More than any other sport, horse racing is synonymous with fixed odds betting. Yet that’s not the only, or even best, way to approach a meeting. Especially when Spreadex has you covered with a smorgasbord of different in-play and special spread betting markets.

Case in point the Cheltenham Festival – the Grade 1-filled event is the perfect opportunity to take a look at how spread betting can work for you.

On all 28 races Spreadex offers Index spreads. That’s where 50 points are awarded for 1st place, 25 points for 2nd place and 10 points for 3rd place if there are 11 runners or fewer, and 50 points for 1st place, 30 points for 2nd place, 20 points for 3rd place and 10 points for 4th place in a race with 12 runners or more.

For example, back in 2014 Lord Windermere headed into the Gold Cup at a lowly Index spread of 3-5. His legendary shock victory meant if you’d bought him at that price you would have made 45 times your initial stake. That’s more than double the winnings made if you backed Lord Windermere at his starting fixed odds price of 20/1.

Spread betting also allows you to bet against the favourite – and there’s no greater example of that than the infamous 2015 Mares’ Hurdle. The Willie Mullins stable had already sent out 3 winners, so plenty of combination bets were praying for a victory for the odds-on Annie Power.

It looked like it was going to be a dark day for bookmakers, with Ruby Walsh riding the mare to the front of the pack. Then the horse fell at the last, a moment described as the ‘£50 million fall’ for how much it saved terrified bookies. If you were one of the savvy punters to sell Annie Power at an Index spread of 35-38, however, you could have made 35 times your initial stake.

But spread betting doesn’t just let you bet on individual races. Spreadex have a host of special prices on the festival as a whole.

The Festival Favourites spread covers all 28 races, and awards 25 points if the favourite comes in 1st, 10 points if it comes in 2nd and 5 points if it comes in 3rd. Back in 2016, this meant that if you bought at a starting spread of 252-262, a favourite-heavy festival left you with 38 times your original bet thanks to a make-up of 300.

Fancy focusing on Winning Distances? Back in 2014 – when there were still only 27 races – if you had sold a Festival Winning Distance spread of 100-110, you could have made 45.3 times your initial stake thanks to a series of close races producing a make-up of just 54.7. To show how much it can go the other way, the 1st day of the 2019 festival alone saw a Winning Distance make-up of 52.5.

Perhaps best of all is the Launch! market – that’s where the biggest winning fixed odds Starting Price of the festival is multiplied by the biggest winning distance of any race.

Just last year there was the biggest SP winner for 12 years, as Croco Bay won at 66/1 in the festival’s penultimate race. Multiple that number by Tiger Roll’s 22 lengths victory in the Cross Country Chase, and you have a Launch! make-up of 1452. Against an opening spread of 630-650, that’s a potential 802 times your original bet.

And that’s just a taste – Spreadex also has Biggest Winning SP, Festival Winning Distances (28), Biggest Winning Distance, Jockey Index spreads and more!