A Crash Course in Spread Betting with Extrabet
Remember, spread betting takes the sports betting experience to a new level that is well beyond that of having simply a win or lose outcome:
With traditional betting, you are either right or wrong. With spread betting, you are wagering for or against an expected outcome, but your payout/loss depends on how ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ you are. Spread betting has a bit of a reputation as being riskier than, say, fixed odds betting. Luckily for us, this propensity for higher risk also translates into higher rewards. In this respect spread betting adds an extra element of excitement beyond that of a fixed odds, win/lose possible outcome because players don’t know exactly how much money they stand to win (or lose) until the very end of a game/match.
Sports betting companies (so called bookies) make predictions, and set the ‘market’ – what outcome is being bet on. The ‘spread’ in spread betting refers to the range of numbers you are betting on. If you anticipate the outcome to be higher than the highest number in the spread, you ‘buy’. If you anticipate it to be lower than the lowest number in the spread, you ‘sell’.
For example, if a bookie such as ExtraBet predicts that England will score 240 runs in their first inning against Australia at the Ashes, that becomes the market and ‘239-241’ becomes the spread. If you think England will score less than 240, then you will ‘sell’ at 239; if you think they will score more than 240, you ‘buy’ at 241. If the outcome is 250 and you ‘sold’ at 239 you will lose 11 x wager; conversely, if you ‘bought’ at 241, you will win 9 x wager.
Although spread betting can potentially be riskier than fixed odds, with higher risk comes higher reward. Also, Extrabet has made sure to ensure fairness for their players – something that has helped them achieve their status as a top sports book offering spread betting.
Free Stop Losses – Extrabet account holders have stop losses automatically built into the markets on which they trade, so should you be on the wrong side of a spread, the amount which the market can go against you is limited.
No Stop Wins – Extrabet won’t limit your earnings! If you’re on the right side of the market and it’s going well for you there is no limit to the amount you can win!
In-Play Betting – A major advantage of sports spread betting vs. fixed odds is (with very few exceptions) you can not only have a bet before an event begins, but because Extrabet trades markets while an event is in play – you can also have a bet at any point during an event!
Take a Profit or Put a Loss In-Play – Extrabet attributes a value to that bet throughout the duration of an event which means depending on how things are going you’ll be able to close to take a profit or cut a loss at anytime.
Exploring Extrabet’s Spread Betting Options
In this context ExtraBet is a leading provider of sports spread betting, and has an incredibly comprehensive list of sports spread betting options. The below are a list of Extrabet’s most popular types of spread bets, for which there are a variety of specific sports spread betting markets for Football, Horse Racing, Cricket, Golf, Rugby, Tennis, Snooker, Motor Racing, Greyhounds, American Football, Boxing, Darts, Cycling and Politics as well as special markets such as ‘X Factor’ and ‘I’m a Celebrity’
Here is a list of Extrabet’s most popular types of spread bets:
- Supremacy – A measure of winning margin or by how much one player performs better than the other.
- Match Bet (Similar to Supremacy) – A bet on the relative performance of two participants in an event against each other, irrespective of how well any other participant performs.
- Index Bet – A bet in which performance is measured by awarding points for reaching particular stages or filling particular positions.
- Numbers Bet – A bet on the totals of certain numbers occurring in various sporting events – either in a match or a tournament.
- Total – referring to the total number of runs, goals, points, etc.
- Shirts – The sum of the combined shirt/jersey numbers worn by goal scorers in football, or ties in rugby.
- Multi/Cross – Outcomes derived by multiplying one total by another. This is especially popular in corners markets.
- Times – Refers to bets made on the specific time certain actions will occur in any given event.
- Binary Bet – This is a different way to bet on markets with only two possible outcomes. In effect, these are Yes/No propositions where the lone winning outcome makes up at 100 and everything else makes up at 0.
Mitigating Risk
To offset the notion that spread betting is too risky for the average punter, the below are a few helpful tips that should help you mitigate your risk:
- Do Your Homework – Make sure you are educated about and fully understand the workings of spread betting prior to placing a bet and potentially overextending your risk
- Check Your Exposure – Before you actually place any bets, make sure that you are aware of the maximum potential amount at risk. Extrabet has built in a guaranteed free Stop Loss for all their spread bets, so this shouldn’t be too much of a problem.
- Monitor Your Open Positions – Depending on the sport, the value of a spread bet can move up and down sharply in a short period of time. Knowing how your spread bet is faring at all times is important, especially as Extrabet allows you to close your bets and take a profit/loss at any time during an event. By staying informed of the value of a bet at any given time, you are able to cut losses early if you see that the odds are moving against you.
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