The world of horse racing is loaded with 100% pure adrenaline. Those finely muscled stallions are raring to go and big money bettors are always but a punt away from minting it. An exciting form of betting is available for horse racing punters. It’s known as Lay Betting. In simple terms, Laying horses to lose is about betting on them to perform poorly. In this type of betting, it’s very important to control your bankroll because Lay Bets require a certain skill level.
How to Go About Placing Lay Bets
The first option is known as Level Stakes, with variable liability. The other betting option is known as Limited Liability with a variable stake. Both options are enticing betting concepts. If you’re keen to crank up a bankroll in double-quick time then you’re no doubt going to want to try out the Level Stakes punting option. On this betting type, you’re making the same profit on every Lay that you make but there is an increased level of liability because serious damage can come to you when you punt with higher odds lays or incur a greater run of losses.
How to Expose Less of Your Bankroll?
The best option for punters is to make use of the Limited Liability or percentage staking. This betting option raises your safety level by protecting your bankroll that much more. Let’s make use of a simple numerical example to display what this means: if you restrict your stake to a 5 point liability, you’re essentially saying that the percentage is 2.5/100 or 2.5% of your 200 point bank. Now if you dropped your bankroll to say – 100 points – then your maximum liability would be sitting at around 5% of the bank – this is known as your maximum exposure.
Lay Betting in Horse Racing: Level Stakes vs. Fixed Liability
It has often been said that there is a very real dilemma when laying a horse racing bet. The win rate is higher, but the liability incurred when losing a bet is greater so it’s really important to manage the bankroll more effectively. The two options to consider are level stakes and limited liability stakes. The former is a variable liability bet while the latter is a variable stake (the amount that you bet changes).
In its simplest form, a 'Lay Bet’ is basically a bet that a horse will not win. It’s the polar opposite of a back bet – or a bet that backs a horse to win. When a punter decides to lay a horse in a betting selection, then that punter will win if the horse loses. And conversely that same punter would lose should that horse win. It’s quite like taking the role of a betting exchange. In this case you would be penalized for winning punters’ selections and you would be rewarded by losing punters’ selections.
Two screens are typically seen in betting exchanges – the blue screen (backing a selection) or the pink screen (laying a selection). Bookmakers nowadays do prefer to significantly shorten the odds compared to the betting exchanges, where lay bets are concerned. A caveat is in order with the lay betting option: if you lose and the horse that you have lay bet on wins, then you could be paying out a fortune of money. That’s why it’s very important to limit your liability to a Fixed Limit loss cap. Lady Luck and good selections will help you to pick a losing horse and win big time!