People have been betting on sport for as long as others have been playing it. And just as sporting pursuits have advanced greatly in both number and technology, so have the options for the punter, making for a far more engaging experience.

Spread betting is an exhilarating way for the sports fan to add financial spice to armchair enjoyment, but, in order to get the biggest “bang for your buck”, it is worth taking time to understand this business before launching right in.

Sporting Index – the UK’s leading sports spread betting bookmaker – hosts an online interactive tutorial and demo that acts as a thorough introduction to spread betting so you can fully understand the rules and risks before getting involved. There’s also a “play for fun” area that gives users a chance to try out spread betting without depositing real funds, meaning that first time spread punters can safely learn the ropes.

Like all sports betting, the spreads require someone to make an informed prediction about the outcome of a sporting event. But whereas traditional fixed odds betting usually requires an either/or decision – either England beat South Africa or they don’t; either Kevin Pietersen hits a century or he doesn’t – spread betting is a question of: “How much?”

Sporting Index will first offer their prediction on the outcome, known as the “spread”, and the bettor needs to use their sporting nous to decide whether they think they can beat the bookie and predict whether the actual result will be higher or lower than this figure (or range). The bookmakers will say, for instance, that England will beat the Proteas by two tests, or that KP will score between 42 and 46 in the first innings of the final Test, and it is then down to the punter to seize on any perceived error, and back their judgment with hard cash.

Here’s where spread betting gets truly interesting, and the adrenaline starts flowing, because the amount won or lost depends directly on how right, or how wrong, the bettor turns out to be.

For example, Sporting Index might predict that the first wicket in England’s first innings in the first test will be lost in the 20th over and consequently set a spread of 19-21 overs.

One client who believes there is bound to be an early wicket goes low (sells) at 19 overs while another who thinks that the South African attack is looking impotent goes high (buys) at 21 overs. If Dale Steyn takes the first wicket in the fifth over, the punter who went low at 19 overs wins 14 times his stake (19 overs take away 5 overs = 14) while the client who went high at 21 overs loses 16 times his stake.

You can back both ends of a spread (“buying” or “selling”) and bookmakers will offer spread markets on all manner of outcomes: total wides, an aggregate of all players’ half centuries or the total number of sixes for a player, team or series, for example. So even if your team is on the end of a drubbing, or their night watchman just won’t budge the next day, spread betting can capture the imagination and liven up even the dullest encounters.

As the original sports spread betting bookmakers, Sporting Index also invented in-play betting, which means that punters need not wait until the resolution of a fixture to settle their bets. Money can banked by locking in a profit if a bet is going well, or losses cut if it’s not and it looks like things can only get worse.

The Sporting Index website is the place for both experienced bettors and novices to find out more about spread betting, and is where they will find a range of introductory member special offers and free bets. It’s also the only website to offer spread betting and poker under one roof. And if you fancy studying the form on the move, then Sporting Index has a mobile service, in 2007 E Gaming voted it mobile operator of the year.

To find out more, visit the Sporting Index website.