Lay the field is becoming an increasingly popular way to improve your winning chances while minimising your risk.

It is only available through betting exchanges such as Betfair, but trading on such exchanges is now the bread and butter of a large proportion of online punters. First, we will explain what lay the field means, and then suggest some tactics around it that have the potential to increase your returns.

Of course, nothing is guaranteed, and there are some downsides too, but it is certainly worth investing some effort in exploring its potential. It doesn’t work for every race; so you need to learn where it is most effective, but effectively you are acting as the bookmaker, and you don’t see many poor bookmakers.

What is lay the field?

Laying involves betting on a horse to lose. It’s much easier to pick losers than winners as there are naturally more of them.  When you lay, and you find a matching bet, then you keep the bettor’s stake if the horse loses. If the horse wins, then you pay out the odds. Effectively, by laying you are going to reduce the frequency of your losses, but when they do occur, they are going to be relatively expensive.

By laying the field, you are betting on every horse to lose, so with a ten-horse race, you will win nine times and lose just once. Say you laid the field at 3.00. If every lay were matched, you would soon be rolling in it. The problem is that usually, you wouldn’t be able to find matching bets. But there is a way.

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In-running

The secret is in-running. You lay the field (at Betfair this is the same as “Lay All”) at your chosen price, say 2.0 and keep the bets through the in-running part of the race. Several things can happen:

• – None of your bets is matched – in which case you win nothing and lose nothing.
• – At least three bets are matched – you will always make a profit
• – Two bets are matched – you will break even
• – One bet is matched, AND the horse wins, – you will make a small loss.

The reason this works is that in-running prices are likely to change throughout the race. For instance, for a runner starting at 4.00, the odds are likely to shorten if the horse looks like challenging for the lead, passing through your 2.00 lay and thus matching your bet.  

An example

Say you lay the field at 2.00 at £5.00, and four bets were matched in-running. If none of the matched bets won the race, you would have a clear profit of £20. Your worst case scenario is that one of your matched bets won the race. In that case, you would receive £15.00 from the three other bets, and you would pay out £5.00, leaving you with a profit of £10.

The downside is if only one of your lays was matched, and the horse won, you would lose £5. Laying the winner is unfortunate, but not such a huge downside when you consider the potential gains.

Choosing the best races

In our example, we decided to use odds of 2.00, but they might not be high enough to generate enough matched bets to cancel out the downslide of laying the winner. The best strategy is to modify the odds so that you generate enough matched bets. Getting this right isn’t easy, and the best odds will vary significantly between races, so you will need to choose the races carefully.

The best races for laying the field are close-run ones with similar odds on the four or so top entries. On the other hand, races with a clear favourite where the odds are very short, are not suited to laying the field.

Want to know how to trade the horse racing markets before the off? Check out this in-depth guide to scalping on Betfair. 

Regular football bettors will be acquainted with the concept of three-way bets (3-way bets) as these apply to sports events that have three possible outcomes. In football terms, league matches end in a home win, an away win, or a draw.

Naturally, they don’t apply only to football; they apply equally to rugby, cricket, and even boxing. They don’t apply to games such as tennis that have only two possible outcomes.   

Some examples of 3-way bets

Let’s dig a little deeper with an example, again using football betting. A few days before the 2019 FA Cup Final between Manchester City and Watford, typical odds for the match were Manchester City 1/4, Draw 6/1, Watford 14/1.

In this 3 way bet you can bet on any of these outcomes. A successful £5 bet on Manchester City will return a profit of £1.25; on a draw a profit of £30, and on Watford a profit of  £70.

What you need to consider is whether you want to take a gamble the underdog wins or even draws the game which would return you a healthy profit or bet on the favourite even though you stand to win very little.

Many 3-way football bets have much closer odds. For instance, a French Ligue 1 game between Bordeaux and Reims has odds of Home (Bordeaux) 11/8, Draw 23/10, Away 23/10. Again, you can bet on any of the three possible results.

Here is an example of a 3-way bet from cricket, this time the County Championship Division One. In the match between Kent and Yorkshire, the odds on offer were Kent 8/1, Draw 17/10, Yorkshire 1/2.

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3-way handicap bets

While with outright 3 way bets you bet on a home win, an away win or a draw starting from a level playing field, in other words from a score of 0-0, three-way handicap bets apply to the same outcomes, but the initial score isn’t 0-0, When one team has a distinct advantage over another, bookmakers often offer three-way handicap bets. To see how this works, let’s look at an example.

Consider a game in which Liverpool is playing away to Huddersfield Town. Even though Huddersfield is playing at home, so will receive some sort of home advantage, and Liverpool might not be starting with its top players, the outcome is something of a no-brainer.

