International football friendlies – particularly involving England – are not often known for being high octane, adrenalin-fuelled affairs.

When there’s no trophy to be won or qualification to be secured, players can seem more interested in avoiding injury and returning safe and sound to their high-paying clubs rather than giving all they’ve got for their country.

Although with Luke Shaw blabbering to his mum down the phone after getting his Three Lions call up and with places up for grabs ahead of the World Cup, there may be more passion on show than usual for tomorrow night’s England v Denmark friendly at Wembley.

Even so this seems the perfect opportunity to investigate ways of making international football friendlies more exciting – namely by explaining more about how spread betting differs from traditional fixed odds betting.

How does spread betting differ to fixed odds betting?

If you’ve landed on this page, it’s probably safe to assume you’re partial to a little wager on the football, whether at club or international level.

So you’ll know with experience how a trifling bet on the result of a game, the first scorer, the score at half time or even the number of corners can create added interest in dull encounters.

However, there’s still plenty more excitement to be had away from the fixed odds and in-play markets you will doubtless already be familiar with thanks to a wealth of spread betting markets for you to plunder.

As with any football bet, the bookmaker or spread betting company will make a prediction based on their mathematical analysis of the probability of particular events occurring during the game.

Whilst a traditional booker maker will then offer a fixed odds bet, spread betting offers the bettor precisely that; a ‘spread’ on which you can choose to go ‘higher’ or ‘lower’ depending on how you think that particular outcome will end up.

So if Spreadex is quoting the number of corners between Wales and Iceland tomorrow night to be between 10.2 – 10.7 you would buy (go higher) if you thought that 11 or more corners would end up being taken, or sell (go lower) if you thought that 10 or less corners would end up being taken.

Is spread betting more exciting than fixed odds betting?

In fixed odds betting you win a multiple of your stake based on the odds – 3/1, 5/2, 6/1, etc. or lose your initial stake. In a spread bet, the amount you win or lose is calculated based upon the number of points your bet ends either above or below the spread multiplied by your stake size.

So the more accurate your prediction, the more you win. But remember if your bet goes against you, you can lose many multiples of your original stake size.

So for example, if Spreadex quote Bookings between Spain and Italy tomorrow night at 17-20 it effectively means the bookie thinks there will be two bookings in the game (market based on 10 points per yellow card and 25 per red with a maximum of 35 per player).

But if you feel that tempers could well become frayed during a clash between two competitive sides you may decide to buy £2 a point at 20. Let’s say the match turns out to be highly charged and there ends up being four bookings and a sending off, then the market would ‘make-up’ at 65. The bet would win £90 ((65 – 20) x £2). However if the game ended as a tippy-tappy affair and there were no bookings whatsoever, your original £2 bet would lose £40 ((0 – 20) x £2).

What are the risks?

With spread betting, the more right you are, the more money you win; but conversely, the more wrong you are, the more you will lose. It’s also important to recognise that some markets are much more volatile than others so you should take particular care to weigh up the benefits and potential pitfalls of placing a spread bet before you do so.

For example a £10 bet on Total Goal Minutes is far more riskier than a £10 bet on Total Goals. I.e. a £10 Total Goal Minutes buy at 121 for Poland v Scotland tomorrow night would potentially lose £1,210 if the game ended scoreless whereas a £10 Total Goals buy at 2.35 in the same game would potentially lose £23.50 if the game ended 0-0.

By contrast if the game ended 3-3 with Total Goal Minutes making up at 350 then those two £10 bets would each win £2,290 ((350 – 121) x £10) and £36.50 ((6 – 2.35) x £10) respectively.

As you can see, there is potential to get it very right, or very wrong, so always exercise caution and choose your stake based on an amount you can afford to lose.