Spread betting is any of various types of wagering on the outcome of an event where the pay-off is based on the accuracy of the wager, rather than a simple "win or lose" outcome, such as fixed-odds or money-line betting or parimutuel betting. A spread is a range of outcomes and the bet is whether the outcome will be above or below the spread. Spread betting has been a major growth market in the UK in recent years, with the number of gamblers heading towards one million.

The general purpose of spread betting is to create an active market for both sides of a binary wagereven if the outcome of an event may appear prima facie to be biased towards one side or the other.

In a sporting event a strong team may be matched up against a historically weaker team; almost every game has a favorite and an underdog. If the wager is simply "Will the favorite win? The point spread is essentially a handicap towards the underdog.

The wager becomes "Will the favorite win by more than the point spread? This allows a bookmaker to act as a market maker by accepting wagers on both sides of the spread. The bookmaker charges a commissionor vigorishand acts as the counterparty for each participant. As long as the total amount wagered on each side is roughly equal, the bookmaker is unconcerned with the actual outcome; profits instead come from the commissions.

To profit, the bookmaker must pay one side or both sides less than this notional amount. In practice, spreads may be perceived as slightly favoring one side, and bookmakers often revise their odds to manage their event risk. One important assumption is that to be credited with a win, either team only needs to win by the minimum of the rules of the game, without regard to the margin of victory.

This implies that teams in a winning position will not necessarily try to extend their margin—and more importantly, each team is only playing to win rather than to beat the point spread. This assumption does not necessarily hold in all situations. For example, at the end of a season, the total points scored by a team can affect future events such as playoff seeding and positioning for the amateur draft, and teams may "run up" the score in such situations.

Spread betting was invented by Charles K. McNeila mathematics teacher from Connecticut who became a bookmaker in Chicago in the s. Spreads are frequently, though not always, specified in half-point fractions to eliminate the possibility of a tie, known as a push.

In the event of a push, the game is considered no actionand no money is won or lost. However, this is not a desirable outcome for the sports book, as they are forced to refund every bet, and although both the book and its bettors will be even, if the cost of overhead is taken into account, the book has actually lost money by taking bets on the event. Sports books are generally permitted to state "ties win" or "ties lose" to avoid the necessity of refunding every bet.

Betting on sporting events has long been the most popular form of spread betting. Whilst most bets the casino offers to players have a built in house edge, betting on the spread offers an opportunity for the astute gambler.

When a casino accepts a spread bet, it gives the player the odds of 10 to 11, or That means that for every 11 dollars the player wagers, the player will win 10, slightly lower than an even money bet. If team A is playing team B, the casino is not concerned with who wins the game; they are only concerned with taking an equal amount of money of both sides.

This is the house edge. The goal of the casino is to set a line that encourages an equal amount of action on both sides, thereby guaranteeing a profit. This also explains how money can be made by the astute gambler. If casinos set lines to encourage an equal amount of money on both sides, it sets them based on the public perception of the team, not necessarily the real strength of the teams. Many things can affect public perception, which moves the how much money does zac efron make a year away from what the real line should be.

This gap between the Vegas line, the real line, and differences between other sports books betting lines and spreads is where value can be found. A teaser is a bet that alters the spread in the gambler's favor by a predetermined margin — in American football the teaser margin is often six points.

For example, if the line is 3. In return for the additional points, the payout if the gambler wins is less than even moneyor the gambler must wager on more than one event and both events must win.

In this way it is very similar to a parlay. At some establishments, the "reverse teaser" also exists, which alters the spread against the gambler, who gets paid at more than evens if the bet wins. Sports spread betting began in the United Kingdom in the late s to offer an alternative form of sports wagering to traditional fixed oddsor fixed-risk, betting. The more right the gambler is then the more they will win, but the more wrong they are then the more they can lose.

This reflects the fundamental difference between sports spread betting and fixed odds sports stock market closed on mlk in that both the level of winnings and level of losses are not fixed and spread trading futures pdf end up being many multiples of the original stake size selected.

