As a spreads punter you generally sum up a bet by looking at the potential upside versus what you consider a worst case scenario. A spread bet has a maximum win or loss to it but unlike a fixed odds bet your profit or loss will vary depending on how right or wrong you are.

This weekend for example I decided to have a bet on France against Australia and went high on the French at 2 for a fairly substantial stake (in spreads your stake is the rand value of each point) and I was to start making money with a French win by 3 with every point over this adding to my profits. The downside of course (and I can imagine those of you who know the result shedding a quiet tear already) is that should Australia stay within 2 points or win the game I would lose the value of my stake for each point I was out.

I did not see either side beating the other by more than 10-15 points and I settled down to watch expecting a regular test match and hoping for a 7 to 10 point profit on the French. Just after half time they led 16-13 and if you had told me that 35 minutes later I would be reflecting on one of my biggest single match losses ever I would have thought you were crazy.

In sport the impossible can happen though and I sat in a dazed stupor as Australia ran in try after try to win by a massive 43 points which meant I had lost the absolute maximum of 40 units on the game.

As I sat on the couch pinching myself in the hope of waking from the nightmare I realised that after 10 months of solid rugby spread betting I needed a break. While I only bet what I can afford the pressure of the spreads roller coaster should not be underestimated and as I trudged off to bed I made the decision to take an extended break retuning only in February for the Six Nations and Super 15.

Of course this decision is made easier by the fact that the rugby season is essentially finished but irrespective of that I think it is time to give my punting brain a break and reflect on a good year that unfortunately ended on a low note. 

This article was written for the CitiGaming supplement of the Citizen Newspaper and was first published on the 2nd of December 2010.

Brent Graham is a blogger on www.goodforthegame.co.za and presents a sports betting radio show every Thursday night from 22h00 – 22h30 on 1485AM Radio Today or Channel 169 of the DSTV Audio Bouquet and to get on his free weekly e-mail list just send a message to brent@goodforthegame.co.za titled “Best Bets”.

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