Spread betting: you don't need to stick to finance

It's the summer sporting season. Wimbledon and the World Cup may have just ended, but the US Open isn't far off. Meanwhile there's horse racing and the cricket to keep punters busy.

For budding spread betters it's worth remembering just how many ways there are to place bets. For example, if football is your thing, did you know you can bet not just on the number of goals and corners, but also the total of the shirt numbers of goal scorers? And why stop there when you could also place bets on which team has most of the play, the number of cards doled out and even the performance of a named group of players?

For cricket fans, there's the number of runs scored by a team of course. But how about the runs scored by a named batsman, or the wickets taken by your favourite bowler, the number of catches taken in a game, or the opening partnership runs total?

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Formula 1 fans, meanwhile, might like to go for the number of finishers in a race or the winning margin in seconds rather than just, say, the number of driver points racked up by Jenson Button over a season.

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Be warned though fun as some of these bets are, they can easily backfire that's why it's called betting. So keep your stake per point small. And if you don't like the bets on offer from one spread betting firm, hunt around and see whether rivals are offering a different spread.