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How to win at football betting: tip #3

By Matt | January 18, 2010

We’ve looked at multiple bets so far, and we’re now going to turn our attention to betting on singles.

And today’s betting tip is a simple one that we can’t recommend enough: try spread betting.

As we’ve stated before in these pages, there’s nothing more frustrating than backing a team to win three nil, only for them to go and score four. You’ve virtually called the game precisely, but you may as well have backed that team to lose for all the reward you get.

Spread betting works differently. If you’re right, you win more money the more right you are.

A lot of people are scared of spread betting, and if they’re no good at predicting results then they should be: if you get it wrong you can get it very, very wrong.

But for me it’s the fairest form of betting out there. I recently bought Leeds United performance points when they played Man U in the cup. I didn’t think they could win, so wasn’t tempted by the 11/1 on offer at some bookies. But I knew they would give Man United a run for their money.

The way this spread betting market works is to award points for certain achievements: 25 points for a win, or 10 points for a draw; then 15 points per goal, 10 for a clean sheet, 10 for hitting the woodwork (and then the ball rebounding into play); 3 points for a corner and minus 5 for a yellow and minus 10 for a red card.

Leeds were predicted to score between 4 and 8 points, and ended up scoring 59 points thanks to their unexpected win.

But even if, as could easily have happened, Man U had got a late equaliser or even nicked the game, I still would have cleared a tidy profit. Leeds would have lost 15 points for only drawing and their 10 points for a clean sheet. They still would have ended the game with 34 points had they drawn and 24 points if they’d lost.*

A 16-point profit even if Leeds had lost? Hard to argue with, given their performance. And that, for me, demonstrates just how fair spread betting is.

England matches have been similarly rewarding for me under Fabio Capello. Anyone who bought either England supremacy (margin of victory in goals) or total England goals in most of their World Cup qualifiers could have sat back and not worried if the team had scored four, five or even six. Every extra goal was pure profit, not a way of channelling their funds back to the bookmaker.

So that’s this week’s tip: consider spread betting. If you haven’t already done so, I’d recommend you sign up to Sporting Index right now!

* Leeds got 10 points for Beckford’s goal, 10 points for Snodgrass hitting the bar and 9 points for their three corners. They had one booking, losing them 5 points.

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