What is lay betting?

Betfair Trading Strategies Oct 29, 2014, Last Updated: Oct 29, 2014 24 Comments

When Betfair introduced lay betting it was a sort of revolution for punters. Before that you could only place a back betting on bookies such as Paddy Power.

Back Betting

Before i go deep into lay betting let’s first understand what is back betting which you normally do on a typical bookmaker site.

Let’s take an example of India v SL 1st ODI match. William Hill are offering 1.67 for India. Let’s say you back India with £100 and India wins the match. You will make £67 profit on £100 stake. It’s all simple to understand as you do it without thinking. So what’s going on here?

When you are backing India you are effectively saying that “I want India to win with 1.67 odds”, if India wins you win.

You backed India but there must be someone to accept that back bet, who is that? Well that’s the bookie. Bookie accepts your back bet by laying the bet. So the bookie here is the layer. Bookie is laying the bet in this scenario.

As you can see the lay betting already exists but it’s only the bookie who can lay not us.

Lay Betting & Betfair Exchange

Betfair Exchange is a platform which lets punters bet against each other. It’s a new concept and on the exchange Betfair doesn’t act as bookie. They just charge a commission when you win, you pay no charges when you lose that’s all they do.

In lay betting instead of backing a bet you lay it. Which effectively means you are acting as a bookie and accepting the back bet from the backers on the exchange.

Let’s take the India v SL example again. On Betfair exchange India’s lay odds are 1.7 – see the odds in pink. The odds in blue are back odds.

India's Lay Odds

India’s Lay Odds

When you lay India with 1.7 you are effectively backing India to lose. If India loses the match you will win. If India wins you lose.

It’s just that simple.

“When you lay a bet and team loses you win” – Just remember this sentence in the beginning. After some time you will get hang of it and it will be all clear.

In back betting you win when team wins. In lay betting you win when team loses.

A clever question here would be, hey hang on. Why so much fuss. Why not just back Sri Lanka instead of laying India. Why to create so much confusion.

You are right. That’s another way to achieve the same which is winning when India loses.

However it’s not that simple when it comes to doing math which I’ll explain later. And don’t forget the one click scalping which can’t be done without lay odds.

Liability and Profit in Lay Betting

In lay betting your make same profit as your stake which is also termed as “Backer’s Stake”. Basically you keep the backer’s stake which is exactly what traditional bookies do.

Remember the back odds of 1.67? When you backed India with £100 it’s the backer’s stake. When India loses bookie pockets this stake and you lose £100 and bookie wins £100. Bookie here is the layer so layer’s winnings is £100 which is basically backer’s stake.

In this process of backing and laying two parties entered into a transaction.

First party is backer who placed a back bet of £100 @ 1.67 and the second party is layer )or bookie who layed the odds or accepted the backer’s bet @ 1.67. If backers loses his money will go to layer. If layer loses then his money will go to Backer.

Unmatched Bet

Unlike bookies, who always accept your back odds, on exchange there must be a backer to match your lay odds. If there are no backers at that odds then your bet will not be matched and it’s termed as “Unmatched Bet”

Lay Profit

As I explained above in lay you win the backer’s stake. So if you layed India with £100 @ 1.7 then you win £100 if India loses.

Lay Loss

Loss = (lay odds – 1) x lay stake

In this example your loss will be (1.7 -1) x 100 = £70

This £70 will go to backer who has backed India to win @ 1.7.

I hope it’s all clear now!

Drop a comment below if you require any further clarifications.

Comments

24 Responses to “ What is lay betting? ”
  1. Madhu

    Munna Bhai,
    People in this forum are lucky . All the info you are giving will help and understand how betting price works .

    As per local bookies (my region) Back=Play & Lay=Eat

    • Munna Bhai

      Good one, will remember your local bookie’s jargon.

  2. Vivek

    Dear Bhai,

    Is it not better to back at high odds the underdog rather than lay the superior player in particular to tennis?
    I am asking this question as to recently concluded ATP Basel in one of the matches the match between Istomin and Federer the odds at the start were 1.09 and 20.Rather than laying Federer i backed Istomin and luckily he broke federer serve in the first set and won 1st set too and i got a handsome profit(thanks to you Bhai).I am wondering if i had laid with the same amount i backed i would not have greened up to that profit,although when i squared up profit ultimately its like laying only.

    I also wana ask like when we lay low is it not good if the odds move in favour instead of greening up take the profit by hitting the cash out button?
    Please explain me bhai, in some doubts about these aspects.

    Regards,
    Vivek

  3. Ajay

    Tq bhai.. Confusion cleard …

  4. vinnu yadav

    I hav won many matches with ur
    Superb predictions
    Thank u MUNNA BHAI…
    N also i vl b waiting for ur further
    Predictions
    Thank u
    Thank u
    Thank u
    .
    .
    .

  5. Rajesh Choudry

    Bhai give Ur Final prediction for Sl Vs Ind? Fast …. Am Waiting??

  6. Sumit

    Munna Bhai i am new. Mujhe v bet lagana h betfair me mera city valid nai ho rha h pls help me

    • Munna Bhai

      Support ko contact karo.

  7. hr

    Munna bhai u r too gud u r orignal cricket guru nw im u r die heart fan i love u boss

  8. Nelson

    Munna Bhai, how to verify betfair account and australian wallet?

  9. arveen

    hi munna bhai

    i am all the way from a country call guyana in south america the home country to shivnarine chandrapaul
    i really appreciate your knowledge of the cricket game and love reading your comments it help me alot i am using bet 365 . i also bet locally in my country what you think about Aussie vs england game

    thank you
    rv

  10. Love

    Help me who vl win?? Aus or eng

  11. Love

    Munna n Raju bhai help me?? I m new on betting adda so plz help
    Me in pridiction of aus eng match

    • Nagi Reddy Byreddy

      Please who win the match Aus vs Eng

  12. Rahul Jain

    Munna Bhai i need your contact number !

  13. Ashish raj

    Munma bhai can u plz illustrate what is ‘hedge’?

    • Munna Bhai

      Hedge is another term for making profit on both sides. you can make profit on both sides by various ways
      1) Back same side at higher odds and lay at lower odds
      2) Back both sides
      2) Lay both sides

      You will have to do some math to calculate odds and stakes in such a way that you make profit on both side.

      If it is Test match (3 outcomes) then you have to do the same on 3 sides.

  14. Ashish raj

    Munna bhai i undrstand point 1 and 2., but how can u earn profit by backing both sides?

  15. cricket is my life

    Apki prediction pe mene kaam kiya muje faida hua ap mujhe apna cell number de so me apko whatsup se call karungi aur yar ye kya beeting adda pe ab mera comments jahi nahi raha hai
    Aur plz ap winning teem ka naam likh diya karen

    • pankaj

      Tell me betting

  16. cricket is my life

    Ap plz 2nd odi mewzealand vs pakistan ka ache se dekh k batana
    Naam clear likh na plz plz plz z

  17. Dhananjaya

    Munnaji iam very big fan to you,betfair not supporting inr,how to I bet from India to betfair,please tell me the process of currency conversion fee avoidance.

    • Munna Bhai

      You can use USD. While depositing or withdrawing you will use USD.

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