BET ABC Back / Lay

Lay bets can only be placed with betting exchanges, such as Betfair. However, we take a look how you can make lay bets with other providers. Back bets can be placed with every book-maker and betting exchange.

Back bets are the “normal” type of bets, i.e. you bet on the occurrence of a score. Let´s take a soccer game as example: Here you have the possibility to bet on home win, away win or draw. Doing so you have already made a back bet.

Lay bets can only be placed with betting exchanges, because here you bet against the occurrence of an event. Generally speaking, you bet against the home win. However, it becomes more interesting if there are more than 3 possible outcomes, for instance, precise final scores or victory bets. With no book-maker, for example, you can bet that Newcastle United will not become English champion. However, this is possible with a lay bet. In order to check out lay bets you best register with Betfair.

Some lay bets can be converted into a back bet. Let`s have an example:
Lay = betting AGAINST an event, e.g. lay home team or lay 1 = betting on the DEFEAT of the home team or betting that the game ends in a draw OR betting on the victory of the away team. Therefore, lay 1 is equal to the double chance X2 or (often with better odds) to the Asian handicap + 0.5 on the away team.
Lay 1 = Back X2 = Back 2 AH+0.5
When winning the lay bet: turnover = wager
When losing the lay bet: loss = wager * odds – wager

Hence, there is an easy formula to convert lay into back odds or vice versa:

Lay odds/ (lay odds – 1) = back odds
Back odds/ (back odds – 1) = lay odds

This means that lay odds of 3.5 are equal to back odds of 1.40.
For a risk of 100 Euro on a 1.40 back you obtain 40 net profit.
In order to make the conversion easier the betting calculator includes a back-lay converter.

However, this means as well that there is a higher risk with lay bets. When placing a lay bet with Betfair, you only contribute the amount the opponent (called holder) bets. Therefore, you contribute 40 Euro but you have to hold a risk of 100 Euro because if the holder wins you have to pay him 100 Euro. If you win you will get your 40 Euro.

The sport bet forecast can be made with Betfair as well. There are even three possibilities for the double chance bets. You can made the forecast, for example, as a lay bet or you take the double chance by putting the sport bet forecast on both outcomes. Both results must end up with the same score. The third and last option to do the soccer game forecast with Betfair is the Asian handicap. You can read more about this in another article of our betting ABC.