Lay betting...?

[Sterillium]

I've just been sent a question about betting, from a friend - but I have absolutely no idea what the answer is.

It's about lay betting (where the bet is made for something not to happen, rather than happen), which I vaguely understand, He's sent me the bet in the image below, where he is looking at a wager on the FC Schweinfurt -v- FC Schalke match NOT to be a draw. He thinks the liability (£2.50) is all that he would ever be risking if he made this lay bet, but I think he'd surely have to both have the £25000 in his account that he has entered as his stake AND be prepared to lose it. (Also, my understanding is that there's pretty much no chance that anyone else (as it's a betting exchange) would match up with or accept this bet with those numbers.)

Does anyone know the answer?

Edited by Sterillium on Tuesday 3rd November 21:23

[Ruskie]

Using Betfair as an example, if you lay an event at 3/1 for £10 you need to have enough money in your account to cover it, £40.

So laying £100 you would need £400 in your account, £100 stake and £300 if it loses and so on. The more you lay the more you need to cover it.

[paulrockliffe]

Laying isn't placing a bet, you act as the other half of someone else's bet. So if someone is betting £10 on something expecting to win £40, then to lay their £10, you are risking paying them the £40 too.

[dodsi2000]

Yep, lay betting you are just playing the bookie. Handy when matched betting but when I did match bet I always tried to lose at the bookies and ‘win’ on the exchange by backing events that were very unlikely to happen. What surprised me was the frequency that they did!

[48k]

Sterillium said:

I've just been sent a question about betting, from a friend - but I have absolutely no idea what the answer is.

It's about lay betting (where the bet is made for something not to happen, rather than happen), which I vaguely understand, He's sent me the bet in the image below, where he is looking at a wager on the FC Schweinfurt -v- FC Schalke match NOT to be a draw. He thinks the liability (£2.50) is all that he would ever be risking if he made this lay bet, but I think he'd surely have to both have the £25000 in his account that he has entered as his stake AND be prepared to lose it. (Also, my understanding is that there's pretty much no chance that anyone else (as it's a betting exchange) would match up with or accept this bet with those numbers.)

Does anyone know the answer?

The image isn't showing up, but to lay a bet on Betfair you have to have enough money in your account to cover paying out to the person who takes the bet . If you haven't got enough money in your account, Betfair won't let you place the bet.

[Sterillium]

Tried again to upload the image - the details on it are what I find confusing.

[Silverage]

So the guy on the other side of bet has to pony up £25000 to be in with a chance of winning £2.50 if it comes off? If that unlikely event (someone else taking the bet) did happen, I suppose all that is at stake is the £2.50 as the £25000 would just be returned to the punter, so your friend is correct. Surely all you have to cover is the other side’s potential winnings?

[Ruskie]

A lot of risk for minimal reward! There are quite a few example of large amounts been lost at 1.01, 1.02, 1.03 especially in Horse Racing.

[48k]

Sterillium said:

Tried again to upload the image - the details on it are what I find confusing.

OK so yes your friend is correct. He's laying the bet so his total liability is £2.50. The punter is betting £25,000 in order to win £2.50. If the punter wins. he gets your friends £2.50 plus his £25,000 stake back. If the punter loses, your friend gets the £25,000.

[SCEtoAUX]

Forget the word "lay" completely, get completely away from the idea that this is something complicated, just understand that you (or your friend) are being the bookie and that if you want to take someone else's bet, you need to have the funds to pay out.

[CzechItOut]

To put this into context, the odds on a draw just before the match started was 6.2, so no one is going to take those odds offered.