What Does the Term "Lay" Mean, and What is a Lay Bet?

The following information is reproduced with acknowledgements to Betfair, the World's Biggest Betting Community


To lay a bet is to back something not to happen. For example, to lay Manchester United to win their match is to back them NOT to win. If you were to lay them, you would win your bet if they either lost or drew their match.

With Betfair you can not only lay any selection, but also choose the price you want to take, and how much you are prepared to risk. The shorter the price you wish to lay, the less money you have to risk compared to your potential reward.

Examples:

* Laying a Draw in a soccer match at 13.5 might sound safe, but for every £10 you want to win, you have to risk £125 - high risk and low reward.
* In a horse racing market, the horse “Europe” at 1.9/1.91 are much more likely to win, but to win £10 by laying that outcome, you only need to risk £9.10.

There are all sorts of reasons why people lay bets. Some people find it easier to pick a horse that won’t win, than one that will win. Some people lay a bet because they think the price is too short. Others will lay first, then look to back the same selection later in-play – that’s called Trading.

Laying need not be scary – you are in full control of how much you wish to risk and how much you could win. In a lay bet, you always stand to win the stake of the opposing bet (e.g. £10 in the examples above). You could be betting against one person or several.

Note – Betfair charge a commission fee on net winnings on each market (see How is my commission calculated?).


Placing a Lay Bet

Select a market, choose a selection you want to lay and click on the best lay price/odds. In the following example you are laying Phil Mickelson at odds of 9. The backer is staking £10.

Your potential profit: £10
Your potential loss: £80

Your liability of £80 is taken from your balance as this is your worst case scenario. The payout will be £90 but that includes the stake from the backer. If this bet was matched, there would effectively be a pot of £90 for someone to collect - the backer's £10 stake, and the layer's £80 liability.

If Phil Mickelson wins the tournament you have to pay £80 to the winning customer. If any other player wins the tournament you win £10 less commission. When laying a bet, you can only win the other person's stake.

Putting Free Money Into Your Pocket With Free, No Risk Bets

It is frequently said that you will never meet a poor bookie.

Which is true, of course, the reason being that betting is an addictive habit and even initially successful punters will usually come back for more.

Which is all quite silly when one considers that a bookie's price is invariably set with a "house edge" built in. What this means in crude terms is that if the "real" chances of an outcome happening is, say, evens, the price you'll get will be in the region of 5/6 (1.83) or, if you are lucky, 10/11 (1.91).

Of course this doesn't mean to say that you will never win at those prices. If I was to flip a coin and offer you 5/6 on the outcome being Tails you would still have an evens chance of being successful. But if I was to toss the same coin a hundred times at those same odds the chances are that you'd be out of pocket. This is because I will have offered you less than what is the true value of the bet each time you had placed it.

So how can it be possible to beat the bookie over a sustained period?

Well, you could know the result in advance. Or you might have insider information. Or possibly you may even just be lucky. But based upon the example given, the more frequently you return to place your bet the more certain you will be to fail over the long term.

However there is indeed one way to make an assured profit from the bookmaker, and that is by taking advantage of the free bet.

Most leading UK and European online sportsbooks, being keen to win your business, will actually offer you a financial incentive to sign up with them rather than with their competitors.

This is how it works. When you first open an account with them the sportsbook will require you to make a deposit and to place a wager. Typically it might be in the region of £25. Once the wager is settled you will then receive a free bet, usually to the same value. The return on the free bet will not ordinarily include the stake.

Thus, for one bet only, the "house edge" is instantly reversed. On the balance of probabilities you'll be in pocket once you have used the free bet according to the terms and conditions of the offer.

But if you aren't a person to leave anything to chance the trick is simply to lay both the qualifying bet and the free bet at a betting exchange such as Betfair, usually at a small loss but nonetheless guaranteeing you a profit once both wagers have been settled.

For instance a £25 qualifying bet laid at Betfair may result in a guaranteed return of, say, £23. You then receive your £25 free bet and once again lay it at Betfair, this time perhaps ensuring a return of £17 (bearing in mind the stake money is not included in your payout). Thus you will have locked in a total gross profit of £40, making an overall mark-up of £15 which then is yours to keep. It really is as easy as that.

