Sports spread betting is not just a case of win or lose. Not like with a traditional betting bookmaker.

The rewards of spread betting can outweight those of normal fixed odds betting as we discussed in another post, about how a football goals spread bet can increase the reward by more than 3 times. This post explains the workings of a sports spread bet in more detail, something that wasn’t done in the previous post. Using football as an example first lets look at how sports spread betting differs from traditional betting.

Fixed odds betting. The price of the bet is set at the outset by the bookmaker. Winnings and loses are fixed. Win or lose, you know what’s what.

Spread betting. Winnings or loses depend on the difference between the end result and the sports spread betting company’s marker or prediction.

Most of the bets available with online betting bookmakers are mirrored by the sports spread betting company. Take the totals market for example; total goals, total corners, or total booking points etc. The words used are slightly different but essentially they are the same.

When an online betting bookmaker prices football totals markets they provide a marker. Betting enthusiasts place bets for more or less than the marker. The markers will resemble these; ’2.5′ goals, ’11′ corners, and ’37 – 40′ booking points.

Sports spread betting companies do the same thing. However, the market is a spread. Each goal is worth 10 points, so a spread might look like this, ’2.3 – 2.5′ goals. A corners spread might look like this, ’10 – 11′ corners, and a booking points spread like this, ’37 – 40′ booking points.

Participants get to choose between betting ‘over’ or ‘under’ the marker with fixed odds betting. With sports spread betting the bettor gets to ‘buy’ or ‘sell’ the spread.

Sports spread betting explained