The chances of a win for Huddersfield or even a draw is remote. Liverpool will almost certainly win, and the betting odds reflect this. You won’t make much money betting on Liverpool and, although there are attractive odds for a  Huddersfield win, dedicated Huddersfield fans will be reluctant to bet on their club winning; it’s just throwing money away.

To make betting on this match more attractive, bookmakers offer 3-way handicap bets in which game starts other than 0-0 are offered with different odds. Game starts might be offered at 0:1, 0:2, 0.3, or even 0:4. So if you chose a bet of Huddersfield  +4, then you will win even if Liverpool beat Huddersfield by three goals. If they beat them by four goals, then the game is paid out as a draw.

Handicap three-way bets are certainly another string for the football better’s bow and an exciting way to bet on any game where the sides are mismatched. To make the best of this strategy, you need to consider likely outcomes and the odds that available carefully. Often it isn’t too difficult to beat the bookmaker and discover value bets that maximise your chances of making a profit.

Get free football tips from the experts here. 

Draw no bet football accumulators are often valuable when you cannot rule out the possibility that one or more of your selections might end in a draw.  

While the odds are not as high as with a straight football accumulator, draw no bet accumulators are also safer bets. Here we will talk you through the bet starting with accumulators before moving on to the details of draw no bet accumulators. We also mention mixed draw no bet accumulators and when they can be particularly helpful.

Accumulator Bets

An accumulator bet is a bet that combines several selections into a single bet. The potential payout is calculated by multiplying the odds of each selection. You can make as many selections as you like, but each one must win. If you sustain a single loss, you will lose the whole bet.

For instance, if with a fourfold accumulator you selected Spurs, Manchester United, Chelsea, and Arsenal which were all priced at 2/1, then the odds would be 80/1, so a £10 bet would return £810, a profit of £800.

Draw No Bet

Sometimes in football betting, a game that should see a clear winner can sometimes end in an unexpected draw. Although this is not a regular outcome, it does happen, and as a precaution, you can make a draw no bet punt. The advantage is that if the game results in a draw, the bet is cancelled, and your stake is returned.

This can be a useful bet if you cannot choose a likely winner. It just depends on how sure you are about your selection.

Draw No Bet Accumulator

With a straight football bet, it can be quite debatable whether you choose a draw no bet punt. Yes, your stake will be returned if there is a draw, but if you win your odds will be reduced. Some people like them and others don’t see the point. However, with an accumulator, it’s a different ball game. Remember, if just one of the selections in your accumulator loses, then the whole bet is lost.

Just consider that you have bet £10 on a seven-fold accumulator and you have won the first six of your selections, all at 2/1, and your final choice is West Ham, a late kick-off, then you effectively have £7,280 riding on that match. If West Ham wins, you will collect £21, 860 – a life-changing win. BUT, if the West Ham game ends in a draw, you lose everything.

The game ends in a draw. Now you wish you had chosen a draw no bet accumulator – as they say, hindsight is 20/20 vision.

The benefits of choosing a draw no bet accumulator are clear. If you are lucky, you stand to win a great deal of money with any successful accumulator bet, so it is worth considering trading some of those winnings in the interest of making a safer bet.

Mixed Draw No Bet Accumulator

In draw no bet accumulators there is no need to chose to draw no bet for every leg. You can mix and match as you like. Say that you have high expectations that some of your selections will win, you can choose to select win bets as the chances of a draw are so low and that way you get better odds.

However, for the legs that you are not so sure of, you can select draw no bet to protect you from the possibility of a draw.

It all requires careful planning, but it is undoubtedly beneficial to include draw no bet accumulators in your betting strategies. They can be a handy tool.

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Some of the terms that we use in gambling can be a little confusing when you first come across them, and one that often confuses people is the 2-way bet. The difficulty is that many people confuse this with an each way bet, which is an entirely different animal. That is unless it is a two-horse race you are betting on, in which case they are very similar, though not quite the same.

To avoid any future confusion, we will explain both.

What is a two way bet?

A two way bet is a bet on an event that can end with just two possible outcomes, and there is no chance of a tie or a draw. The perfect example is tennis, either singles or doubles, where only one player, or side, can win. You never get a tie in professional tennis; you just bet on the player you consider most likely to win.

Another form of a 2-way bet is a bet on an event with three possible outcomes such as a football match they may end up as a draw, but the bet is offered on a Draw No Bet basis. Should the game end as a draw, the bookmaker will return your stake.  

It is important to realise that games such as football elimination matches in which the result may be finally decided by extra time or a penalty shootout are not 2 way bets as the bookmaker pays out according to the full time score. So should the game go to extra time, any bet other than on a draw would lose.  

Obviously the odds will be less for a football match where you are betting on two outcomes rather than three. 

