Intro to Spread Betting on Horse Racing
What is Spread Betting?
Spread betting is quite different from betting with your local bookmaker. At your bookie you place a wager on a fixed odds event and
know exactly how much you stand to win if you chose correctly. Equally you know that the most you can possibly lose if everything goes
wrong is your stake.
When placing a spread bet the amount you stand to win or lose is determined by how right, or how wrong you are. Take a look at the
following example provided by:
The Cheltenham Gold Cup - Day 4
We quoted the Martin Pipe trained Therealbandit at 13-16 points.
50pts are awarded for the horse coming first, 30pts for coming second, 20pts for coming third, 10pts for coming fourth and 0pts for any other position.
Sell (Go Low) at 13 if you believe the horse failed to run into a place.
Buy (Go High) at 16 if you believe the horse finished in the 1st three.
The way a spread bet works is that you bet an amount per point, lets assume you choose to bet £5 per point.
Therealbandit eventually finished 7th scoring 0 points. If you had correctly predicted this outcome and SOLD Therealbandit @ 13 points
your profit would be:
(13 - 0) x £5 = £65
However, when you predict incorrectly your losses can be volatile. If we assume you thought Therealbandit would run well and you
decided to BUY @ 16 points your loss would be:
(0 - 16) X £5 = -£80
As you can see, a loss of £80 is significantly more than the £5 you were betting per point. It is therefore a good idea to work what your maximum downside
is (where possible) and adjust your stake per point accordingly.
Spread Betting Markets for Horse Racing
There are a variety of markets available to horse racing spread bettors. As we saw above there is the standard index that awards
points for how well a horse runs, here are some of the other markets:
- Favourites - Predict how well the favourites will run at a given meeting
- Starting Prices - Predict the total starting prices of all winners at a meeting
- Distances - Predict the total winning distances in all races at a meeting
You will often find many other markets based on how well a particular jockey will do at a race meeting, how the top weights will fair and other
novelty markets.
Profiting with Horse Racing Spread Bets
Spread betting is really just another kind of gamble that will ultimately lead to the uninformed losing money. However, if you put
the time and effort into choosing the right kind of bet for the right selection then spread betting can become a useful addition to the
pro punters armoury.
For example, using the reports found on Tipping League you might discover that a tipster often tips favourites that end up finishing
out of the places. This would obviously not be a sign of a very good tipster, but you may still be able to profit from this information!
Provided this trend holds true you MIGHT be able to profit by SELLING this selection in the spread bet markets.
Similarly, you might find a tipster that is regularly tipping big price horses that make it into the places and even win - we have a couple of these on Tipping League. In this
case the spread could be quite low, therefore if it fails to run well the maximum downside isn't too great, but if it manages to run
into a decent place there could be a good profit potential.
You should thoroughly test these concepts for fun without staking real money to begin with. As spread betting is VERY RISKY,
especially for the uninitiated and inexperienced, see how you get on using pretend money and if you do well ease yourself into to
real markets. When done correctly it can be rewarding financially and provide much excitement.
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