I have a couple of spreadbetting accounts but only use them for a system where I am not big enough to trade the real futures contracts. The advantage of sb is small size (and tax free for UK'ers but not the rest of us). The disadvantage is punitive spreads.
So it seems to me that the goal for a spread better is to get good enough trading despite the spreads to be able to move to size and doing the same thing with futures or stocks. So, my goal would be to be the Market Wizard who most appealed to me.