Fringe betting

Fringe betting is usually a term used to describe betting on non-sporting events, which aren’t the normal fare of the gambling public.

There are a number of different categories into which this type of bet could fall, each of which is useful to the betting companies either in terms of revenue, publicity, or simply to attract new punters through their doors.

Fringe bets are either offered with ready-made odds, where there is likely to be a demand from the public for the market, or as a customised offer to one particular individual. For instance, it is not uncommon for a parent to bet on their child to be World Champion or to represent England at International level in a particular sporting endeavour.

Since the markets for customised fringe bets are not always clearly established, it is vital to ensure that the wording of your bet is absolutely clear, as disputes are likely to occur otherwise. Some open-ended bets may also have time limits associated with them, which may not necessarily be made clear by the bookmaker at the outset, so you should check the bookmaker’s rules for non-sporting events.

Political betting – Elections have long been the subject of widespread betting, with the UK General and local elections, Euro, US presidential and other elections all seeing a slice of the action when the time comes.

Social – This would encompass things such as betting on the New Year Honours list, or other bets that relate to some topical story from the world of current affairs.

Awards – Hardly a month goes by without some sort of awards ceremony. Whether it is the BAFTAs, the Oscars, the Brits, the MTV awards, the Grammys, the Emmys, the Golden Globes or even the Darwin awards. It is now possible to be on almost all of these.

TV – The number of competition-based reality TV shows has opened up a big new selection of betting opportunities to the public, which are proving quite popular. Big Brother, Survivor, I’m a Celebrity, Pop Idols, Pop Rivals, Fame Academy, Touch The Truck, Shattered, Temptation Island – the list goes on and on.

Novelty – There are some historically popular bets that would fall into this category, such as the possibility of finding life on Mars, the chances of it being a white Christmas, or the existence of the Loch Ness Monster. Many companies also offer novelty sporting bets when a major event is occurring, to try and attract business. For instance you might get offered odds on an English player scoring a hole-in-one during the Ryder Cup, or odds on which team will pick up the most yellow and red cards during the European Championships. Some novelty bets are offer-linked, so you might for instance get offered a free £10 bet if Arsenal get a player sent of in a big game.

Numbers betting – Numbers betting is a form of fixed odds betting based on the numbers drawn in one of the many overseas lotteries, numbers drawn by the betting companies themselves, but not so far the main UK National Lottery itself. As with lotto, you are required to pick a selection of numbers and hope to match them with the ones drawn in the actual event. There is no jackpot or pool of money as such – you are simply paid out according to how many numbers you predict and how many of them come up. As with the actual lottery, the payouts are considerably less than the true chance of your selection coming up, making these a fairly inefficient way of gambling, but one that does offer a minute chance of a massive win from a tiny stake.

Economic betting – It is possible to bet on a whole host of economic indices directly, though this type of bet is more commonly found on offer from spread betting companies. You can bet on the level of the FTSE 100 index at a particular time, the next decision of the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee, the direction of inflation and the Land Registry’s records of the housing market.

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