What does Back and Lay Mean?
What does Back and Lay Mean?
A traditional bookmaker takes 'back' bets. You back an outcome in a betting market and the bookie pays out if your bet wins.
However, betting exchanges - such as FancyWin- allow you to 'back' or 'lay'.
As well as being able to 'back' an outcome, you can also take on the traditional role of the bookmaker and 'lay' it. In other words, your bet wins if the outcome of an event doesn't happen.
For example, let's say you are interested in betting on the winner of the Premier League.
You can see the back and lay odds below
On FancyWin, back odds are displayed in blue and lay odds are pink.
In this example, Man City are the current favourites to win the Premier League with back odds of 1.73. This means that if you back Man City with a £10 stake, your return will be £17.30 (£7.30 profit) if they go on to win the title.
A lay bet is the exact opposite, so you are betting on something not to happen.
If you lay Man City, you are betting on them not to win the Premier League.
If any one of the other 19 teams wins the title, your lay bet wins.
Lay Bet Liability
When placing a back bet, you can never lose more than your stake. However, when you lay a bet, the liability can be a lot more than your stake and you must be fully aware of the risk before placing your bet.
In the Premier League example, Man City are 1.73 to back and 1.74 to lay.
If you decide to lay Man City for a stake of £10, you will win £10 if any other team but Man City wins the Premier League.
Just as you stand to lose your stake when backing Man City, a lay bet is opposite so you win your stake if Man City don't become champions.
If Man City do go on to lift the trophy, your liability will be determined by the lay price and, again, it's the opposite of backing.
In this case, it would be (£10 x 1.74) - £10 = £7.40
Backing and laying are simply opposites:
- Back Man City with a stake of £10 at 1.73 to try and win £7.30
- Lay Man City with a liability of £7.40 to try and win £10
When placing a lay bet, your liability is always removed from your account balance as FancyWin has to assume the worst case scenario - that you lose your bet.
Therefore, you can never risk losing more than the money you already have in your FancyWin account.
Once the Premier League winner has been decided, the market will be settled. Bear in mind that you may have a large liability tied up for many months if you get involved in long-term trades.
Remember, FancyWin also charge a small commission on winning bets.