International football spread betting on Scotland v England

Scotland host England for the first time in 15 years when the Auld Enemy do battle in a ‘friendly’ at Celtic Park in Glasgow.

So, with passions sure to be running high when the sides to go head-to-head, what should punters look out for when spread betting on the match?

Here we highlight five points to consider ahead of the big game.



1. Spread betting on Bookings
There’s no such thing as a friendly when Scotland and England clash, so the most obvious bet to immediately spring to mind will be the number of yellow or red cards to be dished out.
The last time the sides met in Scotland was a 2-0 Euro Championship qualifier win for England at Hampden Park in November 1999 when both sides picked up five yellow cards each.
When spread betting on football, the Bookings market is based on 10 points awarded per yellow card and 25 per red with a maximum of 35 per player.
So that heated clash mentioned above, settled by a Paul Scholes brace, saw the spread betting Bookings market make up at 100 (10 x 10).
On a pre-match Bookings quote of 46 – 50, a £5 buy at 50 would have made £250 based on that make up ((100 – 50) x £5).
However, had there been no yellow or red cards handed out at all, that £5 buy at 50 would have lost £250 ((0 – 50) x £5).



2. Shirt Numbers spread betting
One of the most popular football spread betting markets to bet on is the shirt number of any goalscorers in a match, aggregated. So if the number nine scores a hat-trick in a 3-0 win, this market would settle at 27.
With many club scorers wearing high shirt numbers these days (such as Diego Costa wearing number 19 at Chelsea, Alexis Sanchez 17 at Arsenal and Sergio Aguero 16 at Manchester City), Shirt Numbers can often result in some high make ups.
However, the thing to remember with international football spread betting is that the starting 11 always wear numbers one to 11 in the traditional manner, meaning shirt numbers will usually end up lower than in club football.
That said, the last meeting between the sides at Wembley in August last year saw Shirt Numbers make up at 52 after Rickie Lambert, wearing 20, came off the bench to nod the winner.



3. Spread betting on Total Goals
Another market favoured by football spread betters is the classic Total Goals spread – simply electing to go higher or lower than the spread betting companies’ predicted goals quote for the match, depending on whether you think it will be high scoring or low scoring affair.
With the exception of last year’s clash, England v Scotland games have tended to be close, low-scoring affairs in general.
In the 10 matches played before the 3-2 game there were a total of just 16 goals scored, so an average of just 1.6 per game, meaning sellers of Total Goals in Auld Enemy clashes have come out on top more often than buyers.
It’s worth remembering that playing the Total Goals market is one of the less volatile options when it comes to football spread betting. If you buy on a spread of 2.8 – 3 for example, your worst case scenario is to lose three times your stake if the game ends 0-0.
And if you sell at 2.8 you’d have to be pretty unlucky to lose more than four times your stake as you’d need seven goals to be scored in total in the match for this to happen – something which hasn’t happened in an England v Scotland game since 1966 when England won 4-3 at Hampden Park.



4. Goal Supremacy spread betting
The football spread betting equivalent to traditional Match Odds betting is called the Goal Supremacy market.
This is where the spread betting companies put out how many goals they think one team will beat another team by.
The spread here is based on a fraction of a goal, for example England/Scotland (h) 0.2 – 0.4. Obviously you can’t score a fraction of a goal so the market will only ever make up at a round number depending on the final score – but take note that this can also have a negative make up if the underdog should win the match.
In terms of playing the Goal Supremacy market for next week’s clash, this could be more difficult than usual to predict.
England have won eight of the last 12 meetings between the sides and Scotland just two, however Gordon Strachan’s men have been in great form recently with just one defeat in their last nine matches and that coming away at World Champions Germany.
So at Spreadex we are expecting plenty of support for the Tartan Army from spread betters.



5. Spread betting on Corners
If you can’t decide who you think will end up winning the game or on how many goals or bookings there will be, then you can always play the Corners market.
Quite simply this is deciding whether to go higher or lower than the spread betting firms’ predictions on the number of corners to be taken in the match.
You can also bet on the number of corners to be taken by each team, how many more corners one team will take than another, Cross-Corners (Team A’s corners multiplied by Team B’s corners), Multicorners (first half corners multiplied by second half corners) or Corners Squared (number of corners taken in a game, squared).
When it comes to earning corners in matches, England and Scotland couldn’t be more different.
England’s last 10 games have seen Roy Hodgson’s men take 77 (so an average of 7.7 per game) while Scotland have managed just 28 (so 2.8 per game).