The advent of peer-to-peer betting exchanges transformed the sports wagering market by bringing about the concept of laying which essentially altered the manner in which punters engage with the markets. This mechanism gives you unparalleled control over your financial risk by enabling you to take the role of the traditional bookmaker and bet against a particular outcome. Be it the intricate arbitrage deals you seek to undertake, or the assured gains and your usual move by the M88 sportsbook, the final step to becoming a professional sports investor is to master the mechanics of a lay bet.

The basic definition: Backing vs. laying

To get a feeling of what a lay bet is, you should first learn what is the exact opposite of it: the back bet. When you make a back bet at a conventional sportsbook, you are betting that something will occur. To illustrate, when you bet on Real Madrid, you can only win the bet when Real Madrid wins. In case of a draw or a loss, your stake is lost.

A lay bet turns this dynamic inside out. In laying a bet you are betting that something will not occur. When you bet against Real Madrid, you are betting that they will not win the game. Thus, your lay bet is a winner, should the game be a draw or should the other team win. You are basically the bookmaker, who provides odds to another punter who wishes to support Real Madrid. Since there are usually more than one outcome in sports (there are three outcomes in a football game), laying one outcome will automatically provide you with more than one way to win.

Definition of lay bet.

Learning about liability: The real price of a lay bet.

The greatest obstacle to bettors moving to betting exchanges is the concept of liability. When you make a normal back bet, you are only risking the amount that you have bet; in the case of a bet of 10 dollars, you can only lose 10 dollars. When it is a lay bet, the mathematics is different.

Since you are playing the role of the bookmaker, what you are actually staking is what you want to win and what you are liable is what you will lose in case of any mistake in your prediction. The liability is computed on the odds you are providing to the backer.

We shall consider an example of mathematics. Suppose you wish to lay a horse in a race, because you are sure it will not win. The odds in the exchange are 5.00. You determine that you would like to win 100.

Your possible profit: $100 (less the little exchange commission). You receive this when the horse loses the race.

Your liability: To win that $100 at odds of 5.00, you must risk $400. It is calculated as: (Stake x Odds)- Stake = Liability. In this case, ($100 x 5.00) – $100 = $400.

Should the horse happen to win the race, you are liable to pay the backer his/her profit of 400. This is the most important part of lay betting to understand and manage this liability. A huge bankroll is necessary to cover the potential liability of laying outcomes with very high odds (such as 15.00 or 20.00), and can be mathematically catastrophic when a huge upset happens.

Core strategies: How to make a profit by laying odds.

Knowing what a lay bet is opens up a world of highly sophisticated trading techniques that could not be done anywhere but at a sportsbook. Laying is not only a way of gambling, but also a method of ensuring returns, which professional traders use.

Lay the Draw (LTD) football strategy.

Lay the Draw (LTD) is probably the most popular trading strategy in sports betting. The principle is straightforward: you break down a football game, in which you anticipate that goals will be scored, and prior to the start of the match, you lay a bet on the Draw.

When the heavy favorite has scored a goal in the 20th minute, the live odds to the draw will instantly shoot up (since a draw is now less likely by mathematical probability). At this very time you place a back bet on the draw at the new, much higher odds. By supporting and placing the identical outcome at two prices, you leverage your liability and secure a guaranteed green book profit, no matter what happens to the match.

Taking advantage of the field in tournament sports.

Laying is particularly strong in sports that have a large number of participants, like golf tournaments or horse racing. It is extremely hard to predict the sole winner of a 150-man golf tournament. But it is much easier to find one over-hyped and overvalued golfer who is likely to have a hard time on a particular course. 

By betting on that particular golfer, you bet will pay off should any one of the other 149 players win the tournament, literally. In comparing traditional sportsbook odds with a reputable M88 connection with exchange odds, you will often notice that popular hype artificially decreases the odds of famous athletes, which makes them ideal targets of a profitable lay bet.

Arbitrage and matched betting.

The basis of matched betting is lay betting – a procedure to draw guaranteed cash out of bookmaker promotional bonuses. In case a sportsbook gives you a free bet of 50 dollars on a football game, you can take advantage of that free bet to bet Team A to win at the sportsbook. 

At the same time, you visit a betting exchange and bet Team A with your money. Since you have taken into account all the possible scenarios and one side of the equation was financed by free promotional money, you mathematically ensure a risk-free profit no matter what the final scoreline would be.

How to win the lay odds

Liquidity in the market.

In order to effectively carry out a lay bet, the market has to have liquidity. A betting exchange is a peer-to-peer network; every lay bet you make has to be supported by another human being who is going to take your bet at your desired odds.

Liquidity is huge in large markets such as the English premier league or the NFL, and so millions of dollars are ready to cover your lay bets immediately. But in low-profile, minor sporting events, there is a liquidity crunch. When you would like to lay a team but there is no countering money that would be equal to your bet, your bet would be unmatched and you would have no market exposure. Slick traders will never lay odds without first checking the cumulative matched volume of an event.

Conclusion

Knowing what a lay bet is will give you the ultimate freedom to trade sports markets in real-time, just like a financial stock exchange. With the knowledge of mathematical liability and strategic hedging, you will be able to counter the conventional gambling risks and gain guaranteed mathematical returns. Combining these superior peer-to-peer exchange systems with your conventional value betting approach by registering with M88 registration will guarantee you a steady, long-term advantage in the sports wagering ecosystem.