Understanding laying in betfair

jsmoke · 1 Jul 2012 at 01:56

So there was a match 1-1 at 86mins and there was still an option to lay 2-2 at 100.

So say i put down a £2 stake(lay) on this, it says your liability is £198 and payout £200.

So i am right in saying that if the game ends not 2-2 then i make £200 by only staking £2 on the lay?

I was under the impression that i would only win what i staked on the lay i.e £2 and if i lost the lay in the case £198. Which is it.

Seems too good to be. I know i could also lose £198 by only betting £2 but not sure if i missed something here.

jsmoke · 1 Jul 2012 at 12:13

Russinating said:
Nope, the complete opposite.

What you lay is how much you'll get if correct. So if you lay £2 then you'll "win" £2 if you're correct (ie the other person's bet). Your liability is what will be taken out of your account if you lose (ie the other persons's winnings).

That's what i thought, as you can see i've never bet on a lay but to the right hand side why does it say payout, £200 or so.

jsmoke · 1 Jul 2012 at 13:26

May as well keep this next question here.

So hedging(think that's the right term) on say the horses. If you look at this pic i have greened out about the first half of the field. Is this hedging and it is this a good strategy. Even though this is just test values i couldn't really practically lose here??

jsmoke · 1 Jul 2012 at 15:27

mmj_uk said:
When you lay on Betfair you are basically playing the role of the bookies, so if you lay 2-2 at 100 you are offering someone 99/1 that the game will finish 2-2, if they take your 99/1 and stick £2 on 2-2 you have to pay them out their winnings if they win (£198), if they lose you keep their stake.

Not sure about what hedging is but eventually an outsider will win and you'll be wiped out.

Got you, thanks. How about the above picture of the horses?

jsmoke · 2 Jul 2012 at 16:28

Russinating said:
Out of interest, what calc did you use to work out your hedge amounts?

Trial and error

jsmoke · 2 Jul 2012 at 19:07

Russinating said:
Dutching, that another term for the same thing? I found earlier when looking for an arbitrage calculator.

Have an example of a past soccer score you dutched?

I think dutching is when you "green out" some possibilities(such as in my above example) whereas hedging is when you "green out" all and hence are guaranteed a win. So hedging is trading, back and lay in-play when the odds go the right way whereas dutching is trying to green out as many possibilities as possible probably pre outcome.