Lay Betting.
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Trying to get my head around the lay betting, I thought I understood it but can you please help me to understand. You back higher than you lay, so I put £10 on a golfer backed at 40.00 and layed him at £10 at 10.00 & he came joint second so I got £10 back? I just can’t see the point in laying if you just get your money back?
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@michael-higginbottom said in Lay Betting.:
Trying to get my head around the lay betting, I thought I understood it but can you please help me to understand. You back higher than you lay, so I put £10 on a golfer backed at 40.00 and layed him at £10 at 10.00 & he came joint second so I got £10 back? I just can’t see the point in laying if you just get your money back?
Good pick by the way! Shame you didn't make it pay. I'll explain it here:
So you backed a player to win because he came second you did not win that bet. However, as you layed the £10 stake back at much lower odds you got your money back as that lay bet won.
When you lay at shorter odds than you back you must lay a bigger stake than you used for the back bet to make money.
So in the example above you should have layed £40 at 10.0, in this case you would have made £30 profit no matter what happened.
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Trying to work my head around your example of backing and laying in the same market. £10 @ 40.00 backed so potential profit of £390.00. £10 layed at 10.00 so liability of £90. By my calculations that's £300 profit if it won but £0 profit when it lost if I understand you correctly.
All you did by laying back the same amount at lower odds was to give yourself a free bet so to speak. Remove the liability of £10.00.
If you wanted to to guarantee a profit you would have needed to overlay.
£40.00 @ 10.00 would have guaranteed £30.00 regardless of outcome.
If the bet lost you win your £40.00 lay and lose your £10.00 back stake. If the bet won you win £390.00 from your original back bet but lose the £360 liability lay you put on to hedge your position.
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Think of it as though you're the bookmaker. If layed at 10.00, you are giving odds of 9/1. So £90.00 liability if i loses but £10.00 profit if it wins. ie you are the bookmaker and you keep the stake someone just gave you as their bet lost.