A Lay Bet or Laying

A lay bet is a bet that something wont win. So if you lay a horse and the horse loses, you win the bet. If you lay a horse and the horse wins, you lose the bet. This type of bet has grown in popularity over the last few years with the growth of betting exchanges in particular.

The basic way, a lay bet is calculated is the mirror of a win bet - as if you are laying a bet, then someone else has the corresponding win bet.

Example
• You lay "BINGO BONGO" at 3-1 in the 3.45 at the Cheltenham Festival.
• You set a stake of £420 being the amount you could lose if the horse wins.
• As you are giving odds of 3-1, and you have set your max loss at £420, this means you can bet £140, because if the horse wins you'd lose 3 x £140 = £420 so you lose £420.
• So if the horse loses - you win £140

As you can probably see from the above your odds were the "upside down odd" of the odds you layed. In this case you layed at 3/1 meaning your odds were 1/3
• If you lay at 10-1 your odds are 1/10
• If you lay an odds on shot like at 1/5, your odds are 5/1

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