What is Lay Betting?

LAY BETTING EXPLAINED golf playerA Lay bet is when you bet on an outcome not to happen. For example, if you placed a bet with us on a horse not to win a race, bet on a football team not to win a game or bet on a golfer not to make a birdie on a particular hole.

In lay betting, you essentially become the bookmaker. It is exactly the same as the times in your life that you might have said to a friend: “I bet you that xxx won’t happen”.

The same is true when you are watching sporting events. While it can be tough to predict the eventual outcome of a horse race or football match, you might often find it easier to take a stance that one horse/team will not win. In this instance, lay betting allows you as the gambler to back your belief and bet that something won’t happen.
 

 
LAY BETTING EXPLAINED

 

! In lay betting - it is vitally important to know that you can lose more than you have staked.
For example, if you decided to lay a 2/1 shot for £20, if it loses then you win £20. But if you are wrong and it wins you lose £40 (2 x £20).

A key factor in having a lay betting explained is to understand the increased liability that can exist when you lay a bet. It is important that you understand ‘liability’ in relation to lay betting before getting involved.
Liability refers to the amount of money you can lose when striking a lay bet.

When you back something to win, the most that you are going to lose is your initial stake. In a lay bet, your overall liability, or risk, can be greater. The total risk involved is therefore the amount the bet will cost you if your selection (that you backed to lose) actually wins.

BETTING EXCHANGE

LAY BETTING horse

The most likely platform on which to place lay bets is on a betting exchange. What is a betting exchange, you might ask?

A betting exchange is essentially a marketplace for punters/gamblers. It is like a stockmarket, but people are dealing in winners and losers instead of stocks and shares.

With exchange betting you can buy or sell any given outcome in a sporting event. You may choose to back a horse at a selected price or to lay a horse to lose at the price offered.

You can also trade in or out at any time while your event is ongoing on a bet exchange. This is usually in an attempt to secure a profit irrespective of the final outcome.

The key difference between a betting exchange and a traditional bookmaker is that on the betting exchange, gamblers bet against each other. Essentially, you can dicate what price you want to back, or lay, any given outcome at. In many markets there will be significantly more fluctuation in terms of the price available on a betting exchange, as different, independent parties take a viewpoint on how the event is going to unfold.

On a betting exchange, customers can take on the role of bookmaker, by setting their own odds on a sporting event and accepting bets, or the punter, by placing bets using the odds offered by other exchange users.

With exchange betting, it is the customers, not the traditional bookmakers, that set the market by offering their own take on the prices of each outcome. A betting exchange merlely facilitates its users in placing and accepting the wide variety of bets on both winning and losing outcomes (backing or laying). The betting exchange will typically charge a nominal commission on bets placed.

LAY BETTING explained

 

LAY BETTING SYSTEMS

Experienced punters will use lay betting systems to ensure the best chance of making a profit when they are betting. This may involve back and lay betting.

In this method you could, for instance, back a horse at 10/1 before a race and then, during the race, lay the same horse at much shorter odds to ensure you make a profit regardless of the outcome. In order to achieve this, the punter could use a back and lay calculator in order to figure the exact margins they are working to.

Back lay betting requires an in-depth knowledge of betting exchanges and in-play betting but can prove to be profitable over time if done correctly.

LAY BETTING IN HORSE RACING punterLAY BETTING IN HORSE RACING

https://www.888sport.com/blog/football-prediction

Lay betting is particularly popular in horse racing. As you might know, picking the winner in a race is no easy task! Often, if the race favorite is a short price, it is more profitable if you back this horse to lose (and it does lose) than if you back it to win.

 

LAY BETTING IN FOOTBALL tableLAY BETTING IN FOOTBALL

Having reviewed the stats, you may find that if Liverpool are playing Manchester United, you feel confident that Liverpool will not win the game. Therefore, you can lay them.

You are effectively placing a bet that Liverpool will not win the match. In this instance, you will win your bet if Manchester United win the match or the match ends in a draw. This is a lay bet example in a popular football betting market.

 

GET TO KNOW LAY BETTINGGET TO KNOW LAY BETTING

The same principles hold true in all sports. It is vital for you to establish a thorough understanding of lay betting before getting involved.

 

Lay Bet - FAQ:

Question 1: What is a Lay Bet?

In a nutshell, a lay bet is when you back an event NOT to happen. It can be a horse not to win a race, a team not to win a football match or even an athlete not to win a certain event. Essentially, the punter becomes the bookmaker in a bid to cover a favourite losing.

 

Question 2: What Does A Lay Bet Pay?

As with all wagers, the odds-on lay bets varies depending on a number of factors. If you want to lay a favourite in a five-runner horse race, you may get decent odds – essentially this means that as long as one of the other runners wins, your bet is a winner.

 

Question 3: Can You Bet On A Team NOT To Win?

Yes – that is exactly what lay betting is. The main objective of a lay bet is to take the favourite on. If you expect a shock result but can’t quite predict a winner, you can lay the market principle instead of backing one of the other competitors to win.

 

Question 4: What Sports Are Best For Lay Betting?

The most popular sports for lay betting are horse racing and football, but it is also popular in other sports as well. Sometimes, bookmakers will offer ‘lay’ odds on major events with a clear favourite, such as laying Michael Van Gerwen to win the PDC World Championship.

 

Question 5: Can You 'Lay Bet' With 888sport?

While there is not an option to lay a bet with 888sport like there is on an exchange platform, you can still lay certain bets. In football, you can take advantage of ‘double chance’ markets which is essentially the same as laying.

For example, let’s say you want to lay Manchester City in their Premier League clash with Chelsea. Instead of actually clicking a lay bet button, you can back Chelsea to win or draw via 888sport’s double chance market.

On the next page, we will begin to look at some of the traditional types of ‘multiple bets’ that you can place. These are used when you wish to combine a number of selections together on a bet and, when successful, they can lead to large payouts.
We will start with the What is a Trixie bet.

The 888sport blog is here to offer betting and tipping advice on the biggest sports fixtures, events and competitions around the world.