The Ultimate Guide to Football Spread Betting

Sports spread betting is a form of gambling that was developed in the UK in the late 1980s. It shouldn’t be confused with the use of spreads in US sports wagering, invented in the US as far back as the 1940s, as they’re completely different concepts.

We’re about to talk you through the differences between the two. We’ll also explain what is spread betting in football with real-life examples of buying and selling the spread and will round things off by discussing some of the types of bets you can place when spread betting on the ‘Beautiful game’. 
 

Fixed odds and the ‘other’ type of spread betting 

The vast majority of sports betting is done at fixed odds. Fixed odds means that at the time a bet is placed, both the customer’s stake (potential loss) and potential winnings from the bet are already known. Hence ‘fixed’.

Most US Sports betting revolves around giving the favourite team a handicap (the spread) and the outsider a head-start of x points. You either go with one, or the other, with odds on both generally being at around the 1.9 mark. The favourite will either beat the spread or the outsider will stay within the spread. 

Defining spread betting 

The spread betting we’re talking about works very differently. It still revolves around the bookmaker creating their own spread but rather than simply betting on a team to beat the spread or staying within the spread, it focuses on the extent that the final outcome for a particular metric ends up above, or below, the spread.

One of the key differences between the US and UK versions of spread betting is that in the UK version, customers don’t know how much they’re liable to lose or how much they could go on to win at the time they place the spread bet. It all depends on the final outcome. So how does spread betting work in football and how do you know how much you’ve won, or lost? 
 

So, what is a spread in football?

It’s an artificial range determined by the bookmaker. They will decide on the range, whether pre-match or in-play, and customers have the chance to go higher (buy) or lower (sell) than the range set out by the bookmaker.

Spread betting in football can apply to such things as: team or total goals, team corners or total corners, team bookings or total bookings, shirt numbers and goal minutes.

Let’s say you’re interested in how to bet the spread in football on corners and more specifically, the total number of corners in the match. Let’s say Bookie X sets the spread in Real Madrid v Bayern Munich in the Champions League at 9.5-10.0.

The first thing you need to decide is whether you think the total number of corners in the match (across both sides) will be greater than 10.0 (the upper side of the spread) or below 9.5 (the lower side of the spread).

The next thing you need to decide is your stake per point, which in this case is your stake per corner.

Unlike with fixed odds where you simply either win or lose a bet at pre-determined odds, for fixed stakes and fixed payouts, spread betting takes into account how right or wrong you were about the spread bet. The more right you are, the more you’ll win. But the more wrong you are, the more you’ll lose.

So how do spread bets work in football when you decide to buy?

Let’s go back to the total corners example in Real v Bayern where the spread was 9.5-10.  

You decide to buy corners at 10GBP a corner. In this case, you want there to be as many corners as possible.

To illustrate how to bet spread in football on corners in terms of wins and losses, let’s say that in Scenario 1 there were 12 corners in the game. That’s 2 more than the spread (10). So, you were right about there being more than 10 and get paid out 2 (corners) x 10GBP for a profit of 20GBP.

But in scenario 2 there were only 8 corners. That’s 1.5 corners less than the spread so you’d lose 10GBP x 1.5 = 15GBP.

This time you decide to sell corners meaning the fewer, the better. You sell for 10GBP a corner.

If there were just 7 corners, that’s 2.5 less than the spread and you’d win 2.5 x 10GBP = 25GBP.

If there were 12, that’s 2 more than the spread and you’d lose 2 x 10GBP = 20GBP.

If there were exactly 10, you’d neither win, nor lose. 

How does spread betting work in football when it comes to supremacy bets?

A supremacy is similar to an Asian Handicap in that it gives the favourite an artificial handicap and the outsider an artificial goal (or fraction of a goal) start.

Real are given a supremacy of 0.4-0.6 goals over Bayern. You buy at 10GBP and the game ends 3-1.

The supremacy is therefore 2 (3 –1). So, it’s 2 – 0.6 (=1.4) x 10GBP = 14GBP profit.  If you sold rather than bought, the same principle would apply as illustrated with the corners example.
 

The same way as they determine the odds on any fixed odds football betting market. They’ll take into account the stats from hundreds of previous matches and decide on the correct spread based on that, after which it’s up to the customer to decide whether they want to buy, or sell. And for how much a point.