Spread Betting

What you need to know about Spread Betting

Ask just about anyone even peripherally associated with gambling and he or she will tell you that spread betting is all the rage these days. Heck, your average biker hooligan or garden variety dolt could probably make a similar observation. There's just no escaping the fact that America has fallen in love with spread betting. Personally, I feel this is a very sanguine omen for our prospects as a nation and a species. Surely, we are all better off if broader segments of society are intimately versed with the basic tenants of this timeless recreation.

Spread betting, for those of you who may not be entirely up to speed, is a style of gambling which focuses on the outcome of any event in which the more accurate the bet, the more is won. On the flip side, a greater amount is forfeited based on the less accurate the bet turns out to be. The spread itself represents a margin of error in predetermining a result, and the bet is usually predicated on whether the outcome will be above or below that margin.

Experienced gamblers realize that spreads are often broken up into half-point fractions to avoid ties. The winner of a typical spread bet wins the amount that he has bet, while a losing bettor loses the amount wagered plus the vig, which is what the bookie collects on the loss. The vig traditionally clocks in at 10 percent of the full bet, but there's a tremendous amount of variety here as relatively few bookies work by union rules.

It must be understood that spread betting is potentially more rewarding (and, at the same time, much more dangerous) than wagering under a fixed odds system. Since there does not exist a single stake to keep a lid on the maximum loss, this amount can become staggeringly large. Sometimes it can be large enough to encourage a hasty change of nationality and permanent severing of all ties with friends and family.

As associated with the majority of sports betting scenarios you are most likely to come across, a large percentage of spread bets are known as "over-under" wagers. However, these are made only for one side or another of the scoring total. Also, these will not increase the amount of money won or lost. Instead, over-under bets are handled much like point-spread bets on a team, most often with the application of a standard vig. Quite a few Nevada-based sports-books allow these bets to be used in parlays as with team point spread bets, making it possible to bet, for instance: "Team X and the over." You would be paid if both Team X covers the point spread and the total score is greater than what was predicted by the book.

With an ever-larger population of Ivy League brainiacs filtering into the sometimes seedy and brutal world of sports betting, mathematical analysis of spreads and have become something of a hot topic. As you might imagine, the books and casinos aren't too thrilled, much preferring to take the money from standard "gut" bettors. But there's no stopping progress, and it's a safe estimation that the widespread allure of spread betting in its many guises will only continue to grow.