What Is Spread Betting In Horse Racing?

In the world of sports betting, there are plenty of fascinating ways to place bets, with the most common being traditional fixed betting. One form of betting that is becoming increasingly popular is spread betting, which might sound confusing to those who have never heard of it. Whether you watch horse racing regularly or are a casual fan, understanding spread betting is an important aspect of the sport, and here we will go through what spread betting is and how it works.

Spread betting in horse racing is different from traditional fixed odds betting because you are not just placing the bet on whether a horse will win, but you will also be betting on how well it will perform. The return of the bet will depend on how right or wrong your prediction is, and not just whether it is right or wrong.

In short, the more correct you are, the more you can win. But the more wrong you are, the more you can lose, which creates risk.

The betting options in spread betting are to buy or sell. If you select buy, you think the horse will do better than expected; if you select sell, you think it will do worse than expected. Let's have a look at how spread betting works in a real example.

Bookmakers that offer spread bets don’t use fixed odds, and they use a spread instead, with a range of points predicting how a horse will perform. Let’s use a ‘Finishing Position’ market to see how spread betting works.

You have two options:

If you buy the horse at 5th at £5 per point and the horse finishes 2nd, you will be successful by 3 points. This means you will gain £15, as the horse has finished three places above the bet, and you placed it at £5 per position. However, if the horse finishes last in 8th, you will lose by 3 points and will incur a £15 loss.

Spread betting firms offer several markets beyond finishing position, with some popular examples including:

Winning Distance - Bet on the total distance between horses across all races at a meeting. If you think it will be a close race, you can sell; but if you think the margin between the first and last horse would be huge, then you can buy.

Favourites - Before the race begins, horses are labelled as favourites by bookmakers. In this market, you can predict how well favourites will perform against the rest of the field.

Jockey Betting - Spread bets can be placed on jockeys, assessing their performance throughout a race meeting.

Index - Each horse is awarded points based on performance: 1st receives 25 points, 2nd receives 10 points, and 3rd receives 5 points. 

Match Bets - Two horses are paired against each other, and you bet on which will finish higher.

When placing bets on horse racing results, there are pros and cons to every style of bet. Spread betting offers plenty of both pros and cons that we will list here:

Pros:

✅Flexible Strategy - Can buy or sell depending on how your horse performs

✅Potential Returns - Due to the nature of the bet, returns can vary depending on how well your horse performs

✅Original - Spread betting is not like any other sports betting, making it stand out in the market.

Cons:

❌Losses can exceed your stake - As there is no fixed payout limit, you can lose more than your initial stake.

❌ Complexity - Spread betting is not recommended for beginners, as it is quite volatile and requires plenty of knowledge.

❌Requires Discipline - Not for the casual punter, spread betting requires patience and understanding of horse racing, not to overextend.

Spread betting is a unique way to bet on horse racing, and instead of simple win-or-loss bets, bettors focus on performance. Recommended for sports betting experts, spread betting can be quite confusing and difficult to understand. 

If you are looking to learn more about horse racing, you can check out the horse racing tips we have on offer for upcoming races. For those looking to check out this week’s action, you can look through our extensive horse racing racecards on site.