Cricket Spread Betting – Worth the Risk for South Africa vs England?

With the South Africa vs. England Test Match Cricket series on the doorstep, we take a look at the viability of using spread betting in Cricket. Spread betting can be looked at in two ways, and cricket does offer plenty of chances to try and make a profit. The first area to look at is the simple handicap basis of Spread Betting which is favoured in the UK, which involves taking a slightly different perspective on a sporting event. Spread Betting simply does not look at who will win or lose, like in fixed odd bets, but it takes a more detailed look of how a game will exactly play out. The point of Spread Betting is to try and level the playing field when it comes to a highly favoured team playing against a much weaker one, and it takes into consideration what type of game it is likely to be. When it comes to cricket, taking what kind of pitch is going to be in play. If it is a flat and lifeless pitch, then batting is going to be predominant and high scores will prevail. The other side of this is a slightly moist wicket with overcast conditions with favour the bowlers.

Say for example, that a bookmaker, the middle man in this event, offers a points spread of 50 on a One Day International Match. This means that the punter can take the points on the underdog, in this case we’ll say England (being the visiting team). If, at the final score, England lose by anything less than 50 points, the punter will win the bet. For example, if the final scores are South Africa 250, England 225 (+50 points from the bet), that means England have won the spread. If however, England lost to a score of South Africa 250, England 199 (+50 points from the bet), the bet will be lost because they still didn’t manage to meet South Africa’s total. Bookmakers in Spread Betting do not really care about the win/loss result, as everything is guided by the points, so a losing team can still win punters money. However, if the punter was to think that there is no way that England, even with a points spread of 50 are going to the win the match, then the reverse of the above will come into play. If the Punter fancies South Africa, no matter what the points spread against them is, then they can give the points, meaning as long as South Africa win by 50 points or more, the bet will be won.

The other angle of Spread Betting comes in the potential of losing more than just the initial stake, as with fixed odds betting. As this type of betting is more popular in North America, the Spread Betting system is more of an Under/Over system but again with a difference to the fixed odds version of it. This type of spread betting is generally applied to the total number of points scored in the match by both sides, and again is popular for North American sports, such as American Football. For Cricket though, this can work in a punter’s favour, again by taking into consideration the state of the pitch, which will determine a high scoring game or not. So, for the forthcoming South Africa vs. England First Test, a bookmaker may set a point total at 1000.5. In this example you would lay a bet of, for example £10, and the more right that you are with a bet, the more you will win. You either sell the points (going low) if you think that the total score will be under 1000 runs, or you would buy the points (going high) if you think it is a great batting pitch and the amassed runs will be over 1000.

With that in place, here is where money is won or lost, basing the above on a punter buying or selling at a stake of £10. If the final total of runs is 995, and the punter sold the points, they would win five times their stake (1000 runs minus 995 runs scored = 5 runs). So the punter would win £10 x 5, as this Spread Betting is based on determining the more specific outcome of a match. However, here within lies the potential for losing money. If that same punter had sold the points exactly the same, but the total runs in the match were 1005, then he would lose the bet and money to the degree of 1000 runs + 5 extra scored above the Points Spread,  which equals a loss of £10 x 5 = £50 lost. If you are looking for pointers, then England average around 580 runs per match the last time they were in South Africa, while the Proteas average was just above 600.

While that may sound scary, it encompasses the view that Spread Betting is more intense when it comes to gambling, and you are not going to know the potential rewards or losses until the end of play. With Cricket, a look at Sporting Index, a top Spread Betting online bookmaker, will show that there are plenty of fields for the forthcoming Test Series, which you can employ Spread Betting. From the correct series score, to individual batsman performances, the average score of all players who hit a century in the match to name but a few, so there are plenty of options there. You can also, if you are unsure whether this type of betting is right for you, decide to run an account which plays with tokens instead of real money, just for practice.

Other Spread Betting Jargon that is worth looking out for, is the Stop-Loss, and if you have this applied to an account, all of your bets will be subjected to a maximum profit and loss in relation to the initial stake. This will help eliminate some of the risks of losing big. The Push, is when a game is tied and no money is won or loss, which is often negated by Bookies posting half-odds, such as 35.5. Learning how to Spread Bet safely will add an exciting new dimension to your gambling practices. Sporting Index is a good place to start, as they offer a comprehensive help guide to try and welcome new people into their fold, especially by the attractive employment of their Training Centre. Sporting Index also offer some good promotions for people opening new accounts, and you even get to chose which one suits you from a list of half a dozen.

Fixed Odds Betting for South Africa vs. England Test Series
South Africa to win: 4/6 at Ladbrokes
Drawn Series: 15/4 at BoyleSports
England to win: 100/30 at SportingBet