Reinster,

When you "lay" the horse you are accepting someone else's bet at the given odds (so if it loses you keep their money - if it wins you have to pay them out at the specified odds). Using your example lets say you put $100 on a horse at $6.00 (5/1) - as you say if it wins you will collect $600 for a profit of $500 - but if it loses you lose your $100. If the odds then shorten in to $5.00 (4/1) you could lay it at that price and accept $120 in bets - if the horse wins you have to pay out $120 x $5 = $600 so you have broken even - if it loses then you have made $20 (the $120 you accepted less the $100 you bet).

Of course you can also lay it for slightly less - if you accept $117 at $5.00 then if it loses you make $17 and if it wins you make $15 (as you only have to pay out $585 but you have won $600). This is what I was doing on Saturday and generally making 5%-15% profit whichever horse won.

If you place both bets on Betfair then you only pay the commission on your profit - in the above example you would pay the 5% on the $15 or $17 profit, not on the $117 or $500 amounts.

When I get a chance (probably tomorrow or Wednesday) I will put some more details on this topic up on my website, including examples of the bets I placed on the weekend.
_________________
"Computers can do that????" - Homer Simpson


[ This Message was edited by: becareful on 2003-02-24 10:29 ]