Laying Horses: Betting On Horses To Lose

- Learn about lay bets with our lay betting introduction -

Lay betting is simply "placing bets on something to lose". This means that if you "Lay" a horse, you want them to lose. And if they do lose, you win money. In this article we'll explain what lay bets are and how you can profit from them.

What is a Lay bet?

If you are not familiar with lay bets already, this section will explain what a lay bet is and how you can profit from them. A lay bet can be placed on Betting Exchanges such as Betfair. It is where you get the chance to play the bookmaker and accept bets for events to NOT occur i.e. Rangers winning against Celtic.

On betfair, after you click onto an event, you will be availble to see lay bets and back bets available. The lay bets that are available are expressed in the pink column as shown below:

The lay odds that are available here are 1.23 and 5.5. If you placed a lay bet on L. Davenport, this means that you bet on her to lose (or to not win).

How Much Do I Win?

Lay bets winnings are calculated a differently from back bets. The amount you win on a lay bet equal to the amount you stake. For example, if you Lay Davenport for £5, and she lost, you'd win £5 because she did NOT win.

Another difference with lay bets is the risk liability. This is the amount that betting exchanges "freeze" from your account when you place your lay bet. This is to cover the potential loss from your lay bet which brings me to my next point:

How Much Can I Lose?

This is the major difference with lay bets that newcomers seem to have difficulty in understanding. With lay bets, you can potentially lose more than you stake. To calculate your risk liability (the amount you stand to lose if your bet loses) you can use the simple forumula provided below:

• Lay Liability = Lay Stake x Lay Odds - Lay Stake

So if you Lay Davenport to lose at 1.23 for £5 - You'd win £5 if she lost and lose £1.15 if she won.

If you Layed Schiavone to lose at 5.5 for £5 - You'd win £5 if she lost and lose £22.50 if she
won.

The reasoning behind this is that lower odds have a lower probablily to lose so you'd win more if they actually lost. Higher odds have a higher probability of losing which is why you risk more.

How Can I Make Money From This?

A lot of beginners believe that it is easy to make money from lay betting. I hear them saying "You bet on something to lose, that's easy". But the most important thing they forgot is the the odds that they are betting at. Events which have a higher probability of losing also have higher lay odds. They may win a few of them but when they lose once, that could wipe out all their profits and, even worse, result in a large loss.

To win in the long term, you'll need to look at the "value" of a bet. When laying, you want to lay at the lowest odds possible to minimise losses. This way you can afford to be wrong a few times without losing all of your money. For example, if a horse was available to lay at 1.8 and you believed that it had no chance of winning, you'd lay it at 1.8 and not 2.5.