If the gambler elects to buy at and the team scores runs in total, the gambler will have won 50 unit points multiplied by their initial stake. But if the team only scores runs then the gambler will have lost 50 unit points multiplied by their initial stake. It is important to note the difference between spreads in sports wagering in the U. In the UK betting above or below the spread does not have a known final profits or loss, with these figures determined by the number of unit points the level of the final outcome ends up being either above or below the spread, multiplied by the stake chosen by the gambler.

For UK spread betting firms, any final outcome that finishes in the middle of the spread will result in profits from both sides of the book as both buyers and sellers will have ended up making unit point losses.

So in the example above, if the cricket team ended up scoring runs replicate binary option buyers at and sellers at would have ended up with losses of five unit points multiplied by their stake. This is a bet on the total number of points scored by both teams. Suppose team A is playing team B and the total is set at If the final score is team A 24, team B 17, the total is 41 and bettors who took the under will win.

If the final score is team A 30, team B 31, the total is binary options no deposit bonus november 2015 and bettors who took the over will win.

The total is popular because it allows gamblers to bet on their overall perception of the game e. In a football match the bookmaker believes that 12 or 13 corners will occur, thus the spread is set at 12— In North American sports betting many of these wagers would be classified as over-under or, more commonly today, total bets rather than spread bets. However, these are for one side or another of a total only, and spread trading futures pdf not increase the amount won or lost as the actual moves away from the bookmaker's prediction.

Many Nevada sports books allow these bets in parlaysjust like team point spread bets. This malone tdi forex it hdfc forex euro rate to bet, for instance, team A and the overand quotes stock market gambling paid if both team A "covers" the point spread and the total score is higher than the book's prediction.

Such parlays usually pay off at odds of The mathematical analysis of spreads and spread betting is a large and growing subject. For example, sports that have simple 1-point scoring systems e. By far the largest part of the official market in the UK concerns financial instruments; the leading spread-betting companies make most of their revenues from financial markets, their sports operations being much less significant. Financial spread betting in the United Kingdom closely resembles the futures and options markets, the major differences being.

Financial spread betting is a way to speculate on financial markets in the same way as trading a number of derivatives. In particular, the financial derivative Contract for difference CFD mirrors the spread bet in many ways.

In fact, a number of financial derivative trading companies offer both financial spread bets and CFDs in parallel using the same trading platform. Unlike fixed-odds betting, the amount won or lost can be unlimited as there is no single stake to limit any loss.

However, it is usually possible to negotiate limits with the bookmaker:. Spread betting has moved outside the ambit of sport and financial markets that is, those dealing solely with share, bonds and derivativesto cover a wide range of markets, such as house prices. In the UK and some other European countries the profit from spread betting is free from tax.

The UK and some other European countries tax authorities designate financial spread betting as gambling and not investing, meaning it is free from capital gains tax and stamp taxdespite the fact that its regulated as a financial product by the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK.

Most traders are also not liable for income tax unless they rely solely on their profits from financial spread betting to support themselves. The popularity of financial spread betting in the UK and some other European countries, compared to trading other speculative financial instruments such as CFDs and futures is partly due to this tax advantage.

However, this also means any losses cannot be offset against future earnings for tax calculations. Conversely, in most other countries financial spread betting income is considered taxable. For example, the Australian Tax Office issued a decision in March saying "Yes, the gains from financial spread betting are assessable income under section or section of the ITAA ".

This has resulted in a much lower interest in financial spread betting in those countries. Suppose Lloyds Bank is trading on the market at p bid, and p offer.

A spread-betting company is also offering p. We use cash bets with no definite expiryor "rolling daily bets" as they are referred to by the spread betting companies. We use the offer price since I am "buying" the share betting on its increase.

If a bet goes overnight, the bettor is charged a financing cost or receives it, if the bettor is shorting the stock. On top of this, the bettor needs an amount as collateral in the spread-betting account to cover potential losses. The punter usually receives all dividends and other corporate adjustments in the financing charge each night. For example, suppose Lloyds Bank goes ex-dividend with dividend of The bettor receives that amount.

The exact amount received varies depending on the rules and policies of the spread betting company, and the taxes that are normally charged in the home tax country of the shares. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Asian handicap Bet exchange Financial betting Point shaving Prediction market Spread trade. Archived from the original on July 19, What are the Odds?

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