Back Bets/Lay Bets – Tutorial

From my point of view, today trading is becoming increasingly important for a good bettor, and the purpose of this tutorial is to give you some basic concepts for all bettors who want to get into trading. In this tutorial I’m going to talk a little bit about everything, except for unmatched bets, since that isn’t what this tutorial is about.

Before going further, you should already be registered with Betfair, and it is essential to put all the options in the view in order to be able to know—before placing any bet—what kind of gains and losses you’re going to have when you make a given bet; that is, when you get into the market of your choice (I picked the Spain – Greece game), everything must be displayed, you must put up the following options:

Putting all the options in a view is a very important step, because a lot of people say that they can’t make green books, and in fact without this step it makes it hard to do it. Now let’s go to the first part of our tutorial.

Part I – Back bets

I’m now going to show how to make a back bet. In this same game (Spain – Greece) I decided to back Spain for 10€ at 2.96 odds, clicking on point 1 to do so.

As in any house, the amount that is shown at point 2, like for any betting house is 10×2.96=19.60€. Only, this amount is not the actual amount that the bettor will win if they win the bet. The correct amount is shown at point 3, that is, when you make a back bet, the amount that you win from the bet is always shown underneath the name of the team that you’re backing. Why are they different? The difference is the commission that Betfair subtracts (on the order of 5%, depending on the Betfair points that the bettor has) from the amount won on the bet. In this type of bet, and in this specific case, if Spain wins the match, the bettor wins the bet; if the game is tied or Greece wins, the bettor loses the bet.

We should mention that Betfair only subtracts the commission if the bettor wins the bet; if the better loses, they only lose the 10€ that they bet.

Note: After hitting submit, the bettor must check whether the bet was matched.

Part II – Lay bets

I’m now going to show how to make a lay bet. In this same game (Spain – Greece) I decided to lay 10€ on a tie, at 1.85 odds, clicking on point 1 to do so.

When this bet is made, the amount that the person laying the tie bets equals:

“ValueBet x odds – ValueBet”: in this case, 10×1.85-10 = 8.50€. This is the amount shown at point 2, and point 3 is the amount the better “spends” on the bet. The amount the bettor wins on any lay bet is the amount bet, which in this case is 10€, but don’t forget that we must subtract the Betfair commission from this amount, and then the amount that the bettor wins in the other options is the amount is shown in point 4. To review, to lay on a tie means that for the bettor to win the bet, the game must end with one of the teams winning, regardless of who wins. The amount won is the amount of the bet minus the Betfair commission, and the amount “spent” is the amount calculated by the formula described above.

Note: After hitting submit, the bettor must check whether the bet was matched.

Part III – Trading

What does trading mean? Trading means buying and selling bets as a way to guarantee profit. Here I am going to show you how to make the most simple green book, to give you some idea of how this is done. To be a good trader, you must grasp how to make a simple green book, and from that point on, the only way to perfect the method is to practice.

A simple green book means to make a back bet, as I showed you in Part I, using the example of backing Spain for 10 € at 2.96 odds. We wait for the game to unfold, and as we expected, Spain winds up scoring a goal, and obviously the odds for Spain’s victory are going to drop. At this point we can make green book and “sit out” the rest of the match and always win the same profit, even if Spain doesn’t win. Therefore, a simple green book means to make a back bet at a given odds, and then a lay bet at lower odds.

But let’s go through it step by step. Before the match starts, we back Spain at 2.96 odds, Spain scores a goal, and we suspect that the odds for Spain will drop to 1.40. At this point we are going to sell (bet against) the bet, clicking on point 1.

The question now is, how to arrive the amount in point 2 so that no matter what the result of the match is, we will always get the same profit?

“(oddsBackBet/ oddsLayBet) x amountBackBet”, in this case, (2.96/1.4)x10 = 21.14€. And now this is the amount that we must enter at point 2.

When the bet is made, as we can see, the profits will be split no matter what the result is, and this profit will be 10.58€.

In this type of green book, to split the profit in the same way we use this formula; however, we can only place the profits from the forecasts, increasing or decreasing the amount that is entered in point 2. This is why it is very important to have all options in sight, so that before you make a given bet, you can see how much you will win or lose when you make it.

