On the face of it, laying sounds too good to be true especially when it applies to Racing. It is something that has only been available to the general public since 2000 and is still relatively misunderstood. Like all things related to Racing it has also managed to develop its own jargon and ways of doing things, some good and some not so good.

What I will try to explain in this section is how you can potentially benefit from betting on horses to not win rather than trying to pick those that you hope will. Picking horses that lose is pretty natural to most people; the unfortunate thing is that they are actually trying to pick winners. Like most us this is something we also have to put our collective hands up to, but it is possible to turn this “gift” on its head to turn losing into winning or at least having fun in the process without racking up losses.

You can follow this link for a tutorial by one the Exchanges that does a good job of explaining laying and using an exchange.

Rather than going straight into talking about laying horses I think it will be easier to grasp the concept by sorting out an argument about Chocolate Digestives.

Let’s say I said to you that I thought there was no chance that you could eat a family size packet of my favourite biscuits in 5 minutes and I was also willing to put my money where my mouth is by betting you £10 that you couldn’t do it.
In turn you say “alright you’re on; I am more than a bit peckish and Chocolate Digestives are my favourite too”.
So if you don’t eat them in time you will have to pay me £10 but I will have to pay up if you do. Our friend Pam is going to act as referee and hold all the money while the challenge takes place.
To my amazement you polish off the lot in no time and Pam gives you the money.

In this instance I am acting as the layer because I am betting on the biscuits NOT being eaten within the 5 minutes.

Now let’s say you have been given the name of the sure fire winner of the 3:00 at Cheltenham Gold Cup. His name is Bandy Legs and you are going to gamble £1 on him to win.
You head off to your nearest Betting Shop and see that the price is 2 to 1. This is saying that for every £1 you put on him, the winnings would be £2 plus your stake back, in the event that Bandy Legs does in fact win.
He wins and you collect your money, thank you very much.

In this instance it is the Betting Shop that is acting as the layer. They risked their £2 to try and win your £1 by betting on Bandy Legs NOT winning the race. If Bandy Legs had not won, then you would have lost the £1.

So to sum up; laying is betting on something NOT happening. In the case of Racing, it is betting on your chosen horse NOT winning.

The only way you can do this is by using a Betting Exchange. There are several out there and they are the only places that allow you to lay horses. You can access them by phone, internet and now mobile but you must be an account holder.

Betting Exchanges.

If we go back to the first example with the biscuits and we have the basics of a Betting Exchange. I don’t mean there are loads of people in biscuit eating competitions but it is where you have 2 sides disagreeing on the outcome of some event and there is someone in the middle holding the money until the event is completed.

In the example we disagreed about the time taken to eat biscuits, on a Betting Exchange the dispute is about who will win or not win whatever event is in question. You will have one side saying I think Bandy Legs will win and on the other you will find those who think not. The Betting Exchange acts as a go between bringing together the 2 sides and charges the winner a commission on their winnings for doing this.

It worth visiting one of the Exchange sites to see for yourself what they look like and whether or not this is something you would want to take further. Take your time to follow different links and see the race markets in action. They are called markets for the simple reason that this is just what they are, people offering prices and people taking them.

This may at first be a case of information overload but if you just think of the race market you are looking at as 2 opposing sides arguing over which horse will win that race.
The different coloured boxes with numbers inside them are the prices currently being offered, you will see these numbers change as the market’s confidence in each runner goes up or down.
Betting Exchanges use what is known as decimal odds instead of what most people recognise as betting odds prices and these are the numbers in those boxes.
But why change what people already recognise?
For instance it is easy to understand 2 to 1 as being if the horse wins then you will get 2 back and the original stake. This is known as fractional odds and most of us have heard such prices when horse racing is being discussed.
But what about prices like 6 to 4 or 13 to 8? Now the price is not so clear and quick calculations have to be made as to what you would get back if your horse won.

The prices shown on the Exchanges make this easier, not child’s play, but a lot easier than the fractional system when trying to work out what something is going to cost. Click here more information on Decimal Odds.
A simple rule is to deduct 1 from the number and you get your price.
For example a price of 3 on the exchange would be 2 to 1 in normal terms (3 – 1 = 2), another example would be an exchange price of 6 would be 5 to 1 in normal terms (6 – 1 = 5).
It really is that simple. Taking this on a little bit further would be to say that an exchange price of 3.5 on a £1 stake would mean you risking £2.50 on a lay bet (3.5 – 1 = 2.5).

I am going to assume you have had a look at a race market on one of the exchanges and you have seen the list of horses in that race with rows of boxes to the left of the horse’s names. Let’s look at the horse at the top of the list and it’s our old friend Bandy Legs. He is the favourite and if we follow along the boxes to the left of his name you will see that the 2 centre boxes are coloured. These represent the prices being offered by those who think Bandy legs will win and those who think he will lose. No mater which exchange you are looking at, prices being offered by the layers are on the right and those who think he will win will be offered on the left.
So if you want to lay Bandy Legs and are prepared to accept a price being currently offered, you would take one from the right hand side.

To place a lay bet you simply click on the box on the right hand side that has the lowest price in it. This is the best price on offer from someone who thinks Bandy Legs will win.
You don’t have to take the price, the section to the right of the boxes gives you the option to change the price and enter your stake.
If you accept the current price then chances are your bet will go through ok. If you put in a price well below the current price then you will have to accept that it may not go through because no-one will want to bet with you.

What you must remember with laying is that the higher price you accept or offer, the higher your loss will be if the horse wins.

That in a nutshell is laying and the very basics on how to do it.