When you repeat this exercise with the 40 or 50 books that offer similar incentives you will have made a tidy sum of money.

The best and easiest way to locate these free bets is to use one of the many online free bet services that list them on one handy page. In some cases free bets will be given which aren't awarded if you open an account directly with the bookie, due to a special affiliate arrangement with the service. Click on the links available there, open and fund accounts with all the books that are listed, familiarise yourself with the concept of laying bets at the exchanges if you don't already know how to use them and then simply collect up to several hundred pounds in easy, guaranteed income.

A real sports investment if ever there was one.

About The Sports Investor Lay Of The Day Service

The service has been operating for a year and two months and has achieved a strike rate of nearly 70% with an average odds of just over 2/1 and by laying £200 on each selection you would have made over £2000 profit

The service has three rules of selection

1. There is only one Lay advised each day.

2. The price of the Lay Of The Day must be 3/1 or less at the time of advic.

3. obey the first two rules.

Five Tips to Ensure Your Financial Survival at the Big Festivals

With every year there are bigger and bigger racing festivals taking place all around the world.  Following these five tips for every big meeting you will hopefully ensure your financial survival as well as enhancing your enjoyment of this wonderful sport.

Tip one - hedge your bets and have two or three selections in each race - the fields are usually larger than usual with the majority of the horses being in peak physical form.  Upsets do happen with big price winners and indeed placed horses so do take a look at the card and go for at least two but no more than three selections in each and every race. This way you are not putting all of your eggs in one basket - how many times has the "meeting banker" come unstuck?  By selecting two or three horses quite often it can result in you having more than one winner in the race if you are fortunate, especially by following tip two!

Tip two - be even more cautious - bet each way!  Due to bigger prices at the big meetings there is often good value in each way backing as favourites will be priced at 7 or 8 to 1, or bigger, in most races.  By backing each way if your selections are placed but do not win you are more than likely to finish ahead for that race.

Tip three - choose your horses and don't alter them no matter what.  How many times have you heard "this can't lose" when you have been talking to a fellow race goer?  This gets even more popular at the big meetings where everyone suddenly becomes the number one horse racing tipster and they all have big contacts at the top yards  In reality it is more likely the case that somebody in the pub last Saturday said that they had heard from their mum who does the cleaning to the guy who is the blacksmith's assistant at a trainers yard that the horse will run well.  Pick your horses before you go or before the days racing starts and stick to your guns no matter what - there is nothing worse than following a tip only for the one had intended to back to romp home at 16/1. You can rest assured the person who gave you that betting advice will be nowhere to be seen after the race.

Tip four - if you do manage to back a winner don't increase your bets.  Should you be lucky enough to have a winner or two then don't fall into the trap of increasing your wager on the remaining bets of the day.  It is difficult enough to get one winner so be thankful you have achieved that as many aren't so lucky. Stick to your original staking plan and put all your winnings to one side to savour when racing has finished. It is so tempting to up your stakes and lose the lot on the last race and go home potless

Tip five - the Golden Rule - never bet with what you can't afford to lose.  This is easily the most valuable tip of all and it should be followed at all times and never broken. Go to the day with a view to coming back with an empty pocket and anything left (see tip four) will be great, and you will instantly feel better even if you have lost overall.

Remember if all else fails pick the horse with the best colours or nicest name - Good Luck!

About The Sports Investor

Launched in 2007, The Sports Investor has rapidly grown into one of the leading online providers of top quality horse racing information and betting advice.

Starting out with just the Daily Racing Service, where we offer our members three types of bets each day - Our Best Bet, Next Best and Lively Outsider - we later introduced our excellent 5-Star Soccer Service, which has achieved tremendous results since its inception in 2008 with only one losing month in the whole of its first two seasons.

On occasions we also promote other services and offers that we feel that our members might find of interest.

The Sports Investor also operates a Lay Of The Day.

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