what you’re able to bet on is truly liberating and the rewards are substantial if you get it right.

A final top tip for your spread betting efforts is to constantly keep informed on how your stake is doing as a match, game or event progresses. Indeed, you should always keep your eyes on the progression of long-term bets too as the conclusion draws near. A good spread betting company will ensure that you have plenty of information at your fingertips through blogs, live news feeds, access to the latest headlines, streaming broadcasts of a match as it happens and a dynamic website with spreads that update as things develop.

Don’t want to have the laptop around as you watch the match? This isn’t an issue. One of the ways you’re able to keep up to date with a stake’s performance is through the humble mobile phone, and applications on the iPhone are one of the solutions for receiving an update on your market while you’re in the pub with your mates. If you’ve achieved a nice profit from the judgment made, you’ll be able to get the drinks in as a celebration of the expert opinion you’ve flaunted.

Spreading betting can result in losses that exceed your original deposit. Remember to bet responsibly.

Further sources

• For more information, please visit the Financial Services Authority, which is responsible for regulating the spread betting market.
• Visit Bloomberg's site for up-to-date market intel on stocks, shares and commodities.
• Otherwise, why not check out some of our other finance guides?
 
28/11/2011
 



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