Hello, and welcome to my first laytheodds post, focussing on spread betting.

Proper introductions in a moment, but I’ve just checked the open positions on my Sporting Index account, and I have almost as many in the I’m A Celebrity Index, than I have in anything else! Now, I could blame the missus for that, as she made the selections, but it was all a cunning plan on my behalf to make it more exciting when we sit down most nights to watch. Honest!

I couldn’t have given two hoots who wins the thing, although it might be nice if Jimmy White won, given he came so close to winning the World Snooker title without ever succeeding, and it might help to banish some of the bad memories?

As the brilliant SkyBet ad slogan says, “it matters more when there’s money on it“, so having not cared a jot before, suddenly it’s important and a bit of extra interest on small stakes.

Please don’t think that I’m a habitual gambler on trivial matters like this, but it perhaps helps to demonstrate the huge variety of available markets the spread firms create. For the France v Ireland World Cup play-off match on Wednesday, I counted 154 90-minute markets, as well as another dozen or two for Extra-Time.

I didn’t spot any for Thierry Henry handball minutes though, or Shay Given running to protest to the referee yardage, so maybe they missed a trick there?!

You had to feel for Ireland, but being a Scot who has witnessed some genuine debacles over the years involving our national team, I’m just surprised it wasn’t us who were on the wrong end of it. Better to be lucky than good, the saying goes – well it’s really rubbish when you’re neither! At least Trap’s boys are quite good.

I did enjoy the Roy Keane interview on the subject, I have to say. Bitter, moi?

Anyway, as promised, a brief  introduction.  I’ve held spread betting accounts for around 10 years, and by comparison to fixed odds or exchange betting, I find it more interesting, entertaining, and ultimately more profitable.

For many years, gambling had been purely a hobby for me, but for the last 3 years or so, I have split my time between working on systems and statistics to help maximise betting profits, and my other business in property.

Many of my friends and acquaintances share my liking for gambling and trading, to varying degrees, and some of them spread bet. More do than don’t though, and if I ask them why, the answer is generally that a) they don’t understand it, or b) it sounds a bit scary, as well as not understanding it!

In reality, if you have enough of a grasp of basic numbers and figures to allow you to back a horse at 2/1, or perhaps lay a football team on the exchanges at 2.5, and be reasonably confident of what your returns and liabilities will be, then spread betting should hold no fears.

In terms of the risks involved in spread betting, it is vital that you understand these before diving in with blatant disregard for the potential downside of your bets, as this is one aspect of this type of gambling which differs significantly from fixed odds or the betting exchanges.

Any self-respecting gambler or trader who views his bets as investments, and not just fun punts, will always adopt some sort of staking plan, where only a small percentage of his betting bank is at risk on each trade. The same should be done when spread betting, although admittedly it is a little harder to work out, and we will spend some time looking at that in the weeks ahead as well.

I think there’s a good chance that spread betting is the last unexplored corner of the gambling world for at least some of those reading this post. Whether that be the case or not, I’m here to help you seek out, comprehend and hopefully relish the delights of the spreads.

If you need an overview of the mechanics of spread betting, then rather than me rambling on any further, why not let the guys at Sporting Index explain, then you might want to give it a try. (When you get the Sporting Index page, click on the banner at the top to learn more about Sports Spread Betting.)

I’m sure there will be plenty of questions and queries, so please post them on the sports spread betting forum, and I’ll respond.

Coming up, we’ll start looking in more detail at some of the markets, and the statistics which can give you an edge, as well as some tips for forthcoming events.

Get posting, and I’ll speak to you soon.