This green book is like the standard green book I already discussed, the simplest one that you can have, but you can have green books only making back bets, only making lay bets, or first making a lay bet and then a back bet (the opposite of what we described here). You will only learn by practicing; what I have shown you here is the essential and first step towards learning.

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Author: Luis Carlos

Tutorial: Back Bets/Lay Bets – Tutorial

1 – BACK BETS

>>>You think that a team is going to win, so you back it<<<

Example: I think that Sporting is going to win, so I place a 4.00€ back bet, with 2.84 chance of winning (odds). We can see in the green that if Sporting wins, we win 7.36€. The red show us the risk we run if we make this bet: that is, 4.00€ if Sporting doesn’t win.

Considerations concerning back bets:
- The higher the odds, the better, since our potential profit is greater.
- The amount bet is exactly equal to the risk. That is, if you make a 4.00€ back bet on a team and they don’t win, you only lose the same 4.00€ that you bet.
- Profit = amount bet x (odds – 1)

2 – LAY BETS

>>>If you think that a team is not going to win, you lay it<<<

This phrase means the same thing as saying:

>>>If you think that a team is going to tie or lose, you lay it<<<

Example: I think that Sporting is not going to win, and so I lay 4.00€ on Sporting at 2.86 odds.
The green shows my profit if Sporting ties or loses.

The red shows my liability. Remember that I don’t run any risk, like in the case of back bets. In summary, when you hear talk of liabilities, they’re talking about lay bets.

Considerations concerning lay bets:
- The lower the odds, the better, since your liability is less.
- The amount bet is equal to the profit.
- Liability = amount bet x (odds – 1)

3 – SUMMARY TABLE OF MAIN DIFFERENCES

4 – COMBINING BACK BETS AND LAY BETS

It’s a good idea to combine back bets with lay bets, since when this combination is well executed, you create situation where you never lose, regardless of the end result.
To do so, all you need to do is to place a back bet at odds greater than the lay bet.

Example: Sticking to the example from the second section, where we laid 4.00€ on Sporting at 2.86 odds, we’re going to suppose that a goal was scored against Sporting. Then, because the probability of winning the game would decrease, the odds increase.

Now that the odds in favor are higher, we bet 4.00€ at 6.00 odds.

As you see, if Sporting wins, we win 12.56€ and if they tie or lose, we don’t win or lose. We thus achieve a situation where we never lose.

5.1 – SPLITTING PROFIT (1st method)

Remember that in the previous section, I said it was possible to guarantee against loss, but not to guarantee profit. To guarantee profit, regardless of the result, we have to split. To do so, all you have to do is make a simple mathematical calculation:

Amount to bet to split the profit = profit / lay odds

Amount to bet to split the profit = 12.56 / 6.2 = 2.03€

To repeat, 3 bets were made:
1st 4.00€ lay on Sporting at 2.86 (because we thought that Sporting wouldn’t win)
2nd 4.00€ backing Sporting at 6 (to guarantee that we would never lose)
3rd 2.03 lay on Sporting at 6.2 (to split the profit)

5.2 – SPLITTING PROFIT (2nd method)

There’s a faster way to split profit.
Returning to the example in section 2, where we laid 4.00€ on Sporting at 2.86 odds, and supposing that Sporting had a goal scored against them, causing its odds to win to rise to 6.000, we go to the following site: tinyurl.com/3bqr9d

And we chose the following options:
- Back/Lay in the upper right corner
- Since our 1st bet was a lay, we chose “Lay Selection 1”
- In the Price boxes we enter our odds. 2.86 and 6.00
- In the Stake box we enter the amount bet in the first bet. In this case, 4,00€
- We click calculate
- 1.91€ will appear in the stake box. This should be the amount of the back bet to split the winnings.

To repeat, two bets were made:
1st 4.00€ lay on Sporting at 2.86 (because we thought that Sporting wouldn’t win)
2nd 1.91€ back bet on Sporting at 6.00 (to split the winnings)

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