What Is Lay Betting

Katrina

– June 8, 2010Posted in: Betting Advice

We’ve received some questions recently on What Is LAY Betting, so though we have already touched on this topic with our recent article entitled Lay Betting Explained with a Step By Step Screenshot Guide, we wanted to go further in explaining a few things with regards to what LAY Betting actually is and how it affects your wallet.

A LAY Bet is betting on something to not win, but instead to lose. In the case of a horse race, if you place a LAY Bet down on a horse, then you are betting that the horse will lose the race. So, if you place a LAY bet on a horse and the horse loses, that means you win the bet, however, on the flip side, if that horse actually wins, then you lose your bet.

It all depends on the odds on whether it’s a risky bet or not, and how it will affect your wallet.

If the LAY odds for a horse are say 1.70 and you place £10 on it (to lose), then, even though your stake is £10, you only have to actually put up £7, making it so you can risk less money for a potentially larger gain. So all you are liable for, if that horse actually is the one that wins the race (and you lose the bet) is: £7

On the other hand, if the LAY odds for that horse is 3.2 and you place £10 on it (to lose), then, even though your stake is just £10, you have to put up £22 to cover the bet, making it so that you are risking more money than you are winning back, in this case, considerably more. Your liability, should the horse actually win the race, is £22.

Anything 2.0 and below is in your favour to place a LAY bet on, and anything above 2.0 is against your favour (in terms of your liability vs the stake).

If the LAY bet is successful, (ie: the horse loses the race), then you win the bet, getting back your liability, which gets deposited back into your account, as well as the actual stake.

In the first example given above, if that selection did indeed lose @ odds of 1.70, (making it a winning LAY bet for you), then you would get that original £7 liability back, plus the £10 stake.

If you are looking for an online betting exchange site to be able to bet on selections to lose (LAY Betting), then look no further than Betfair. The folks at Betfair started it all, making it possible for the general public to bet on selections to lose, a LAY Bet. Betfair make it easy for you to learn how this works risk free by giving you a FREE £25 bet when you sign up as well, essentially giving you £25 to test it and work out the kinks. Get started on LAY Betting by signing up to Betfair and claim your £25 FREE bet.

Hopefully that clears up any questions you might have had lingering on what is Lay Betting. If you have any further questions on this subject, please do not hesitate to ask.

Make every day a winner!