Backing and Laying

Betting Exchange Concept

In order to profit from football trading, as opposed to betting, the use of a betting exchange is essential. A betting exchange provides the option to buy (‘back’) and sell (‘Lay’) bets and to benefit from price movements as football matches proceed. Whereas traditional bookmakers typically only offer customers the option of buying (or backing) bets and to enter into a bet at a fixed price before a match starts.

Back Bet: if you want to bet on something happening you place a ‘Back’ bet

Lay Bet: if you want to bet against something happening you place a ‘Lay’ bet

The use of both ‘Back’ and ‘Lay’ bets allows us, as traders, to benefit from price movement as a match develops. This will be explained in some examples below.

When placing bets (‘Back’ or ‘Lay’) at an exchange you are betting against other exchange users. This is very different to the concept of placing bets with a bookmaker. The exchanges make their money by charging a small percentage on any winnings you make from your trades. This means the exchanges are happy for you to make as many bets/trades as you like and they don’t care how many winners you have, unlike a traditional bookmaker.

Back Bet Overview

Buying a bet is known as a ‘Back’ bet on an exchange. Most people are familiar with a ‘Back’ bet from placing bets at traditional bookmakers, e.g. if I place a ‘Back’ bet on Liverpool to win against Everton, then I am backing one of three possible outcomes on the match; Liverpool win [the other two outcomes are Everton win and the match is drawn].

My ‘back’ bet will either win or lose:

Win: if Liverpool win the match then my ‘Back’ bet wins.

  • I get my stake returned plus the winnings defined by the odds (less any commission if the bet is placed on an exchange).

Lose: if the match ends in a draw or Everton win/Liverpool lose, then my ‘Back’ bet loses.

  • I lose my stake (and there are no winnings and hence no commission to the exchange).

Lay Bet Overview

Selling a bet is known as a ‘Lay’ bet on an exchange. A ‘Lay’ bet is the opposite to a ‘Back’ bet where you are betting against something. Continuing with the example match above for Liverpool vs. Everton, if I ‘Lay’ Liverpool then I am backing against Liverpool winning. This means I am backing two of three possible outcomes on the match; Everton win and the match ends in a draw [the other outcome is Liverpool win]. Depending on the result of the match, my ‘Lay’ bet will win or lose:

Lose: if Liverpool win the match then my ‘Lay’ bet loses.

  • I lose my stake (and there are no winnings and hence no commission to the exchange).

Win: if the match ends in a draw or Everton win (Liverpool lose), then my ‘Lay’ bet wins.

  • I get my stake returned plus the winnings (less any commission if the bet is placed on an exchange).

The amount you can win and lose from a ‘Lay’ bet is a function of the odds when the bet is placed. This is explained in more detail in the worked examples below, however, at this stage bear in mind that the potential losses from a ‘Lay’ bet can be considerably higher than the amount staked. This is a key difference from a ‘Back’ bet. When you place a ‘Lay’ bet, you are effectively acting as the bookmaker for the person placing the corresponding ‘Back’ bet, so if your ‘Lay’ loses then you have to pay the ‘Back’ bettors winnings, known as liability in the exchange.

The table below summarises the result of the examples used above where I have placed two different bets:

  1. a ‘Back’ bet on Liverpool
  2. a ‘Lay’ bet on Liverpool
Match Result 1. ‘Back’ Liverpool Bet 2. ‘Lay’ Liverpool Bet
Liverpool Win wins loses
Everton Win loses wins
Draw loses wins


Obviously, the same logic applies in case I had placed a ‘Back’ or ‘Lay’ on Everton.

To cover all scenarios for the Match Odds market, the table below shows the winning and losing scenarios where a ‘Back’ or ‘Lay’ is placed on the draw.

Match Result 1. ‘Back’ Draw 2. ‘Lay’ Draw
Liverpool Win loses wins
Everton Win loses wins
Draw wins loses


The examples provided above cover the market known as ‘Match Odds’ on the betting exchanges. Once you open your exchange account you will see that there are many different markets to trade on for football matches, some of the more common markets are:

  • Over / Under 0.5 Goals – depends on a single goal in the match
  • Over / Under 1.5 Goals – depends on two goals in the match
  • Over / Under 2.5 Goals – depends on three goals in the match
  • First Half Over / Under 0.5 Goals – depends on a single goal in first half of the match