{"id":1303,"date":"2022-03-16T15:52:06","date_gmt":"2022-03-16T15:52:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.top10bettingsites.co.uk\/?page_id=1303"},"modified":"2022-05-25T17:07:16","modified_gmt":"2022-05-25T17:07:16","slug":"how-does-back-to-lay-betting-work-in-horse-racing","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.rulesofsport.com\/betting\/horse-racing\/how-does-back-to-lay-betting-work-in-horse-racing\/","title":{"rendered":"How Does Back to Lay Betting Work in Horse Racing?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Race<\/p>\n

For decades, horse racing betting was a zero sum game \u2013 punters and bookmakers were locked in battle, and one party would win and the other would lose.<\/p>\n

But the advent of the Betfair Exchange at the turn of the new millennium changed the rules of engagement. Cutting out the \u2018middle man\u2019, punters were able to eliminate the bookies entirely, backing horses at prices with no margin built in.<\/p>\n

Or, instead, they opted to become a layer themselves, making markets and staking against those that they believed were at odds shorter than their true ability.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t take long before a few realised that they could lock in a profit by taking advantage of odds movements on the exchanges \u2013 to the extent that they could walk away in the green regardless of who won the race.<\/p>\n

This was the creation of back-to-lay, and it\u2019s reverse strategy \u2018lay-to-back\u2019, horse racing betting.<\/p>\n

What is Back-to-Lay Betting?<\/h2>\n

\"TradingOn Wall Street, traders generally abide by the maxim \u2018buy low, sell high\u2019.<\/p>\n

And the same principles can be applied in reverse when it comes to horse racing betting \u2013 back at high odds, lay at lower prices.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a number of reasons why odds drift. It could be that a horse is well fancied on race day \u2013 maybe it has started raining and softened the going, or a particular owner\/trainer\/jockey combination has won a few times on the card already.<\/p>\n

And then we consider what happens when a racing market goes in-play \u2013 a horse\u2019s odds will shorten if they come out of the stalls at pace and jumping well.<\/p>\n

The idea behind back-to-lay betting is to back a horse at higher odds than you will later hedge at. Let\u2019s use the example of the Champion Chase at the Cheltenham Festival. Our plan is to back Energumene at 4.4, and then lay the horse after a strong start at 2.5 to lock in either instant profit or create a free bet.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s our first screen:<\/p>\n

\"Back<\/p>\n

In theory, we would win \u00a334 if Energumene triumphs and lose \u00a310 (our stake) if any other horse prevails. But let\u2019s say that the horse is well backed before the off, or it\u2019s running strongly in the early going once the race has begun \u2013 his odds shorten to 2.5.<\/p>\n

Now we have two choices. We can lay Energumene at \u00a310 to create a free bet position:<\/p>\n

\"Back<\/p>\n

In this scenario, we have created a \u2018free bet\u2019 for ourselves on Energumene \u2013 we\u2019ll win \u00a319 if the horse wins the Champion Chase, and if he doesn\u2019t we\u2019ll break even (shown by the \u00a30.00 next to very other runner).<\/p>\n

Alternatively, we could use the horse\u2019s shortening as leverage to essentially back the field. Let\u2019s say we backed him \u00a310 at 4.4 and laid him \u00a322.66 at 2.5:<\/p>\n

\"Back<\/p>\n

Now we\u2019ve created a situation where we will break even if Energumene wins, but profit to the tune of \u00a312.66 \u2013 more than our initial stake \u2013 if any other horse triumphs.<\/p>\n

Back-to-Lay Betting Strategies<\/h2>\n

\"HorseSo now we know the mechanics of back-to-lay betting: we want to bet on a horse at a high price, wait for it to shorten, and then lay it back \u2013 whether that\u2019s to create a free bet, equalise profit or maximise our return on the field.<\/p>\n

But where do these scenarios play out? Generally, there\u2019s two rules of thumb. The first are those horses that are well backed as the race heads to post. Let\u2019s say that Willie Mullins, as he tends to do, has a good start to the Cheltenham Festival. Energumene, one of his charges, will almost certainly be backed in as a consequence.<\/p>\n

Another situation is a bit riskier, but the rewards are the same. Here, we would back frontrunning horses \u2013 those who tend to build a good lead in the early going \u2013 knowing that the mechanics of the market will mean that their odds simply have to shorten to win the race.<\/p>\n

What is Lay-to-Back Betting?<\/h2>\n

Let\u2019s take everything we\u2019ve learned about back-to-lay betting and then flip it on its head.<\/p>\n

Now, with lay-to-back betting, we\u2019re looking to lay horses at short odds and back them as their price rises. This is the ideal strategy for backing favourites that we expect to stay further back in the field, biding their time before they power for the line.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look at the Ballymore Novices\u2019 Hurdle, and imagine a scenario where we believe Sir Gerhard \u2013 the odds-on favourite \u2013 will occupy a position deep in the field in the early going. We lay him before the off at 1.77:<\/p>\n

\"Back<\/p>\n

As expected, Paul Townend sits tight and keeps Sir Gerhard at the back of the field, and suddenly in-running the horse drifts simply because it is off the pace. Like before, we can now back Sir Gerhard and create profit across the field, or stake in a way that gives us a free bet on the market favourite:<\/p>\n

\"Back<\/p>\n

Laid for \u00a310 at 1.77, we can now back the horse with \u00a310 at 2.8 to create a no-loss situation and potentially gain a full win should Sir Gerhard power through the field as hoped.<\/p>\n

These are just some basic back-to-lay and lay-to-back strategies, but as you can see if the market moves as we want it to, we can create \u2018free\u2019 bets for ourselves or guaranteed profit no matter who wins the race!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For decades, horse racing betting was a zero sum game \u2013 punters and bookmakers were locked in battle, and one party would win and the other would lose. But the advent of the Betfair Exchange at the turn of the new millennium changed the rules of engagement. Cutting out the \u2018middle man\u2019, punters were able […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":54,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":{"0":"post-1303","1":"page","2":"type-page","3":"status-publish","5":"entry"},"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rulesofsport.com\/betting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rulesofsport.com\/betting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rulesofsport.com\/betting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rulesofsport.com\/betting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rulesofsport.com\/betting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1303"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.rulesofsport.com\/betting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1414,"href":"https:\/\/www.rulesofsport.com\/betting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1303\/revisions\/1414"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rulesofsport.com\/betting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/54"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rulesofsport.com\/betting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}