Index Wagering Explained
Written by Wheretobet.com
Mon, 2 Jul 2007
Category sportsbook
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What is Index Wagering?
Index Wagering is the new face on the gambling scene. It evolved nearly 30 years ago as a way for over-paid City Boys to blow their bonuses on sporting events as well as the stock market. Now though, its popularity with the general public is going through the roof. And it’s neither as scary nor as difficult to understand as you might think.
The basic premise is that the bookie looks at an event, predicts what he thinks the outcome will be and then offers a ‘Index’ based on that figure. You then decide whether you think the result will be higher or lower than their guess.
How does Index Wagering work?
IG Index may predict the England cricket team will score 250 runs, so they offer a Index of 240-260 runs (if the actual score falls within that range they win regardless – it’s a way of them absorbing UK betting tax into their prices without making the client pay it. But they rarely get it bang on).
In this example, you have to decide if you think England will score more than 260 or less than 240. If you think they will score more than 260 you “buy” at 260 and stand to win one times your stake for every run more than 260 that England make. If you think they will score less than 240, you “sell” at 240 and win one times your stake for every run short of 240 that England finish. The main thing to remember is you always buy at the higher number in the Index and sell at the lower one.
If you predict wrong, you lose – in this example, one times your stake for every run over 240/under 260.
Let’s say England actually make 275. If you bought for a stake of £1 per run, you’d be right by 15 runs, and so would win £15. If you’d sold, you’d be quite badly wrong, and would lose a pound for every run you were out – £35. Unlike fixed odds betting, you don’t know how much you could win or lose when you place the bet – it depends on how accurate you are.