What Does Total Stake Mean In Betting

WHAT IS SPORTS SPREAD BETTING?

Sports Spread Betting is without doubt the most exciting form of sports betting available. Here, we address some key topics and answer some common questions; use the list below to jump to the section that you're interested in:
- Sports Spread Betting Explained
- Is Sports Spread Betting Risky?
- How To Place A Spread Bet On Sports
- Sports Spread Betting For Beginners
- How Does Spread Betting Differ From Fixed Odds Betting?
- Sporting Index £50 Welcome Offer

- SPORTS SPREAD BETTING EXPLAINED -

It's important to understand the concept of the terms 'Buying' and 'Selling'. This really is one of those things that sounds complicated but is actually very simple. Fundamentally, the 'spread' is the range within which we believe the result of a given market will fall. This spread is comprised of two numbers - a 'Sell' price and a 'Buy' price. If you think the final result of the market will be greater than the Buy price then you would 'Buy'. Conversely, if you think it will be less than the Sell price then you would 'Sell'.
In football for example, the spread for the Match Total Goals market might be 2.9-3.1 - this simply means that, on average, we think there will be a total of three goals in the game. If you think there will be more than three goals in the game you would 'Buy', but if you think there will be fewer then you would 'Sell'. It really is that simple!

Below, we answer common sports spread betting questions, explain how to place your first spread bet and supply some sports spread betting tips for beginners.

In betting, odds represent the ratio between the amounts staked by parties to a wager or bet. Thus, odds of 3 to 1 mean the first party (the bookmaker) stakes three times the amount staked by the second party (the bettor). What is Probability? At the most basic level, betting provides you with the ability to predict the outcome of a certain event.

Total Goals in a football match may be priced at 2.8-3.0 and so the worst-case scenario if you place a ‘Buy’ bet is a loss of three times your stake because the lowest possible outcome is a settle price of 0 goals in a match that finishes 0-0. This means that for every dollar you bet, you get your stake back plus 20 cents. Now, we support responsible betting, but let’s assume you’re wagering more than $1. If you bet $100, you get $120: your $100 stake + $20 profit. Below, the calculation is similar to, but not the same as, the American odds equation. Profit = (Stake x Odds) – Stake. Please note that had the total been exactly 40, it would have been a push. This means that your initial stake would be returned, no matter which bet you placed. This results gives us a total of 50 (27+23), which is over the bookmaker’s prediction. A bet on the under would have lost while a bet on the over would have won.

- IS SPORTS SPREAD BETTING RISKY? -

The amount of risk involved is entirely up to you and there are a number of steps that you can take to avoid taking on more risk than you would like.
1: USE SMALL STAKES – You can stake as little as 1p on selected markets. You might not win big amounts with small stakes but you can be confident that the size of any potential losses will be small and your betting bank will go further, allowing you try out a greater variation of our markets.
2: PICKING THE RIGHT MARKETS – The markets we offer have varying degrees of volatility. A market such as Total Goals in a game of football is unlikely to experience a result that is too far from the spread. Total Goal Minutes, however, could well settle a long way from the spread, in either direction. Read more about how football spread betting works.
3: CUT YOUR LOSSES – If you have placed a bet that is clearly going against you, the safe option could be to protect your balance and cash out of the position before it gets any worse. Cut your losses early and protect your betting bank.

- HOW TO PLACE A SPREAD BET ON SPORTS -

Placing your first Spread Bet is possibly the most exciting bet you’ll ever place! For some, it’s a daunting prospect but we’re here to explain how to bet on a spread and enjoy it!
As explained above, for your first bet we recommend using smaller stakes and picking a low volatility market – that is, a market where the most likely outcomes are not going to be too far from the ‘Sell’ and ‘Buy’ prices. We’d also recommend that you pick a market that allows you to work out the worst case scenario. For example:
Total Goals in a football match may be priced at 2.8-3.0 and so the worst-case scenario if you place a ‘Buy’ bet is a loss of three times your stake because the lowest possible outcome is a settle price of 0 goals in a match that finishes 0-0. Here, if you had placed a ‘Buy’ bet with a stake of £5 per point the worst-case scenario is a £15 loss, calculated as:

