First Impression

SportingIndex appears to be a London-based company with a wide array of sports to bet on. With a comprehensive "who are we?" and "why bet with us?" section, comprehensive information is given on why SportingIndex is a great sportsbook to wager your money with. SportingIndex says they have a 60% market share of sportsbook betting online,making it one of the more reputable sites...let' see if they are as reputable as they claim!

Online Research

There are hundreds of pages that recommend SportingIndex for sports spread betting. However, a reputable site gave it a C+ rating. This doesn't show any consistency. Let's get to the bottom of this.

Spread Betting

Spread betting is perhaps one of the most extravagant forms of betting. For the uninitiated, the bookmakers make a prediction. For example, in a football match they predict there will be 2.4 to 2.7 goals. If there are 3 goals, a $17 stake wins back $5.10 (3.0-2.7 x $17 stake) if you buy (go high) and loses $10.20 (2.4-3.0 x $17 stake) if you sell (go low). Spread betting is considerably easier to do than it is to explain, and SportingIndex 's innovative "training ground" allows users to find this out for themselves.

So that spread betting does not merely cover outlandish bets, SportingIndex uses a system (in cricket, for example) of awarding 25 points for a win, 10 for a draw or 0 for a loss. A side quoted at 16-17.5 on the win index would therefore be strong favorites. In this way, spread betting is opened up to a wider audience than those who are interested in the amount of throw-ons in a match.

Navigation

Once you've understood the system, you can choose the sport you wish to bet on from a menu bar down the left hand side of the screen. You then choose the event you are betting on and this gives you the option of all events (this will vary from simply picking the winner, to a range of options including the amount of corners, goals, points or yellow cards in a particular match).

Audience

SportingIndex has opened up a niche for itself in spread betting. Their range of sports attracts mainly a British audience and the token coverage of European and US sport suggests that they realize that most mainstream US sites contain enough point spread options to keep most bettors happy.

Registration

If you are going to follow SportingIndex 's motto and "ake your passion play," then you do, of course, have to sign up. This is a simple and reliable process, which takes place in a pop-up box (which annoys some people, but is generally a matter of taste). In the first step you enter your personal details. In the second you enter your bank details and make an initial deposit. In the third you confirm and complete your registration. This process is intuitive, fast and reliable.

The "my account" bar is similarly easy to use. The options of account balance, deposit, withdrawal, account history, changing card details and changing passwords all do exactly what you'd expect.

>Bottom Line

Herein lies the key to SportingIndex : It covers a type of betting you don't expect, in a manner you do expect. Everything seems to work efficiently and even if it doesn't the competent helpline should dig you out of any mess - unless you get caught out in the kind of big way that only spread betting allows!