In-play betting spreads are a tool that bookmakers use to create more interest in a wager. For example, if you wager £10 on a football match and it turns out to be a draw, the bookmakers will more than likely offer you a free bet to make up the odd £10. There are typically three main ways that an in-play betting spread can work:
Shortest Price
When you bet on a sporting event, you’re usually looking to make a profit. However, if the game is close, you may also want to make it as exciting as possible for you and your punters. One way to do this is to place a wager on a side that you believe has less chance of winning. This could be because you think that the other team is better or just because you want to create more interest in the game. One important thing to note is that if your hunch is correct, you’ll make money whether or not your bet turns out to be victorious. This is because the bookmaker will more than likely offer you a free bet, no questions asked. For instance, if you think that Spurs have a significantly higher chance of beating Newcastle United at home than the opposite is true, you could place a wager on Spurs to win the match and make a profit of £10 from a £5 wager. Your £5 would then be returned to you, with an additional £5 being given to you as a bonus. This is why short-priced bets are so popular amongst in-play and live betting enthusiasts.
Longest Price
If you’re a long-time fan of the game, you may have noticed that the prices for individual teams and individual players change often during a football season. One reason for this is that teams generally underperform against the odds or, as the case may be, overperform. Because of this, you may find that a team or player that you backed at one point during the season ends up being cheaper than their price would suggest they should be at. This can lead to some great opportunities for profit. If, for example, you think that Newcastle United are going to struggle to score goals this season, you could take advantage of their underperformance by wagering on them to lose a certain amount of money. The same logic applies if you think that a certain player on a team is going to have a good season or, alternatively, a bad one. A long-priced wager might also be a good opportunity to hedge your bets, making it easier for you to win or lose your wager. For instance, if you think that Spurs are going to beat Newcastle United this year, you might consider placing a long-priced bet on Spurs to win the match.
Highest Score
The final and arguably the most popular type of in-play betting spread is the one that involves picking the highest score. This is mainly because it’s extremely easy for bookmakers to set up. Basically, all you need to do is find a team or player you think is going to score the most goals or points in the upcoming game. The main issue with this type of spread is determining exactly where you’ll get the information from. Many sportsbooks will have a section on their websites where they publish the top scorers for the relevant season so that you can easily browse through previous results. You can also use Google to quickly find the top scorers for any sport, providing you with plenty of information to work with. Alternatively, you could try reading the match reports in the mainstream media to get an idea of who’s going to score the most goals or points in the upcoming contest. Whichever method you choose, make sure that you keep on top of the scores as the games progress and use this information to adjust your wagers as necessary. This way, you’ll always know what’s going on with your in-play bets and can make the right decisions accordingly.
Why Do Bookmakers Use In-Play Betting Spreads?
In-play betting spreads are popular amongst bookmakers because they can maximize their revenue across all types of wagers. This is something that more traditional spread tools and formulas do not offer. Using these spread formulas, a bookmaker would need to set their oddsmaker to offer a good return on all in-play bets at all times, which is something that is difficult to do. This is why in-play betting spreads have become so popular amongst sports betting operators. They want to ensure that they attract as many clients as possible, especially since the Covid-19 pandemic has made people more interested in spending their money on entertainment rather than sports events. The bottom line is that in-play betting spreads allow bookmakers to offer more incentives to their customers, which in turn makes them more willing to wager on sporting events, especially if these events are entertaining.