Having unmatched or partially unmatched bets on the betting exchange is something that most matched bettors will encounter at some point. And when it happens, it can cause annoyance, frustration or even panic! As you
Having unmatched or partially unmatched bets on the betting exchange is something that most matched bettors will encounter at some point. And when it happens, it can cause annoyance, frustration or even panic!
As you know, when you place a lay bet at the exchange, you are accepting someone else’s back bet and are therefore liable for their potential winnings. As you can see our Matched Betting Calculator, if you place a lay bet of £9.45 (i.e. accept someone else’s back bet of £9.45) at odds of 5.5, your liability will be £42.52. So if your lay bet wins, you will win their back bet of £9.45, but if your lay bet loses, you will lose your liability of £42.52, which then becomes their winnings.
You can only successfully place a lay bet if there is sufficient liquidity in the lay to match your liability. By liquidity, we mean the amount of money available to cover the lay bet. As you can see in the listing for Tottenham Hotspur vs. Liverpool, there is plenty of liquidity in the lays, as highlighted in the red boxes. We recommend sticking to lays with this kind of liquidity.
On the other hand, you can see in the listing for Le Mans vs. AJ Auxerre, that the liquidity in the lays are much lower, as highlighted in the red boxes. We recommend avoiding this kind of low liquidity!
If there is zero liquidity in the lay, then your liability will be completely unmatched when you place your lay bet, in which case you can simply cancel your lay bet and move onto another lay with sufficient liquidity – easy and no issues whatsoever!
However, if there is some liquidity in the lay but not enough to match your entire liability, then your liability will be partially unmatched when you place your lay bet, leaving some of your liability (and therefore your matched bet) exposed, which can cause a problem! And if you cancel your lay bet in this scenario, then you are less likely to recover all of your money!
There are ways to correct partially unmatched bets but it tends to be quite tricky to do so. To keep things simple at this stage, it is best to stick with lays that have plenty of liquidity to match your liability and avoid the lays with low liquidities, especially when it’s less than 15 minutes before the start of the match/game/race, when liquidities fluctuate the most along with the odds!
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