(Settled Price – Buy Price) x Stake
(0 – 3) x £5
-3 x £5 = £15 Loss

Of course, it follows that if the game is a 3-3 thriller then the market would settle at six and the profit would be calculated as:

(Settled Price – Buy Price) x Stake
(6 – 3) x £5
3 x £5 = £15 Profit

Another example could be the Team Total Sixes market in an ODI Cricket match which may be priced at 4-5 and so the worst-case scenario if you place a ‘Buy’ bet is a loss of five times your stake because the lowest possible settle price is 0. Here, if you had placed a ‘Buy’ bet with a stake of £5 the worst-case scenario is a £25 loss, calculated as:

(Settled Price – Buy Price) x Stake
(0 – 5) x £5
-5 x £5 = £25 Loss

Again, it follows that if the Team hits ten sixes then the market would settle at ten and the profit would be calculated as:

(Settled Price – Buy Price) x Stake
(10 – 5) x £5
5 x £5 = £25 Profit

In each of the above cases you are in the position of being able to calculate what your worst possible loss could be whilst knowing that, with spread betting, for every additional goal scored or six hit over the ‘Buy’ price your potential profits increase!

For new accounts: When using your Welcome Offer of £50 promotional betting cash, remember that this does not give you a £50 stake, or 'free bet', on a market, it simply covers any losses that you make up to £50 without requiring you to make a deposit! Using the above Total Goals example, let's look at what would happen if you tried to place a £50 stake on a 'Buy' bet, and then the worst-case scenario happened (a 0-0 result):

(Settled Price – Buy Price) x Stake
(0 – 3) x £50
-3 x £50 = £150 Loss

This is obviously more than the £50 of losses that your Welcome Offer would cover and so, depending on your account type, you would not be allowed to place this bet unless you made further deposits to cover the additional potential losses.
If you are new to spread betting and would like to be in complete control of your risk level then we would recommend that you request a 'Limited Risk' account – this particular account type will display the maximum potential win and loss amounts within the bet slip so that you will know exactly where you stand before placing each and every bet! If you would like to switch to a 'Limited Risk' account please contact our Customer Services team via [email protected] quoting your account number.

- SPORTS SPREAD BETTING FOR BEGINNERS -

If you’re new to sports spread betting then there a few things that you can do to ease yourself into it before you start upping your stakes and trying new markets. Here are the Sporting Index top sports spread betting tips…
1: Start with small stakes. We mentioned this above but it bears repeating! You probably won’t win a lot of money but more importantly, you’ll be in control of your losses. This means you can make your betting bank go further.
2: Stick to markets where you know the worst-case scenario and then build up from there. Good beginners’ markets are those that will not settle too far from the spread price – think Total Goals instead of Total Goal Minutes.
3: Make sure you know exactly what the market is and how the result is calculated. Most of our markets are intuitive but some are more complex; to find out how a market works use the ‘i’ symbol next to the market name.
4: If you’re not sure on anything, don’t get involved in the action – our excellent Customer Services team are always available to answer your questions.
5: Make the most of promotions! Make sure that you are subscribed to receive both emails and texts otherwise you’ll be missing out on our promotions that we send to thousands of clients every single week.
For more information on our markets and some sports spread betting examples you can navigate to the sport of your choice below. Cricket fans can find out how cricket spread betting works whilst if you’re a fan of horse racing you can get the low down on how to spread bet on horse racing here.
Use the grid below to navigate to your favourite sports and find out how to spread bet on them!

