"Rien ne va plus!". "No more bets!" There you are again at the roulette table, relying on luck and chance for a better payout, for a chance to earn more than what you put in. Your eyes are set on the wheel, and your ears are tuned to the sound of the dealer's voice. "This time, I just cannot lose", is the mantra playing in your head. Without a single estranged thought on your mind besides what's in front of you, you hold your breath as that anticipated second is approaching.

"Spread betting" is a type of wager in which the pay-out is decided on the accuracy of the bet, not on a traditional "win or lose" outcome (so called "moneyline betting"). A "spread" is a range of outcomes, and the bet is whether or not the outcome will be above or below the spread. Spread betting is used in various types of wagering, including horses, football, basketball, baseball and even finance.

Spread betting was developed to make both sides of a bet favourable. Usually, bettors will place their money on the favourite of the game, and this causes an unbalanced betting economy which makes business difficult for sportsbooks. Spread betting redresses this balance by making the underdog also a favourable option. From a bettors perspective, this means you now have twice as many options when deciding where to lay your money.

Successful spread betting comes from making accurate bets (hence, "all in the wrist...", get it?). By making sure you do plenty of background research and get good value from your bets, you stay on top of the game. Let's look at an example and see how this works when a sportsbook advertises a point spread bet of 5 on an upcoming game.

If you bet on the underdog, you win if their score plus the spread is greater than the favourites score, eg. Underdog 4, Favourite 6. The underdog's score (4) plus the spread (5) is 9, which is greater than the favourites score (6), so you win.

If you bet on the favourite, they must win the game by at least the spread, eg. Underdog 2, Favourite 10. The favourite's score (10) minus the spread (5) is 5, which is still greater than the underdog's score (2), so you win.

Put simply, if you think the underdogs have a good chance of coming close to the favourite's score (within the spread), bet on the underdog. If you think the favourite will beat the underdog by a large margin (greater than the spread), bet on the favourite. Of course, this is where the background research part of spread betting comes into play - you have to know the teams and the league well enough to be able to make educated and accurate guesses as to the outcome.

The better your judgement, the better your chances. There's no substitute for knowing the game and the teams inside out before you start spread betting.

Finding the right betting lines helps too. If you can get good value on your bets, it may be worth taking extra risk. Also, look around at several different online sportsbooks before you start placing any spread bets, so you can pick the offers with the best payout odds. If you see a spread of 5 with odds of 2:1 on one site, and the same spread with odds of 4:1 on another, you've doubled your potential profit without any extra risk.