How To Place A Lay Bet On The Exchange

In order to complete a matched betting offer, you must first learn how to place a lay bet on the exchange. Lay betting is betting on a selection to lose. The essential premise of matched betting is to place a back bet with a bookmaker and place a lay bet on a betting exchange in order to cover both outcomes. You will take a small loss in order to qualify for a free bet, with which you can then use the same process to guarantee a profit.

When you have signed up to a betting exchange such as Betfair Exchange or Smarkets you can profit from their welcome offers while also completing the different bookmaker offers. The betting exchange is interesting as you are able to play the part of either a punter or the bookmaker. It also allows you to either bet on a selection to win or bet on a selection to lose.

When completing matched betting offers, you will spend most of your time playing the role of bookmaker. Looking at how to place a lay bet, we will take Betfair as an example.

The first thing we need to do is ensure we are on the Exchange, not the Sportsbook. On Betfair, the lay market is shown in pink and once you have clicked the pink box, the betslip box will be shown to the right of the page. All you will then need to do is type in your lay stake, as the selection and odds will be updated automatically.

You will then be shown your liability (how much you could lose from the bet) and potential profit. Then click the place bets button and confirm the bet in order to match your bet. After this, the liability will be deducted from your account. You must then ensure that your bet has been fully matched, which can be checked under ‘Matched Bets’ once you have confirmed.

The colour of the lay box varies on different exchanges. On Smarkets for example, the lay box is blue. The rest of the process is essentially the same.

You will always be able to work out your lay stake for each bet thanks to our matched betting calculator. On some occasions the Odds Matcher will fill the calculator for you, and on other occasions all you need to do is add in the back odds and lay odds as well as the back stake, and the calculator will work out the ideal lay stake each time, meaning you can maximise the value of an offer.