- HOW DOES SPREAD BETTING DIFFER FROM FIXED ODDS BETTING? -

With spread betting you can make better use of your sporting knowledge than with fixed odds. With fixed odds betting you have a simple 'win or lose' scenario and you know exactly how much you stand to win or lose as soon as you strike your bet. With spread betting, how much you win or lose is determined by how accurate you are. There are a great deal more than just two possible outcomes with spread betting and the more right you are, the more you win. By the same token the more a result goes against you, the more you stand to lose.
Take Batsman’s Runs as an example, with a fixed odds bet you might be offered a market on whether a batsman will reach 100 runs in a game. Let’s say the England captain’s odds on scoring 100 in a one-day game are 4-1 (or 5.0 in decimal odds). Were you to place a £10 bet on this you know that if the player gets his 100 runs you’ll get £50 returned and if he fails to break that mark you’ll have lost your £10 stake.
Now let’s say for the same match the England captain’s total runs spread is set at 60 – 65. Backing him to be a centurion you’d want to buy at the 65 ‘Buy’ price and staking £2 per point you’d be in profit for every run above 65 the batsman scores. Should he reach 100 then that’s a profit of £70 because 35 runs over the buy price multiplied by your £2 stake makes £70. But it doesn’t stop there because if that same batsman beds in and racks up a really meaty Brian Lara-sized total your profits improve yet further. In fact, every single run means more money. If he makes it to 150 runs that’s another £100 on your total win (50 more runs times your £2 stake makes £100) and should he reach 200 you’d find the market now at 135 points over and above the spread, turning your £2 stake into a £270 return.
With your fixed odds bet all that matters is the batsman’s reaching 100 – if he gets there, you get your money, if he fails, you lose. With your spread bet you’re going to be as invested in the batsman’s total runs scored as he is, willing him on to post a higher and higher total with every ball delivered! What’s more, the batsman scoring 99 runs and falling 1 short of a century would see your fixed odds bet lose. But your spread bet still makes a return of £68 because the market has settled at 34 points above the original spread ‘Buy’ price of 65 that you took (34 multiplied by your £2 stake means £68 back for you). Ultimately more runs means more money but of course on the flip side should the batsman post an underwhelming total, or worse yet fail to score at all, your loss is dependent upon just how far below your buy price the final score was. With your £2 staked at the buy price of 65 the batsman being out for a duck would see the market settle at zero and you’d have just lost 65 times your stake. Whereas if he makes just 50 runs, your loss is just 15 times your stake.

Obviously you would want to have heeded our advice above and know that your worst case scenario would be a loss of £170 buying at £2 a point. But as soon as the batsman is off the mark you know that worst case scenario has been avoided and every run scored brings you closer to the point at which you’re in profit and beyond! Additionally, since it is a more volatile market you may want to reduce your stake to 50p, for example.

- DO SPORTING INDEX HAVE A NEW ACCOUNT OFFER? -

Indeed we do, and it's certainly one of the more generous offers in the world of online sports betting. New accounts will receive £50 of promotional betting cash to bet with for seven days! Effectively, this money allows you to bet with us knowing that any losses that you do make in the initial seven day promotional period, up to the value of £50, are covered by us! This promotional betting cash is non-withdrawable and any losses that you make over £50 will be your liability to cover. However, any profits that you make on top of the £50 will be credited to your account as real cash at the end of the seven day promotional period. Bet with our money, not yours and learn how to spread bet with Sporting Index today!
Read the Full Terms and Conditions here. This promotion is only applicable to new accounts. Note that account opening is subject to suitability checks.

Spread Betting involves risk. Losses may exceed deposits.

The terms Stake, Yield (Revenue) and ROI (Return on Investment) confuse many people. We have also noticed many online publications using these terms incorrectly.

Stake

The sum of money gambled on the outcome of an event. The amount of money played with, or placed as a bet.

In the online world of gambling, stakes are electronically placed on a desired outcome with another party that has agreed to accept your stake, whether this be a bookmaker or an anonymous person/group in a betting exchange.

These ‘adversaries’ are effectively backing with their own money against your selection, hoping to make a profit of your stake if your selection in the event turns out to be wrong.

Once the outcome of the event is decided, stakes are returned to you in full if your bet has won (plus the winnings), or, if you lose the bet, the stake is lost and either retained by the bookmaker, or transferred to the winning side in the betting exchange.

Technically speaking, stakes are guarantees! This means that they are short-term deposit payments to guarantee that the losing party can and will honour his debt obligation to the winner of the bet.

Yield

The Profit/Loss* ratio^†applied to the total capital employed (total staked)

*This is Profit or Loss, NOT Profit divided by Loss

^†ratio = the quantitative relation between two amounts showing the number of times one value contains or is contained within the other.

