Football spread betting with Sporting Index can make even the most mundane of matches exciting with the widest range of betting markets available anywhere.
Sporting Index offers 200 pre-match markets on live matches, with up to 150 available in-play, so whether it is spread betting on the time of the first goal, the number of bookings points or the aggregate time of all the goals scored in a match, Sporting Index has football covered from all angles.
- HOW TO SPREAD BET ON FOOTBALL -
Sporting Index makes predictions on a number of events and scenarios within a football game. The spread has two prices, a buy and a sell price. If you believe Sporting Index has pitched a quote too low, spread bettors would buy at the higher price, anticipating that the make-up of the market will be bigger than that price.
Likewise, if spread bettors think the buy price is too high then they would sell at the lower, believing the final make-up will be below the price they have sold at.
- A WORKED EXAMPLE OF A FOOTBALL SPREAD BET -
Let's start with one of our most popular markets, Total Goals. If you're used to Fixed Odds betting, you'll know that the most common line is Over/Under 2.5 Goals, where if you back `Over' you need three or more goals to win the bet.
The equivalent of backing Over 2.5 on a Fixed Odds bet and Buying Total Goals on a Spread Bet is that, with Fixed Odds you win the same amount whether there are three, four, five or more goals in the game but with Spread Betting you would win more for every additional goal over the Buy price.
Let's now take the below example. Here, Sporting Index believe that, on average, there will be 3.1 goals in the game, hence the spread featuring a Sell price of 3 and a Buy Price of 3.2 - if you think there will be more than 3.2 goals then you would `Buy', but if you think there will be less then you would `Sell'. The more right you are, the more you could win, however, the more `wrong' you are, the more you could lose.
Take the scenario where you decide to stake £10 per point on a Buy at 2.9. The result of the game is 3-0 to Tottenham and so the Total Goals market will settle at 3. With spread betting, your winnings and losses are calculated by the difference between the settled price and the price you bought at, multiplied by your stake. Continuing with the above scenario, this would work out as:
(Settled Price – Buy Price) x Stake
(3 – 2.9) x £10
0.1 x £10 = £1 Profit
Clearly, in this example, the Sporting Index traders' prediction was pretty accurate! However, a fourth goal in the game would have resulted in the following:
(Settled Price – Buy Price) x Stake
(4 – 2.9) x £10
1.1 x £10 = £11 Profit
As you can see, with football spread betting you benefit from every additional goals scored which is a great advantage over Fixed Odds and makes the game incredibly exciting as your bet can keep winning money right up until the final whistle!
As we all know, bets don't always win and so let's look at what would have happened if only two goals had been scored in the game:
(Settled Price – Buy Price) x Stake
(2 – 2.9) x £10
-0.9 x £10 = £9 Loss
On the What is Sports Spread Betting page we mentioned picking the right markets and alluded to the difference in volatility between Total Goals and Total Goal Minutes.
Now, given that our example showed three goals in the Tottenham v Borussia Dortmund game, we know that the Total Goals market settled closely to the spread prices (2.7-2.9) and so profits and/or losses would have been limited. However, Total Goal Minutes (which is a prediction of the cumulative total minutes of each goal scored in the match) in the same game was priced at 139-149, and so not only would you need to factor in the number of goals scored, but also at what time in the match were those goals scored.
In that same Tottenham v Borussia Dortmund game, the three goals were scored in the 47th, 83rd and 86th minutes, meaning that the Total Goal Minutes market settled at 216 (47 + 83 + 86)! This is quite some distance from the spread market prices at the beginning of the match (139-149). If you had placed a Buy bet with a stake of £1 on this market then your winnings would be calculated as follows:
(Settled Price – Buy Price) x Stake
(216 – 149) x £1
67 x £1 = £67 Profit
As you can see, Total Goal Minutes is a much more volatile market and so we would highly recommend that if you are new to football spread betting but want to bet on this particular market then you should use small stakes to lower your risk and reduce any potential losses.
- WHICH ARE THE MOST POPULAR MARKETS? -
Football spread betting encompasses all aspects of the game and Sporting Index offers a range of markets on a variety of incidents within a match. Below, we've listed the most popular football spread betting markets that our clients choose to bet on...
SHIRT NUMBERS
The aggregate number of shirt numbers of all the goalscorers in a match. For example, a 1-1 draw with two goalscorers - one wearing number 10, one wearing number 14 - would result in the Shirt Numbers market settling at 24 (10 + 14).
