Traditional betting deals with wagering on which contestant will win the game. The punter makes his bet at the bookmaker’s odds and if he wins he receives his original stake plus whatever the odds were. This really is often known as “back betting” because the bettor is “backing” one team over another.
Lay betting, alternatively, is a relatively new concept in which the punter bets against a team winning the match. This really is generally done through betting exchanges and also the person making the lay bet essentially becomes their very own bookmaker, setting their very own odds.
Virtually all lay bets are even money bets. What this means is if punter wins he stands to win two times just as much as his original wager, or his original wager times two. On the flip side, if he loses the bet, he has to pay the backer the original wager plus the odds. Therefore more often than not his potential winnings are less than his potential liability.
One example is if Person A wants lay bet Ł10 against XYZ team, he can make the offer on a betting exchange. Person B is certain that XYZ will win, so he matches the bet; matching Person A’s Ł10 wager. As a division of the lay bet, Person A set XYZ’s odds of winning the game at 5. So Person A, the one making the lay bet, must put up not simply his Ł10 wager, but additionally his potential liability (the real difference between his original bet and the odds). Inside this instance the surety is yet another Ł40 (odds of 5 x Ł10 = Ł50 – the original bet of Ł10 = Ł40). If XYZ loses, Person A gets his original Ł10 back, his surety of Ł40, plus Person B’s Ł10. If XYZ wins though, then Person B not simply gets his original Ł10 back, but he also wins the odds, or the surety put up by Person A, the Ł40.
The main question lots of individuals ask is: if the potential winnings will almost always be less than the potential losses, why would anyone do this? The main reason is simply because it allows the lay bettor to set his own odds. Of-course the odds set through the lay bettor have to be reasonable as a way to attract a back bettor to match the bet. Further, since all the exchanges require a lay bettor to deposit both his own wager plus the whole quantity of the potential liability ahead of the bet will be offered there’s no possibility of betting beyond his immediate means.
The ability to set the odds is by far the primary draw of lay betting, so if someone has a system of calculating the odds efficiently, that individual can essentially benefit from the exact same system that basic bookmakers do. Further, since soccer teams always have hardcore fans that always bet for their own team, as long as lay bettor calculates his odds properly and reasonably, there’s a great chance of finding a back bettor that’s betting more with his heart than with his head. If punter knows just how to use lay football betting, it can be an incredibly profitable undertaking.