The point spread is essentially a handicap towards the underdog. If the wager is simply 'Will the favorite win?', more bets are likely to be made for the favorite, possibly to such an extent that there would be very few betters willing to take the underdog. In sports, almost every contest has a favorite and an underdog, most obviously when a historically strong team is playing a weaker team. The general purpose of spread betting is to create an active market for both sides of a binary wager, even if the outcome of an event may appear prima facie to be biased towards one side or the other. In the UK, financial spread betting is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority rather than the Gambling Commission who regulate spread betting on sports. Financial spread betting (see below) can carry a high level of risk if there is no 'stop'. Spread betting has been a major growth market in the UK in recent years, with the number of gamblers heading towards one million. 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.Ī point spread is a range of outcomes and the bet is whether the outcome will be above or below the spread.
Type of wagering where the pay-off is based on the accuracy of the wager