For a match between Everton and Liverpool, we might price Shirt Numbers at 36-39. Suppose that Liverpool win the game 2-1 and the goalscorers are Mane (Shirt Number 10), Salah (11) and Richarlison (30). In this example, the Shirt Numbers market will settle at 51 (10 + 11 + 30). For Buyers staking £1 at 39 the pay out would be as follows:
(Settled Price – Buy Price) x Stake
(51 – 39) x £1
12 x £1 = £12 Profit
For Sellers staking £1 at 36 the pay out would be as follows:
(Sell Price – Settled Price) x Stake
(36 – 51) x £1
-15 x £1 = £15 Loss
BOOKINGS MARKET
The simplest bookings market is on the number of yellow and red cards in match. For every yellow card shown 10pts are awarded and for every red card 25pts, with a maximum of 35pts per player.
For a match between Arsenal and Manchester United Sporting Index might set the spread at 48-52. If there were four yellow cards and one red card then the market would settle at 65. For Buyers staking £1 at 52 the pay out would be as follows:
(Settled Price - Buy Price) x Stake
(65 – 52) x £1
13 x £1 = £13 Profit
For Sellers staking £1 at 48 the result would be as follows:
(Sell Price – Settled Price) x Stake
(48 – 65) x £1
-17 x £1 = £17 Loss
Sporting Index also offers individual Team Bookings Points, Bookings Supremacy, and Time of the First Red Card, as well as football spread betting markets on the number of bookings points after certain points in the game. For example, Bookings Points 30-Ups = 1pt is awarded per booking point over 30. So three yellow cards and one red card = 55 bookings points. Bookings 30-Ups result = 25.
CORNERS MARKETS
The most simple corners market is on the number of corners awarded in a match.
As an example, a game between Chelsea and Manchester City might have the pre-match Corner spread set at 10-10.5. If there were a total of 12 corners awarded in the match then the market would simply settle at 12. In this scenario, Buyers staking £10 at 10.5 twould receive the following pay out:
(Settled Price - Buy Price) x Stake
(12 – 10.5) x £10
1.5 x £10 = £15 Profit
For Sellers staking £10 at 10 the result would be as follows:
(Sell Price – Settled Price) x Stake
(10 – 12) x £10
-2 x £10 = £20 Loss
Sporting Index offers football spread bettors 21 corner-related markets including Total Number of Corners in a match, Corner Supremacy, Time of the First Corner, X-Corners (prediction on the number of corners taken by one team multiplied by the number taken by the opposition) and Corners Squared (prediction on the total number of corners taken in a match squared).
WIN INDEX MARKETS
Another popular football spread betting market is the 25:10 Win Index.
This is similar to an outright match market where 25pts are awarded to the match winner and 0pts to the losing side. If the match is drawn both teams are awarded 10pts.
We might make a spread for Manchester United at 15-18 for their match against Swansea. If they won they’d make-up 25 and spread bettors who bought at 18 would win seven times their stake. However, if Swansea held them to a draw the make-up would be 10 and buyers would have lost 8 times their stake. If Swansea had won then buyers would have lost 18 times their stake.
PLAYER GOAL MINUTES
Our Player Goal Minutes markets are based on the aggregate minutes of all goals scored by a player in a match.
For example, our spread on Erling Haaland Goal Minutes may be: 45 - 50. Buy on the spread if you think his goal minutes will total more than 50, or sell if you think they will total less than 45.
If Haaland scored goals in the 30th, 60th and 90th minutes then his Player Goal Minutes would 'make-up' at 180. However, if Haaland failed to score, his Player Goal Minutes would settle at 0.
A £1 buy at 50 would win £130 on a 180 make-up ((180 - 50) x £1) but lose £45 on a settlement of 0 ((0 - 50) x £1).
Alternatively, for comparison, Kyle Walker's Player Goal Minute quote may typically be 0.25 - 1.5!
We also offer Player Super Mega Minutes where every second goal minute is doubled and any third goal minute tripled.
So in the above Haaland example of goals in the 30th, 60th and 90th minutes, the make-up here would be 420 (30 + 120 + 270).
MULTI-MARKETS
Our Multi-Markets offering includes many different combinations of markets such as Corners x Bookings, Goals x Corners x Bookings, Shirts x Bookings and more.
For example, if you were to place a Goals x Corners x Bookings multi-market bet, and there were 3 goals, 45 bookings points and 10 corners, the market would settle at 3x45x10 = 1350.
Alternatively, if you were to place a Shirts x Corners multi-market bet, and there were goals by players wearing shirts 9, 10 and 11 along with 7 corners in the game, the market would settle at (9 + 10 + 11) x 7 = 210. In this particular market, the maximum shirt number per goal is 100. More information can be found by hovering over the Information icon next to the market name.