So for example, here are the odds for Crystal Palace v Everton in the Premier League in the normal match odds (1×2) market:

• – Crystal Palace: 2.7
• – Draw: 3.5
• – Everton: 2.88

But when reduced to a 2-way bet where the draw has been taken out of the equation (i.e. draw no bet), the odds are then:

• – Crystal Palace: 1.93
• – Everton: 2

So you are getting lower odds for either side to win, but if the game finishes in a draw you get your money back, which doesn’t happen in the normal match odds (1×2) market. That is the advantage of a 2-way bet.

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What is an each-way bet?

An each-way bet is typically used in horse racing. Effectively it is a bet in which half of your total stake is bet on your selected horse winning, and half is bet on the horse being placed in one of the top ranks. What counts as a place depends on several factors such as the size of the field (which is the number of horses running in the race), the specific event, and on the strategy or whim of the bookmaker. The payout for each way bets also varies, again depending on the size of the field and other factors.

Each way bets are not usually available on small fields of two to four runners. In races with five to seven runners the payouts are typically one quarter (1/4) of the betting odds on first and second places; when there are eight or more runners, bookmakers usually offer one fifth (1/5) odds on first, second and third place. Handicap races tend to be a little different, for instance, if there are 16 or more runners one quarter (1/4) odds are usually offered on the first four places.

Here is an example that should make it clear. Say you place an each-way bet on a 12 horse race where the bookmaker is offering quarter (1/4) odds on the first three places. Your selection is priced at 16/1, and you bet £10 each way. The following payouts apply.

• – If your selection wins, you win £5 x 16 for the win half your bet = £80, plus 1/4  x 16 x 5 = £20 for the place half of your bet. The bookmaker also returns your full stake, so you walk away with £110.
• – If your selection is placed second or third, then you lose your bet on a win, but you wind your place bet. Your payout is plus 1/4 x 16 x 5 = £20 and half your stake (£5) is returned. Thus, you walk away with £25.

It is only worth making a two way bet if the odds offered by the bookmaker are high. Making each way bets on low odds is a waste of money.

See how this system made $100,000 from betting on the draw

For those unfamiliar with what “Lay the Draw” betting and trading is, here is a quick overview of this popular trading strategy. Following that, we will look at how we can use lay the draw insurance, and whether doing so is a smart move.

As no doubt you are aware, one of the benefits of betting exchanges such as Betfair is that they allow us to lay bets as well as placing them. In football betting, one of the lays available to us is to lay the draw. To do so, we identify a football game that we believe to be unlikely to result in a draw, locate it in the match odds market, and lay the draw.   

As an example, if we lay the draw for £10 at 4.0, then our liability is £40 – 10 = £30.

Thus, if the match resulted in anything other than a draw, we would have a loss of £30, but if we are correct in our prediction that the game will end with one of the teams winning, we will win £10.

Lay the draw trading is a little different. In the above example, a draw would always result in a loss. However, lay the law trading in play betting provides us with an opportunity to profit even if the game ends in a draw. In this case, our profit stems from how the odds change during play.

Hedging your Lay

Assume that the favourite team scores the first goal making the score 1-0. A draw now seems less likely than when the score was 0-0, and as a result, the odds on a draw will almost certainly rise. By now backing the draw to hedge your initial lay, you can lock in a profit.

Say the odds on a draw increase to 6.0. We now bet £6.67 on a draw so should the game end in a draw we would win £40.2 – 6.67 = £33.53.

With this strategy we have locked in a profit whatever the result:

• The game ends in a draw – win £33.53, lose £30, profit = £3.35
• The game ends in a win – lose £6.67, win £10, profit = £3.37

This is just one strategy; there are many options. For instance, you could adjust your second bet to just cover the liability of the lay, effectively giving you a free bet.

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Insurance

While the hedge we have described above will result in a profit whatever the outcome of the game, it does rely on the favourite scoring the first goal and the odds changing accordingly. But what if the underdog scored the first goal? Now a draw would seem more likely, and the odds would move against your hedging strategy and your chances of losing £30 would increase.

Go to the correct score market and look at the odds of a correct score of 0-0. These are likely to be considerably higher than the lay draw odds; possibly five times higher. Thus, by placing a small bet in this market, you can protect your lay the draw liability against a 0-0 draw.

While in theory that might seem attractive, in reality it is less so. The downside is that as soon as any side score a goal the insurance is worthless; you are not protected against any other drawing scoreline.  The reality is that very few football matches end 0-0. Depending on the league, the percentage of matches in the 2017/18 season ending 0-0 range were from 4.2 to 8.4% – the English Premier were the highest and Dutch Eredivisie the lowest.

To insure lay the draw or not?

It’s up to you and your attitude to risk. Some people do it routinely; others consider it a wasted cost. We can’t decide; it depends on the odds at the time and what other hedging opportunities are available.

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