Laying horse

Horse Racing Master > Lay betting > Laying horse

If you are a horse racing enthusiast, you also like betting, so you should probably have heard about the possibility of laying a horse by now. However, for those who are not familiar with the subject, here’s a brief walkthrough of the matter.

Laying is the opposite of backing, which is the standard betting method we’ve all got used to. While backing means that you bet that a certain horse will win the race (or show, place, or whatever you bet on), laying is exactly the opposite, meaning that you bet that the respective horse will not win the race.

Backing is done at certain odds which are set by the bookmaker. If you win, you get a profit that is directly proportional to the amount you staked and the odds that the event had. In the case of laying, and here’s the best part, you get to play the bookmaker. And now here’s a question: have you ever met a poor bookmaker?

That’s what I though. But how does the system work? First of all, when you lay a horse, you must be very careful at what odds you do it. You want to get your lay bet backed, or the whole idea loses its meaning. You basically need to find people who are willing to risk placing a bet at the odds you set.

Horse laying has been made famous by the online betting exchanges, out of which the most important is by far Betfair. Betfair is a UK company founded in 2000, which controls a reported 90% of the online betting market.

Betfair acts an intermediary between its customers, so it doesn’t act as the bookmaker itself. So, if you get lucky and you are on a constant winning streak, you may rest assured that you will not be “banned” from gambling. Moreover, the company draws its profits from the winning bets, taking a fee of 5% from each.

When it comes to horse laying, it must be said that it is easier to make decent amount of money with this method than with the standard backing method. After all, it’s what the bookmakers are doing (as a tip, and a really important one, the big money comes from laying the second favorites).

Knowing what odds to set and how much to stake is a knowledge that comes with experience. Yes, there are a lot of beginners who have winnings streaks using lay betting, but they often enough wipe out their entire profits because of one wrong lay. This is the main obstacle in your way to success. However, when you get experienced in this, laying horses can be an important revenue source for you.

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