Betting article has small spreads (5)

I believe the answer is:

spans

'spreads' is the definition.

'betting article has small' is the wordplay.
'betting' becomes 'sp'.
'article' becomes 'an' (indefinite article).
'has' says to put letters next to each other.
'small' becomes 's' (abbreviation - e.g. clothes size).
'sp'+'an'+'s'='SPANS'

I've seen this clue in The Mirror.

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