Posts filed under 'Betting Tutorial'
Fixed-odds betting is the easiest to understand and by far the most popular form of betting. Its popularity stems from the fact that you know how much you can win, or indeed lose, when you place your bet.
In the UK, fixed odds betting traditionally uses Fractional odds (for example 5/1 = five to one, 15/2 = fifteen to two).
Use of Decimal odds (such as 6.00 or 8.50, the equivalent of 5/1 or 15/2 respectively) is growing in popularity in other countries and most good online sports bookmakers give you the choice of odds format to display.
Both Fractional and Decimal odds are simply ways of telling you how much you could win from your stake – and how likely it is you’ll be successful.
Odds of 5/1 (6.00) mean that your selection will win, in the bookies opinion, once in six attempts – 5/1 is short for “5 losses to one win”.
Your potential winnings are calculated by multiplying your stake by the odds.
The most straightforward kind of fixed odds bet is a single. You just pick a selection and put some money on it. If it wins, you win.
The next most obvious fixed odds bet is a double – you pick two selections and they both must win. The winnings from one bet are staked on the second. Say you bet £10 on two 5/1 (6.00) chances. The first one wins, so you get £60 back as shown earlier. This £60 is then your stake for the second bet – so if it wins you’d get back £60 x 5 plus your stake back, giving a total of £360.
You can also bet each way, where you put one bet on your selection to win and the same amount on it to be placed. If it’s placed, your first bet loses, but your second bet gets paid out at a fifth, a quarter or a third of the odds, depending on the bookie’s rules.
Links to Other Key Betting Terms Explained:
>>Spread Betting
>>Asian Handicap Betting
>>Visit BookieLabRat.com
January 28th, 2007
Spread Betting is a betting style popular with UK punters and is offered by a limited number of specialist betting firms.
So what is spread betting?
The basic premise is that a spread betting firm such as Sporting Index, Hi/Lo, City Index, Cantor Index or IG Index predicts the outcome of an event and then offers a ‘spread’ based on that figure. (Spreads can be offered on sporting, financial or any other types of events)
You, the punter, then decide whether you think the result will be higher or lower than the spread firm’s prediction.
A cricket example is that the firm may predict that the Australian cricket team will score 245 runs, so they offer a spread of 240-250 runs (if the actual score falls between that range they win regardless – but they rarely get it bang on).
In this example, you have to decide if you think Australia will score more than 250 or less than 240. If you think more, then you ‘buy’ at 250 and stand to win 1x your stake for every run more than 250 that Australia makes. If you think they’ll score less than 240 runs, you ‘sell’ at 240 and win 1x your stake for every run short of 240.
The main thing to remember is that you always buy at the higher number in the spread and sell at the lower one.
If you predict wrong, you lose – in this example, 1x your stake for every run over 240 or under 250. So if Australia actually makes 275, and you’d bought for a stake of £1 per run @ 250, you’d win £25. If you sold @ 240, you’d be losing money, and would lose a £ for every run you were out -£35.
Another aspect to spread betting is that the spread is constantly updated throughout the progress of the event. Prices are revised ‘in-running’ to reflect the current state of play. Say Australia reach 100 without loss. They’ll revise their spread upwards to say, 280-290 runs.
If you originally sold at 240 for £1 per run, you might be thinking you made a mistake, but there are ways to limit your losses – you can ‘close’ your bet by placing an equal-sized bet in the opposite direction. So now if you bought Australia for £1 per run at the latest spread of 290, you’d be taking a £50 loss – the difference between the spread you sold at 240 and the one you’re buying at 290. This would be admitting defeat, but you’d instantly know how much you’d lose.
For that to make sense, you’d have to now believe that Australia would score more than 290, because of they end up scoring fewer runs, you’d lose less than the £50 if you kept with your original bet and let it stand.
The reverse is also true. You can take a profit rather than leaving it to chance. If you originally bought Australia at 250, and the spread had been revised to 280-290, selling at 280 would guarantee a £30 win (again, the difference between the first and second spreads).
Here’s a Football Spread Betting example.
Say Arsenal is playing Man Utd and a spread on offer for the game has Arsenal with a goal superiority of 0.1 goals to sell, or 0.4 goals to buy.
