Lay betting is the opposite to ‘traditional’ betting. With lay betting, you bet on a team not to win instead of backing them to win. Lay bets can only be placed at an online betting exchange, like Betfair. This guide will show you how important lay betting is to the matched betting process and how it’s not as complicated as it sounds!

What is a lay bet?

Lay betting is an option on a betting exchange which allows gamblers to play the role of a traditional bookmaker. You set the odds of the bet, and you potentially win the backer’s stake if the selection loses. If the selection wins, you lose the backers stake multiplied by the price of the selection (minus the stake amount).

Lay betting explained

You’ll often see people asking what lay betting is. On first impressions, it can look complex – but it really isn’t. A simplistic way to think about it, is that when you place a lay bet on a selection, you are betting on it not to win.

This is a particularly relevant bet to make in a market that has 3 or more selections. Take a horse race as an example.

You enter the figures into the hedging calculator above and you're able to go right back to the betting exchange to back the draw for £60.94 in order to bank £39.06 profit (less commission). Another common lay the draw exit strategy is to exit a trade at 2.00 around the 65-70 minute mark in order to cut a loss.

• To place either a back or lay bet there has to be an event of some sort taking place to be able to bet on. The most common events are sporting events like a football match against two teams. Back bets and lay bets can both be placed on the run up and also during the even taking place.
• What is a Lay Bet? A lay bet is a process where, in making 2 separate transactions, a bettor can minimise risk and potentially maximise profit off an original bet.This technique can be used for a variety of reasons, including minimising risk when odds change, or to place qualifying bets with sportsbook in order to receive promotions in the future.

Your best friend’s dad has a milkman that apparently knows the cousin of someone who cuts the hair of a famous jockey. The hot news is that a famous horse has come down with a mysterious illness.

You spot an opportunity to make some money. In the old days, this would be a very difficult process that involves backing all of the other horses in the market for varying amounts.

Thanks to lay betting though, you can take someone else’s bet on that horse. Just as long as that horse fails to win, you win. This can be seen in the below image, with the red number showing your potential loss if that selection wins, and the green numbers your potential win if those selections win the race. The horse with the £255 liability is the horse with the lay bet.

How to place a lay bet with Betfair

Now you know what a lay bet is, it’s time to learn how to place one. We’re going to show you step-by-step how to place a lay bet so you can take advantage of these benefits.

We’re using Betfair for our example, but the on screen layout at all betting exchanges is similar. What you will notice are two different boxes. The blue box is your traditional back bet, and the pink one a lay bet.

For the purpose of this example, we are going to show you how to place a lay bet on Paris Saint-Germain. Remember, this the same as backing Paris Saint-Germain not to win.

Once you click the pink box, the selection will show on the bet slip on the right hand side of the screen.

Once you add the selection to your bet slip, you can add the stake. This differs from a traditional bet, because you’re inputting the amount you wish to make available for punters to bet on. For example, just imagine you’re the bookmaker, this is the amount that the customer is going to hand you to place the bet.

The number circled below is your liability, and potential payout if the person taking your bet wins.

The formula to calculate this liability yourself is

So for the below example, that is:

1.08 – 1 = 0.08
£100 (stake) x 0.08 = £8

When you click on the ‘place bets’ button, the money will go into the market and is available for people to match. If there is someone who already has cash in the system at the same price, the exchange will match your bets immediately. Otherwise, you must wait for someone to take the price which you have offered.

If your lay bet wins, you’ll receive the £100, minus a commission of 5%. This is how our betting exchange of choice for this example, Betfair, make their money.

If your lay bet loses, you’ll be down your £8 liability.

How to place a lay bet with OddsMonkey

So we’ve shown you the basics of how to place a lay bet. But as we mentioned previously, lay betting is vital for matched bettors.

Matched betting is a process which turns bookmaker free bets into withdrawable cash, with little, or no risk.

This video will give you a great overview if you’re new to the idea of making risk-free cash.Because lay betting is important for matched bettors, OddsMonkey have teamed up with the number one betting exchange, Betfair, to make life so much simpler.

OddsMonkey have a tool which we call the OddsMatcher. It was developed to make finding suitable matched bets easier. Previously, this would be a long, frustrating process.

To get a better return with matched betting, you need to find an event where the bookmaker price is close to the exchange price. Our OddsMatcher tool scrapes the data from every bookmaker and betting exchange, and allows you to filter for suitable bets.

In the past, it was a point of reference only. You’d still need to go to the bookmaker and place a bet, and then repeat that process with the exchange. But time is of the essence in matched betting. Prices are constantly changing, so you need to be quick.

So what did we do? We spoke to Betfair, and with some technical wizardry, we integrated Betfair into our platform.

So now, when you’re placing your matched bets, we calculate the amount you need to lay, and the integrated tool places that lay bet with the click of a button!

The above tool also gives you the ‘what if’ calculations of your matched bet so you can see what your potential profit is.

Before now, the biggest risk with matched betting has been human error. But our integration of Betfair takes us one step closer to eliminating that risk altogether!

Back And Lay Betting

For more information on lay betting, head over to our ‘Free Guides’ section: https://www.oddsmonkey.com/matched-betting/free-guides/

RECOMMENDED

Compared to other betting sites, Betfair offers you interesting alternatives on the common betting system. They are known as “back”- and “lay”-bets and we will explain to you how you can use this betting system for your own purposes. This article shows you, step by step, how to place sports bets at betting exchanges like Betfair.

