Take City Index's intriguing range of markets for the Ashes Tests, starting tomorrow. In ``Is he Warne out?'' you can gauge how many overs the great leg spinner will bowl in the series. City Index's guide is 140-150. If you think it will be more you ``buy'' for say £1 an over. Suppose he finishes up bowling 200, you collect £50, though if he bowls 100, you owe £50. Unfortunately, if he does bowl 200, Australia will probably have retained the Ashes.
For the less statistically minded there's ``Caught in the Shade'', the number of catches taken in the five Tests by fielders wearing sunglasses (City Index spread 65-70.) Or, for the first Test only, ``Put a Cork in it'' where you try to predict the number of unsuccessful appeals by Dominic Cork (10-12). Maybe they could create an additional market in this field for Geoff Boycott.
A player 12,000 miles from Australia also features, but it is not our Geoffrey. ``Wish you were 'ere Tuffers'' prompts punters to estimate the number of runs conceded by the England spinners, Robert Croft and Peter Such, before they take a wicket. The current spread, 75-85, seems a bit conservative considering England's spinners took only two wickets last summer costing 508. (Phil Tufnell hasn't played a Test since last winter.)
Sporting Index, the leading spread-betting firm in sport, offer the usual variety of indices for the Ashes including highest team score in the series (520-535), number of ducks (21-23), and ``Floppy Tails'' - how many runs England and Australia's tail-enders will make in the five Tests. This is an area which could decide the series. The estimate for Australia's lower order (480-500) is predictably higher than England's (400-420), even though Tufnell and Devon Malcolm are not involved.
It is 20 years since Jonathan Spark, bon viveur and bookmaker's son, conjured up spread betting at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Frustrated by the limitations of the French tote, he and a friend invented a market betting on horses' winning distances and took the idea back to the City, offering spreads on the FTSE price at the end of the day.
The idea soon extended into sport, inviting people to guess the total points in a rugby international, or how many runs would be made in the morning session of a Test match. If the scoring rate is rather high and then play is continually delayed just before lunch by well-heeled gentleman moving about behind the bowler's arm, you'll know why.
There are now 32,000 spread bets a week but while the concept could be vulnerable to manipulation, there are some smart, knowledgable people working behind the scenes. The recently retired Graham Cowdrey, youngest son of Colin, is in Brisbane as City Index's hands-on analyst for the first Test, and Nick Pocock, the former Hampshire captain, is at the heart of Sporting Index's operation.
``Spread betting certainly seems to attract a different type of punter,'' Pocock says. ``People are more interested in the number of corners in a game, or how many times Duncan Ferguson heads the ball, than the actual result. We have one client who bets on the time of the first away goal in every televised match. After its been scored, he just switches off.
``It can be a precarious business. Our No 1 disaster was Brian Lara's 375. His aggregate for the series was already beyond our spread, so every boundary he hit in that innings cost us £1,500. He hit 60 of them. But we have some fun, too. It certainly doesn't feel like bookmaking. Actually, my mother still thinks my work is something to do with libraries.''