Literally translated, the term YIELD means profit, earnings, harvest, income, revenue…

When applied to gambling, Yield measures betting efficiency compared to total turnover.

If your aversion to risk is low, you will select bets with higher probabilities. Bets with higher probabilities of winning carry lower odds. Lower odds means a smaller yield.

If you enjoy higher risk strategies, the opposite will apply.

Generally speaking and depending upon the strategy employed, a good bettor will yield between 5 and 10 percent profit in the long run.

In football betting any yield over 7% is considered to be a very good result.

Yield Formula:

PL divided by ∑MS(written as a percentage):

PL = profit/loss (MW minus ML = net profit or loss); equivalent to your bank growth
∑ = the sum of
MS = money staked
MW = money won (purely winnings; returned stakes are ‘neutral’, not winnings)
ML = money lost (stakes lost)

Yield in this example is 8.55%

We come across many forum threads with people talking about their betting strategies; It is also easy to find plenty of websites offering betting systems for sale.

What many of them have in common is claims of high yield results, probably intended to impress the reader.

If they are to be believed then this is an indication of high risk strategies employed.

It must be remembered that in the Yield formula, the sum of money staked (∑MS) includes all stakes, even those that have not been lost. (In other words, the refunded ‘guarantees’).

People tend not to understand this fully and as a result mistakenly overstate their yield results.

Yield is NOT the same as ROI (Return on Investment)!

Return on Investment (ROI):

The ratio of money gained or lost on an investment relative to the amount of money invested. In other words, the profit/loss ratio as a function* for investment^†(capital employed).

*function = a relation or expression involving one or more variables; in this case, investment, profit, loss.

^†investment = long-term employment of tangible, financial, or other assets that are not meant for immediate gains but are intended to generate benefits (normally earnings or profits) in the future.

ROI is also known as ‘rate of profit’ or sometimes just ‘return’.

ROI Formula:

What Does +100 Mean In Betting

If you bet systematically, your starting capital will be turned over again and again: It is effectively the same money you are investing. (So long as you don’t lose every bet!).

The ROI formula resembles the yield formula, but here, profit/loss is related to the actual investment (starting bank) instead of the total of all stakes (turnover).

For a more accurate ROI calculation, in an ideal world, you should also factor in to the investment all other costs of ‘setting up the business’. For example, hardware/software costs (computers). However, we will leave this out of our calculations for the time being for the sake of simplicity; you can always include these costs once you have mastered the concept.

ROI in this example is 32.5%

ROI is always calculated for a certain predetermined amount of time; in finances usually for one whole year, but it is also common and acceptable to calculate the ROI monthly or, in a betting sense, for only the number of bets within a specific time scale.

The return on investment index is especially suitable when the amount of capital has a strong influence on the result (e.g. with arbitrage).

However, this is probably rarely the case for the majority of punters. Therefore, it is the next formula profitability, which is the most important one for the normal bettor.

Profitability

The relation of profit/loss to the money spent. In other words, profitability is an index for measuring financial success (operational profit) in relation to the costs of running the business.

Profitability is THEkey indicator that makes betting success measurable and controllable.

We reiterate: Measuring OPERATIONAL Profit!

Profitability measures success connected to the operation (running costs) of the business (not the start-up capital, and also not the turnover of all stakes).

Stakes are strictly speaking just short-term deposit payments which are returned to the bettor should his bet win. Investment (start-up capital) can be anything – some people may prefer a higher bank than others. However, profitability is the same for all, and therefore a much stronger success indicator than any ROI or yield calculations.

Again, in an ideal world, one would factor in the costs of power, heating and light; apply an hourly rate to the time spend in all aspects of the venture; even the food you eat at your work station.

However, to keep it simple, we only factor in the amount of stakes lost [the money spent operating your betting venture].

Profitability Formula:

In contrast to the yield, where the turnover of all bets counts, or to the return on investment, where the starting capital counts, profitability is all about the truly invested money (money lost or spent running the betting business).

It is, therefore, the most important and realistic index for sports bettors to quantify the overall financial reward they receive from their betting ventures.

What Does 220 Mean Betting

Profitability in this example is 65%