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 what ever the odds were. This is generally known as « back betting » because the bettor is « backing » one team over another.

Lay betting, alternatively, is a relatively new concept through 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 own odds.

Virtually all lay bets are even money bets. Therefore if punter wins he stands to win twice around his original wager, or his original wager times two. In contrast, if he loses the bet, he must pay the backer the original wager plus the odds. This means more often than not his potential winnings are less than his potential liability.

For instance, if Person A wants lay bet Ł10 against XYZ team, he will 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 involved in 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 only his Ł10 wager, but additionally his potential liability (the main difference between his original bet and the odds). Within 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 just gets his original Ł10 back, but he also wins the odds, or perhaps the surety put up by Person A, the Ł40.

The main question many individuals ask is: if the potential winnings tend to 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 so that you can attract a back bettor to match the bet. Further, since all of the exchanges require a lay bettor to deposit both his own wager plus the entire amount of the potential liability ahead of the bet shall be offered there isn’t any possibility of betting beyond his immediate means.

The capability to set the odds is by far the primary draw of lay betting, so if a person has a system of calculating the odds efficiently, that individual can essentially benefit from the same system that basic bookmakers do. Further, since excellent soccer teams always have hardcore fans that always bet for their very own team, as long as lay bettor calculates his odds properly and reasonably, there’s a great chance of finding a back bettor that is betting more with his heart than with his head. If punter knows how you can use lay betting, it may be an extremely profitable undertaking.