This would be normally written 0.1 / 0.4 and means that when you buy at 0.4, if Arsenal wins by a goal, you’d be paid out at [(1-0.4) x your stake]. If Arsenal wins by 2 goals it would be [(2×0.4) x your stake].
Conversely if you didn’t think Arsenal would win you could have sold at 0.1. So if the match was a draw you’d lose [(0.1-0) or 1/10th of your stake] but if Arsenal were beaten by a goal then you’d make (1.0-0.1) x your stake.
The settle-up of this spread where the stake was £10 is illustrated below.
In football spread betting the stake is usually not just £1 per goal (like the £ per run cricket example), but £10, £20 or £100 per goal and so can result in big wins – or big losses!
As winnings and losses can mount up quickly in spread betting, it’s advisable to bet only on events you understand (duh!), and then can keep a close eye on so you can cut your losses or take profits in-running.
NOTE:
As spread betting is only offered by a few companies the spread margins are fairly tight. In general punters can make a lot more money long term on fixed odds and/or Asian Handicap betting than on Spread bets when you consider the amount of risk involved.
>>Next Key Betting Term Explained: Fixed Odds Betting – coming soon!
>>Last Key Betting Term Explained: Asian Handicap Betting
>>Visit BookieLabRat.com
January 27th, 2007
Don’t be put off by the concept of Asian Handicap betting. If you bet on football you should at least understand all forms of betting available to maximise the earning potential and minimise the risk for each game. Successful betting is also about choosing the best betting style and then the right bookmaker.
I personally like Asian Handicaps because they remove the draw from the equation. This is an important consideration as a quarter of all football games end in draws.
Not all bookies offer Asian Handicaps, and as with all odds, it is well worth shopping around to get the best for Asian Handicaps. I run a stable of bookie accounts accordingly but three are outstanding in this area: MANSION Sports, Pinnacle Sports and Bet365. I recommend them personally – because I use them successfully myself.
Asian Handicaps – A Betting System to Even Up The Game
Asian Handicap is a form of betting where the perceived weaker team (or underdog) is given a number of goals head start. Conversely, the team perceived to be superior (the favourite) is penalised or ‘handicapped’ an equal number of goals in an attempt to make the two teams equal for betting purposes.
The favourite has to overcome the handicap, and will have it taken away from its final score. The handicap for the favourite is preceded by a minus (-). The underdog is given a ‘head-start’, and will have it added to its final score. The handicap for the underdog is preceded by a plus (+).
The wider the gap between the two teams, the greater the number of goals head start is given to the weaker team. If the two teams’ on-field ability is considered to be approximately equal, no handicap is given to either team.
Two types of Asian Handicaps – Single Handicaps & Double Handicaps
SINGLE ASIAN HANDICAP BETS : Example Brazil -1.0 v England +1.0
In this example, England has been given a 1 goal head start over Brazil. This means that all bets on England will win, provided England either win or draw the match. If Brazil wins the match by at least two goals, then all Brazil bets will win and all bets placed on England will be losers. If Brazil wins by exactly one goal with the -1.0 handicap the scores are considered level and all stakes will be returned.
The table below lists the most commonly used Handicaps and the outcome of each:
DOUBLE ASIAN HANDICAP BETS : Also known as Split or Quarter Ball Handicaps
Double handicaps are used to split a wager into two equal and separate bets – each with the same odds to win, but at a different single handicap. This can result in the following scenarios:
- Both bets win, therefore the full win amount is returned.
- One bets wins and one bet draws (stake returned). This is commonly referred to as ‘Half Win’.
- One bet draws (stake returned) and one bet loses. This is commonly referred to as ‘Half Loss’.
- Both bets lose, therefore the full stake amount is lost.
Ready to bet? For great football coverage and the BEST ASIAN HANDICAP ODDS on the Internet these three bookmakers are outstanding:
>> Visit Bet365 Bookmaker (sorry, no USA bettors)
>> Visit Pinnacle Sports Book (sorry, no USA bettors)
If you’ve still got questions contact us at BookieLabRat.com.
January 25th, 2007
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