Spread betting — whether on financial markets through Spreadex or IG, or on sports through the same providers — is a product where your profit or loss is determined by how far the outcome moves from the spread. Buy a football team's total shots at 13 and they get 20 shots; you win 7 units times your stake per point. Buy them and they get 6 shots; you lose 7 units times your stake per point. There is no cap on the loss.
The Unlimited Loss Problem
Most experienced spread bettors have a story about the time they forgot to set a stop loss, or the time the market moved against them overnight, or the time a single position caused a loss they hadn't mentally accounted for. Spread betting is a powerful product with a genuinely dangerous risk profile that is not always adequately communicated to new users.
A YES share on Boromarket has a maximum loss of the price paid (e.g. 60¢). It cannot go below 0 or above 1. The loss is capped at entry. This is not a limitation — it's a fundamental design feature that makes position sizing rational.
When Spread Betting Might Still Make Sense
- →Financial spread betting is tax-free in the UK — this matters for active traders
- →It offers very tight spreads on major financial indices and currency pairs
- →The leverage allows positions well beyond the stake amount
- →For experienced risk managers with proper stop-loss discipline, the product works
For sports prediction? The unlimited-loss structure is almost never appropriate. Prediction markets give you the same intellectual exercise of forming a probability view, with a far more rational risk structure. The two serve different purposes, and for most bettors, the prediction market architecture is the correct choice.