Ladbrokes has officially launched its long-anticipated spreadbetting service, developed by WorldSpreads.com.

The Ladbrokes Financial Spreads offering operates on a dual platform giving both new and experienced traders the option of using a service specifically tailored to their needs.

Unlike some services already operational in the market Ladbrokes Financial Spreads offers the ability to limit losses to the amount they deposited in their Ladbrokes account by using the “Standard Platform”.

Other advantages of the Standard Platform include free guaranteed stops, spreads from one point and the ability to buy or sell movements such as the day change on any one of the 18 most popular indices and currencies including UK100, Dax, Wall Street and Nasdaq.

An experienced spread bettor can switch to the ‘Advanced Platform’ which has features including trailing stops to enable automatic management of your account.

The Advanced Platform also enables spread bettors to trade using ‘Contingent Orders’ where a trade is not activated until another separate order is executed (for example a buy order is not triggered until a separate sell order is completed).

With the Advanced Platform a spread bettor can also be both long and short in the same market at the same time. The range of markets also extends beyond the leading indices to stock prices of the UK top 100 and 250 as well as leading Irish, European, US and South African companies. It is also possible to bet on the futures of these markets.

Ladbrokes has around 765,000 active customers on its sports book and the new spread betting service is aimed at appealing to both new and existing customers seeking an easy to understand financial spread betting service.

John O’Reilly, managing director of Ladbrokes Remote Betting and Gaming said that Ladbrokes customers now have the option of spread betting using a choice of platforms tailored to their level of experience and knowledge.

He added, ‘We are committed to offering our customers the widest possible range of betting and gaming opportunities and financial spread betting is the latest demonstration of that commitment.’

Ladbrokes Financial Spreads is also offering customers up to £300 cashback on net losses made in the first eight weeks of opening a spread betting account.