Posted August 1, 2009
As you can see the screen is split into two sides, one is blue and the other is pink. The blue side is used to place a ‘back’ bet which I’ll cover in more detail in another post. What I’ll be focusing on in this post is the pink side of the screen which is used to place a ‘lay’ bet. There are three columns on the ‘lay’ side. The pink column shows the best available odds for that particular selection.
The two white columns represent the next best available odds. Underneath each price you will see a value; this is the amount of money available to bet at that price.
In the example to the left you can see that you can ‘lay’ Man Utd at 1.26 and there is £2729 available at that price, so if you wanted to place a ‘lay’ bet of £2000 there would be more than enough money to cover this. If you wanted to place a ‘lay’ bet of £3000 on Man Utd then £2729 would be matched at 1.26 with the remaining money being left unmatched until a backer places a bet at those odds. Alternatively you could select slightly higher odds to match the remaining money.
To place a lay bet click on the pink box with the odds of 1.26 then a new window will appear on the right hand side. In this window there are three important bits of information. These are the odds, the stake and the liability. The most important thing to look at is the liability. The liability is the amount of money you will be liable to pay if the selection you lay wins.
The liability is calculated by the ‘lay’ odds minus 1 multiplied by your stake: Example (1.26 – 1) x £100 = £26.00. You can play around with various odds and stakes to see how your liability is affected. Place your bet by entering your stake and clicking on the “Place Bets” button at the bottom of the screen.
The “Confirm Your Bets” screen allows you to double check your bet before it is placed. Betfair explains that you are betting against Man Utd to win. If the bet wins your profit will be the ‘Backers Stake’ which is £100.00 with the amount you stand to lose the ‘Total Liability’ of £26.00. If you are happy with this you can confirm your bet by clicking on the “Confirm” button at the bottom of the page. When your bet is placed Betfair will automatically take the liability from your account until the bet is settled.
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Hi, I’m Dave; a 24 year old semi-professional gambler. I live in London, England and have been gambling online since 2004. I make a large part of my living betting on football matches and horse racing on the betting exchanges.
I placed my first bet when I was 11 years old when I backed Superior Finish in the 1996 Grand National. I didn’t win that day but the thrill of betting has had me hooked ever since.
In the past 12 months I’ve made over £24,000 from sports betting with my biggest single win coming on Kauto Star in the Cheltenham Gold Cup when I scooped £5,000.
