When I first entered the iGaming industry, being asked about the specifics of spread betting would have been met with silence and a look of confusion. The truth is, however, that underneath what can appear as a bunch of baffling numbers is actually quite simple.

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 adds an element of excitement beyond that of a fixed odds, win/lose situation because players don’t know how much money they stand to win (or lose) until the very end of an game/match.

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 - which also translates into higher margins and increased profitability for affiliates. 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 we trade 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 – We attribute 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.

To learn more about Extrabet, visit http://www.extrabet.com/dealing/sport/content/sites/xtb/en_GB/get-started.html

If you’re not already part of the Extrabet affiliate program, click here to sign up. Are you an affiliate with questions? Feel free to email me directly at affiliates@extrabet.com

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