I read a survey on a UK forum about the percentage of punter's betting preferences. I've often wondered, and here it is:

Backers.....50.1%
Layers.......11.5%
Each Way...21.8%
Place..........12%
Exotics.......4.6%

Straight away, Layers stand out as 2nd last taking their share of the pie. Now given that for every lay bet there's a matched back bet, and then there's those that place back bets with bookies and totes only (not the exchange), but are the layers matching more money per head than backers?

A rough example: For every 20 backers are there are only 10 layers but turning over twice as much money?

Yes, but what about traders and arbers? That could indeed be why the big difference. Backing steamers at Betfair prices for those with live feeds etc.
In play backers as well.
All those bots that trigger a bet when a horse reaches a certain price in running etc.

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I guess what we need to know, to fully understand the question is, for the Betfair exchange only, what percentage of clients Back and what percentage Lay? There'll obviously be those that do both (traders), arbers mostly only Lay.

It still comes down to, of the billions that Betfair turnover, half is Backers $ and half Layers $, but as a percentage of clients, I feel that the Layers are a much smaller head count than Backers. A lot of people just don't like or understand the notion of Laying, so the layers do the heavy lifting by turning over much more money than Backers?

As a layer I operate in numbers that would be way out of my league as a backer. Guess that makes me one of the heavy lifters.

EXACTLY! I was wondering if one of the very few layers out there would confirm what I've been saying. We bankroll the Backers, they fill the ATM up, and we make the withdrawals.

Yeah right.
hehehe

the layers are higher than i expected.
they are basically the bookmakers.
compare it to you oncourse experience -few bookmakers - many punters.
but turnover the same.