Back Lay Betting
- Your Money Site
- Nov 21, 2016
- 3 min read
Betfair is one of the biggest Exchanges online with 5% commision. You can receive a free £20 bet just for signing up today!
Matchbook is another Exchange with a lower commission of When you sign up for matchbook there odds are shown in a binary format which maybe confusing. Simply go to your settings and select “Back-Lay” under “Exchange Type”. Doing this will allow you to see the odds in the same way as in Betfair.
Lay betting is acting as a Bookmaker and placing bets that you think 'will not happen'. E.g. Betfair
E.g. I will stake £10 on odds of 9 that if my horse does not win I will win £10. Because the odds are 9, I am betting that one of the other horse 'will win'. Therefor Ian betting against the other horses at £10 per horse, there are 9 horses so my liability is £80. If I loose and my horse wins I loose £80. If I win and my horse looses I win £10. You need to have the 'liability' amount in your balance before making the bet. A Back bet is a standard bet to back a team, horse, individual etc. I bet that horse 'will' win. A back lay bet is a sure bet. A software scans bookmakers and finds options where placing Back and Lay bet on 2 different bookmakers can make a profit. The Back bet has to have higher odds than the Lay bet to be able to generate a profit. E.g. The Software has found that there is a Back Lay bet available with a profit of 19.40%. William hill is offering 'Backing' odds of '3' for Team A to win. Betfair is offering 'Laying' odds of '2' for Team A not to win. When you Lay a bet the Bookmaker always takes a commission, which is usually around 3-5%. We add the odds, our 'Backing' stake and Betfair's commission to the calculator and hit calculate.
As you can see from the picture if we Back Team A and win our profit is £4.85 from our stake of £10 and if we Lay Team A with a stake of £15 and win our profit is £4.85 Back - Stake £10, Win £30 - Lay of £15 - 3% commission = £4.85 profit Lay - Stake £15, Win £30 - Back stake of £10 - 3% commission = £4.85 profit Back and Lay bets are a good way to make extra money but finding them is quite hard as odds move all the time. You could place a high Back bet and wait for the game to start and 'hope' that the Lay bet goes to lower odds than you Back bet, but that's basically having your fingers crossed which is a gambling. We don't want to gamble so we use software to help us find these bets. The software scans hundreds of Bookmakers and exchanges and finds these bets for us. We can try and find back lay bets ourselves but this is very time consuming. Bookmakers update their odds in real time. So, by the time you have found a high back bet, looking for a lower low bet yourself may take so long, by the time you go back to you back bet to place the bet you may find the odds have dramatically changed.
Things to look out for
Check and double check the game and time. The software can make mistakes. A similar game can be playing in close proximity to one another but on close inspection you may find one game is women's and one men's, but they have the same name etc.
Do your calculations before you place your bets. If you do not understand then do not place it. Googling 'back lay bet calculator' will give you a few different calculators with explanations. Choose and use one you understand, then place your bets.
If it is too good to be true do not place the bet. E.g. If the back odds are 20 and the lay odd is 5 the difference in odds is so wide your profit would be around £40 if you bet £10.
The Bookmaker may have made a mistake called a 'palpable error'. If this happens, you will find that the Bookmaker will let you place the bet, but when they realise their mistake, usually just before the start of the game. So when you log into your account after to check your profit, you will find your stake returned to you. Not all Bookmakers send an email to let you know your stake has been cancelled. So play it safe and only put on up to 10% back lay bets.
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