Sport Spread Betting Explained for Kiwi Punters

If punters in New Zealand take a look at sports wagers for the first time, all the numbers and symbols used to form a wager may be rather confusing. To veteran sports bettors the numbers and symbols are a familiar language, but the good news is that it’s a language that can be learned quickly with a bit of explanation and know-how.

Spread betting is a popular form of sports bets as it opens up the betting market on a specific match by effectively levelling the playing field. Kiwi punters can participate in spread betting with the numerous TAB outlets across the country and TAB online, but can also take advantage of the numerous offshore bookmakers who have widened their territory and now accept wagers from New Zealand.

How Point Spreads Work

In most sports matches there will be a team that is favoured to win and another, known as the underdog, who is less likely to win. If sports’ betting was this straight forward, punters would just place large wagers on the favoured team to win and reap the rewards. This is where spread betting comes in as point spreads are put in place to level the playing field of both teams with a handicap.

When Kiwi punters are browsing their favourite online bookmakers for wagers on an upcoming match, they will most likely come across wagers that look something like this: team a -6 and team b +6, where minus denotes the favoured team, and the plus denotes the underdog. If you believe team a, the favoured team, can win the game by more than 6 points, then you would place a wager on team a. If you believe team b may not win the game, but can close the gap and not lose by more than 6 points then you would place a wager on team b. It is quite common for a team to not win a match, but to still win the spread handicap, and inversely for a team to win a match overall, but to not win the spread.

Spread Betting How-To

The best way for punters to ensure success when participating in spread betting, is to be well-acquainted with the teams playing a match. If you’re a serious fan and have a favourite team, you will most likely already know a lot about the playing style of the team, and their winning margin. However, if you want to place spread betting wagers on teams you aren’t familiar with, the good news is that there is a wealth of information available online for you to acquaint yourself with.

A little bit of research can go a long way, and the best guesses are educated ones. Take a look at the winning margins of teams, or the margin of loss, and if the team has been matched up recently, you can look at the exact final scores of the previous match.

Popular Sports for Spread Betting

The most popular field sports in New Zealand are rugby, cricket and football, and fortunately for Kiwi punters, these sports offer excellent opportunities for spread betting. If you’re new to sports betting, the best advice is to start low and slow and as more betting confidence is gained, increase the size of wagers, and make riskier bets. Riskier bets will always see better odds, as odds are calculated on the likelihood of a team winning a match.