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UFC / MMALooking for lay betting tips on horse racing? Follow our expert tips as we pick out horses to take on a back to lose with our Lay of the Day tips.
While we select a Racing Bet of the Day every day with our award-winning tips, we also provide the horses to avoid. We take on short-priced favourites or horses towards the head of the betting and back them to lose by laying them at Betfair Australia.
Lay of the Day is available Monday-Friday each week, you will just need a Betfair account if you are following the selections.
Today’s Lay of the Day
September 19 (Wangaratta)
Race 4 – Charlie & Emma Mifsud Memorial SV Maiden Plate (2000m)
Having tipped BEST MAN as the best bet of the day last start where he finished a narrow 2nd at decent odds, he now looks way under value as the $2.60 favourite. The son of Al Maher steps up to 2000m for the first time and has struck a wide gate in the process. He’ll either have to work hard to get across from barrier 10 or he’ll be stuck deep for the trip which is not ideal over the untried trip. There are plenty of others with more upside, and this race looks like a bit of a lottery.
Recommended Bet
Best Man
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What is lay betting and how does it work?
Lay betting is simply betting on an outcome not to happen. By laying something – be it a horse winning a race, a team winning a game or a correct scoreline – you go from being the punter to the bookmaker.
It is exactly the same as the many, many occasions in your life that you will have said to a friend: “I bet you a tenner that xxx won’t happen”. You back your belief and bet that something won’t happen.
In that scenario, whether you are right or your friend is right – one of you wins $10. It is a 50/50 chance so that odds are $2.00 and you win the exact same amount as you are risking. That being $10.
Where can you lay bet?
Betting exchanges such as Betfair Australia – where you bet against fellow punters – have made lay betting possible, and you’ll find that we offer a daily Lay Of The Day in which we picked out a short-priced horse we expect won’t be winning.
But there are other opportunities to lay horses, and particularly favourites, with Ladbrokes Australia, Betstar and Bookmaker.com.au all offering the opportunity to take on the favourite with the field.
If you think the favourite looks vulnerable in any Thoroughbred, Harness and Greyhound race, increase your chance of beating them by backing the whole field. You can now do this in one simple bet with the three bookmakers.
bet365 also offer the opportunity to bet on whether a horse will win or not on a whole selection of races from across the globe every single day.
How does Lay Betting work at Betfair?
In lay betting, you become the bookmaker. You offer the odds on an outcome that you think won’t happen for other exchange punters to accept.
When you offer a lay bet, you get a bigger chance of finding a winner. If you bets is in a horse race, then you get the rest of the field to beat the horse you’ve laid. If it is in a WDW market you get two other outcomes against the team you’ve laid, or if it is a straight head-to-head your get the opponent of the team or player you’ve bet against.
The image below shows the Betfair odds for the 2015 Melbourne Cup. You can see that Protectionist is 17.5 to win the race, or you can lay at 22 if you think he won’t win the race.
The odds in blue are what other punters have already laid at (meaning you can back at those odds) and the odds in pink are what punters are wanting to back the horse at (and you can therefore lay).
If the odds change for a reason and are suddenly bigger to back than the figure you have laid at, you can then get involved in order to come out with a profit on all outcomes. This is known as trading.
There is no bookmaker involved at Betfair – you are betting against one another’s opinions. Betfair will simply take 5% commission of whichever person wins the bet. So for every $1 you win, Betfair will take 5 cents.
How to place a lay bet on Betfair?
Placing a lay bet on Betfair is simple. Visit the race, match or market you want to bet on and you’ll find the current odds in blue and pink.
Blue is the price you can back at and pink is the current odds you can lay at. You can adjust the figures and wait for the bets to be matched, or take those currently available.
To place a lay bet, click on the odds of the horse, team or player you want to bet against. Insert your stake and if you are happy with the liability amount place the bet.
You will then see your winnings among displayed alongside each of the outcomes.
Liabilities explained
The liability is the amount that you could lose in a worst-case scenario when you place a lay bet. You are in full control of how much you wish to risk and how much you could win.
In a lay bet, you always stand to win the stake of the opposing bet (for example the amount you have bet on the outcome not happening). When laying, however, the important figure is the amount it will cost you if you get it wrong and your selection wins the race or match.
It is how much you are risking. So if you bet $10 that a horse won’t win and lay at odds of 4.5 – you liability is $35. That is the amount you will lose if the outcome happens and is therefore the liability you have.
You have to manage the risks because the amounts you could lose are significantly bigger than you could win in certain cases. Here is a simple guide:
- If you lay a 3.00 shot for $20 – if it loses then you win $20, but if you are wrong and it wins you lose $60 (3 x $20)
- If you lay a 21.00 shot for $10 – if it loses then you win $10, but if you are wrong and it wins you lose $210 (21 x $10)
- If you lay a 1.50 shot for $60 – if it loses then you win $60, but if you are wrong and it wins you lose $90 (1.50 x $60)
Lay betting in horse racing is proving extremely popular as you are betting against a horse winning, meaning you have betting one of the remainder of the field to win. It is equally popular in other sports where punters have a strong opinion that a team will not win, for example.