Now it’s time to explain how betting exchanges generally work, in comparison to normal bookmakers (here you can visit our bookie review section) work in generally. In figure 1 you can see a typical 3-way-bet market of the game Leicester City against Manchester United.

figure 1: 3 way bet market at betfair for Leicester vs Man United

What exactly is a “back”-bet?

First of all, at Betfair, “back”-bets and their odds are always marked in blue.

Secondly, a “back”-bet is practically a common sports bet where you put you stake on a certain outcome of a bet. You are betting FOR something. If you bet 10 Euros on Manchester United you win the amount of your stake times the odds.

In this example (figure 2): 10 Euros x 1.67 = 16.70 Euros, minus the amount of your stake of 10 Euros would make a clear profit of 6.70 Euros.

figure 2: see how it works placing a back bet on Man United

The only difference to a regular sports bet is that your bet is not against the book-maker but against another betting exchange-user (who has bet on a different outcome of the game in question). Additionally, as you see in Figure 1, the provider set a ceiling amount which you cannot over bet.

Attention:Bear in mind that Betfair charges a commission of up to 5 % from the profit of your bet; that means your account will only be credited with 95 % of the profit you generate. If you lose your bet you do not have to pay any commission.

figure 3: Betfair screen after placing a back bet on Manchester

What is “lay”-betting?

This is a bet where you don’t bet on a specific outcome of a game but you bet AGAINST it. To be exact, in this scenario you will hold the position of a book-maker. If you’re not happy with the odds offered, you can propose a bet to other users, and you decide at what odds you want to do so.

Here in Figure 3, you see how you set the odds you want to offer and also the maximum amount a so called Backer (your counterpart who buys your bet) can bet.

By offering a “lay”-bet you get a double chance bet. As you bet AGAINST Manchester United in our sample, you win your bet if Leicester City wins and also if they draw. Before you place a bet you can check the Premier League fixtures and results to see who is matching up.

figure 4: see how it works placing a lay bet against ManU

So now you sell your bet for 10 Euros at odds of 1.68. This means your betting account looks like this (see also in figure 5):

If the Leicester City wins you win 10 Euro
If they draw you win 10 Euro
If Manchester United loses, you lose 16.80 Euros. (10 Euro x 1.68 = 16.80 Euros – stake 10 Euros = 6.80 Euros clear loss)

figure 5: this is how your screen looks at Betfair after placing a lay bet

We hope that this brief introduction into “back”- and “lay”-bets at betting exchanges helped you to understand this complex topic. As you can see, there are more betting strategies than just the common bet against the book-maker. In the German Bundesliga or Premier League Market you will always find enough people who will back or lay your bets. To build a successful betting concept, it is essential to invest a little bit of time to fully understand the betting market. To conclude, we want to show you another strategy which can prove very fruitful, if it is done right.

“Laying the Draw”-Strategy

To begin with, this strategy is not really for beginners. It takes a certain comprehension of the betting market and also the field (e.g. football) you want to bet on.

But this is how it works: first you search for a game in which you expect a goal within the first half. So you compare earlier games of those teams and check if the teams are prone to scoring a goal in the first 45 minutes, or if one team is the favourite.

In the next step, you place a “lay”-bet at Betfair on a Draw. So you bet that either Team A or Team B wins. You offer odds of 4.5 with a stake of 10 Euros.

In this scenario you would:

lose 35 Euro on a Draw (10 Euro stake x 4.5 odd – 10 Euro stake = 35 Euro)
win 10 Euro on a Team A Win
win 10 Euro on a Team B Win

The next step is to wait for the game to start and a goal to be scored. If a team scores, the odds on a Draw increases (to e.g. 6.8) and you place a “back”-bet on the Draw. Now you place 6.62 Euros on the Draw which would mean you get the profit of the “back”-bet” of 38.40 Euros (6.62 stake x 6.8 – 6.62 stake = 38.40) in case of a Draw.

Back And Lay Betting Exchanges

In case of a Win by either Team A or B you will get your 10 Euros from the “lay”-bet, less the amount of the “back”-bet (10 Euros “lay”-profit – 6.62 Euros “back”-loss = 3.38 Euros clear profit).

In case of a Draw you will get your “back”-profit decreased by the “lay”-loss. (38.4 Euros “back”-profit – 35 Euros “lay”-loss = 3.4 Euros clean profit)

Team A wins: 10 – 6.62 = 3.38
Team B wins: 10 – 6.62 = 3.38
Draw: -35 + 38.4 = 3.4

As you can see you will not make a substantial amount with every bet, but if you use this strategy more often, you can of course yield some good profits. The only case in which you would lose your stake of 35 Euros, is if the game ends with a 0-0 draw.

But firstly, we minimise that risk by doing a profound research before the game(s) and secondly, statistically speaking, only 6 out of 100 football games draw 0-0.

Hint: Place your “back”-bet on the Draw quickly after the first goal as the odds are at their highest immediately after the goal. You can also keep your stake for the “lay”-bet small, so in case of a 0-0 Draw, your losses will be minimal. If we caught your attention with this topic, we recommend you read our article about hedging in sportsbetting.