What Does Back and Lay Betting Mean on Betfair?

Written By: William Bunker
Last Updated: October 11, 2022

What Is The Betfair Exchange?

The Betfair Exchange is a peer to peer branch of the Betfair betting website that matches Betfair customers together that want to bet on the inverse result of the same option. An example would be a bet on Man City to win and a bet on Man City to draw or lose. 

What Is Back and Lay In Betfair? 

Each bet pair that is set up is composed of both a back and a lay bet. You can’t have one without the other, as the one supports the other. 

What’s A Back Bet? 

A back bet is a bet that is placed on the Betfair Exchange in hopes of something happening. Which functions like a bet placed on the sports book, with the only significant difference being that you can choose your own odds.

You select the option that you think is going to come off. In our example, Man City would win.

What’s A Lay Bet? 

A lay bet is a bet that is placed on the Betfair Exchange, which functions differently from bets placed on the sportsbook, as it is in response to the back bet.

If you’re back bet is to support the option you think is going to come off, the lay bet is placed when you think an option is not going to come off. In our example, Man City would draw or lose.

How To Place A Back Bet

To place a back bet follow the below steps: 

  1. Access the Betfair Exchange via website or app, and log in to your account. 
  2. Make sure your account has sufficient funds to place the stake that you’re wanting to wager. 
  3. Locate the betting market that you’ve decided on or are interested in via the search bar, the side menu or the in-play betting tab. 
  4. Navigate to the game that you want to bet on from this same menu. 
  5. Click on the Back option in blue. 
  6. Enter your desired stake and odds. 
  7. If you find a match, the bet will be live. If your bet comes back unmatched, you can edit the bet to offer more generous odds to the lay, or cancel the bet and choose another option to try. 

How To Place A Lay Bet

To place a lay bet follow the below steps: 

  1. Access the Betfair Exchange via website or app, and log in to your account. 
  2. Make sure your account has sufficient funds to place the stake that you’re wanting to wager.
  3. Locate the betting market that you’ve decided on or are interested in via the search bar, the side menu or the in-play betting tab. 
  4. Navigate to the game that you want to bet on from this same menu. 
  5. Click on the lay option in red. 
  6. Enter your desired stake and odds. 
  7. If you find a match, the bet will be live. If your bet comes back unmatched, you can edit the bet to offer more generous odds to the back, or delete the bet and choose another option to try. 

What Is Back All And Lay All On Betfair? 

The back all and lay all feature on the Betfair Exchange is a neat way to cover all of the selections available on the result of a game.

Betfair will show both team win options and the draw option on a betslip with default odds ready to edit and add stake either at back or lay. This is a great method if you think that you can profit from a divergence in odds on an event. 

William Bunker
William Bunker

I’ve always been partial to a flutter on any big sports event, ever since I had pocket money to spend. This sports gambling hobby made the transition into gambling and casino writing a natural one. I’ve always loved watching and playing football growing up and am an avid follower of Chelsea FC.

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