Spread Betting is not complicated. Like driving a car, many people decide that it is too difficult without even giving it a try. In fact, once the simple concept has been grasped, it becomes extremely easy to understand.

The Spread Betting Firm makes a prediction on a particular aspect of a sporting event, such as how many goals will be scored in a game of football. You simply decide whether our prediction is too high or too low. If you think that we are spot on, you don't bet. It's that simple.

Remember Bruce Forsyth's, 'Play Your Cards Right'? The basic concept is exactly the same. "Higher Higher! Lower! Lower! The amount you win or lose depends on how right or wrong you are.

With a basic understanding of this concept, spread betting is easy to understand. Never lose sight of that image of Bruce Forsyth gesturing to the audience on whether a contestant should go higher or lower. He could say, "Sporting Index reckon England will score 250 runs", 'what do you reckon? "higher or lower?" Every time we make a prediction we are asking you the same question.

When you choose to challenge one of our predictions, you must decide the size of your betting stake. The amount you win or lose depends on the size of your stake multiplied by how correct or how wrong you are.

Let's say that we predict that there will be 3 goals in a football match. You reckon that there will be more so you bet higher with a stake of £10 for every goal above 3.

If there were 5 goals in the game, you would have won (5 - 3) x your stake = 2 x £10 = £20. If only 2 goals had been scored in the game, you would have lost (3 - 2) x your stake = 1 x £10 = £10.