Laying

sector

Does anyone know how this works?

- I know it means betting on a favoured horse to loose!
I reckon I'd be pretty good at it!! lol

Wondering if anyone does this & the in's & out of it.

masterK

It's not necessarily a favoured horse or even a horse for that matter. To put it simply a layer is somebody that offers odds on a particular outcome of an event. Exactly as a bookmaker does, so it's essentially being the bookie.

The only difference being you can offer odds (lay) as many horses, teams etc. as you like where a bookmaker offers odds on all outcomes.

Most people think it sounds easy, it's anything but, you are taking on potential large losses if it doesn't go your way. Let's say for example you lay a horse at 10/1 for €10, if the horse wins you are liable for €100.

The main factors to consider are how confident are you on a horse losing? You need to express that confidence as a percentage, i.e. I only give horse X a 10% chance to win a race. Therefore you would be looking to lay at less than 9/1. If current price of the horse was 50/1 then it would not be advisable to lay. Do you understand what I mean?

As I've mentioned before have a look at the help sections on Betfair and also have a go at http://www.playbetfair.com where you can lay for pretend money until you familiarise yourself with it.

sector

I get ya, thanks.

Do all bookies offer this? (well the mainstream ones, like paddypower & william hill etc)

Could get complicated alright but there are times when I see a nap & think it'll mess it up, then it does & I've thought would have been good to lay it.

Don't like the exposure though, did not know the odds reversed on you like that.

masterK

You can't lay with bookmakers. The only places that you can lay are on Exchanges such as Betfair or Betdaq.

Robin1982

i always think of laying in terms of backing an odds-on shot i.e. if i'm laying a 3/1 shot, i'm backing this horse not to win at 1/3. Your liability on your lay is equivalent to your outlay for a back.