What Spread Betting Is Now
According to White Paper on Spread Betting by Chris Brady and Richard Ramyar of Cass Business School; today of the £1.2 trillion traded annually on the London Stock Exchange, it is estimated that 40% is equity derivative related. It is estimated that 10% of the total figure relates to spread betting, making the annual UK spread bet consideration about 120 billion per annum. In the UK the financial spread betting industry relies mainly on internet users as 76% of the 29 millions adult internet users admit to placing a bet online or offline (Forrester, 24th May2006).
Spread betting is now introduced on mobile phones; investors can now place their bets even when they’re on the move through spread betting applications on their mobile phones, investors can access Watch Lists, charts, place orders or even open or close trades.
The spread betting industry is predominant by white male and affluent internet users who are under 45 years old. Not many pensioners are attracted by this financial trading, therefore the spread betting companies will have to cater for this category in the future. Women still compose just a small margin of spread bettors despite efforts on improving in this category, however the number of female clients has been growing on a 10% yearly basis and it is now 300 times the number that joined when the spread betting was introduced.