All I have to back a bet at that price to make profit?

[DV100]

At 16.35 at Kempton has odds of 3 in the back bet section at a price of £209 atm.

All I have to do is pay £209 to match that bet and I profit £418?

Or will I have to do something eise?

[Dallas]

The horse will also need to win for you to make that profit.

Or once backed if you lay it at a lower price you can secure a profit on all runner so it doesn't matter who wins, the following links might help
viewtopic.php?f=47&t=11571
viewtopic.php?f=47&t=11408
viewtopic.php?f=47&t=11572

[DV100]

Thank you for the reply.

Witg

With that example at kempton today can I just back it at £10 to win money or will I have the back that bet at the full £209 to win money?

Also if I lay bet the favourite and the favourite loses I get all the back bet money?

Thank you

[Dallas]

Thank you for the reply.

Witg that example at kempton today can I just back it at £10 to win money or will I have the back that bet at the full £209 to win money?

Also if I lay bet the favourite and the favourite loses I get all the back bet money?

Thank you

You can bet anything you want, the £209 is what is waiting to match at the moment, so if you backed with £10 the £209 would reduce to £199,
If you backed with £300 then £209 would be matched instantly your remaining £91 would wait at that price to be matched by someone placing a lay bet at those odds.

When you place a lay bet you win your stake (no matter what the odds) but you carry the liability, basically, that's the amount you would win had you backed.

So if you backed at 3.0 for £209 you would win £418 if the horse won or lose £209 if it lost
if you layed at 3.0 for £209 you would win £209 if the horse lost but lose £418 if the horse won

[Derek27]

At 16.35 at Kempton has odds of 3 in the back bet section at a price of £209 atm.

All I have to do is pay £209 to match that bet and I profit £418?

Or will I have to do something eise?

Please just use £2 stakes until you are familiar with the exchange and how it works. Also, in the example you gave, the price (or odds) is 3, £209 is the amount available to back, not the price.

[DV100]

Thank you @Dallas and @Derek27.

[ShaunWhite]

Also if I lay bet the favourite and the favourite loses I get all the back bet money?

In trading whether of not a horse wins shouldn't affect your profit or loss. The idea is to place a Back bet AND and a Lay bet in such a way as to make a profit regardless of the outcome. It's just like buying apples for 10p and selling them for 11p, from that point on it doesn't matter what happens to the price of apples. When you Back or Lay and don't also do the opposite, it's like you still own apples, and soon they'll be worth 1.01 or 1000.

A Back bet is a bet that something will happen, and a Lay bet is a bet that something won't happen.

So,
Back at odds of 3.0 with a £100 stake
and Lay at odds of 2.5 with a £120 stake

If it wins, you get £200 from the back bet, but pay out £180 on the lay bet (£20 profit)
And if it loses, you lose £100 on the back bet, but win £120 on the lay bet (£20 profit)

BUT if you ...
Back at odds of 3.0 with a £100 stake
and Lay at odds of 4 with a £75 stake

If it wins, you get £200 from the back bet, but pay out £225 on the lay bet (£25 loss)
And if it loses, you lose £100 on the back bet, but win £75 on the lay bet (£25 loss)

So as you can see, like all trading since time immemorial, the key is to buy (aka lay) for a lesser price than a you sell (aka back).

[DV100]

Thank you very much for the information @ShaunWhite.

In general if I lose a back bet, do I just lose the money or pay out the full price that is matched?

[ShaunWhite]

Thank you very much for the information @ShaunWhite.

In general if I lose a back bet, do I just lose the money or pay out the full price that is matched?

On a Back bet, you stand to lose your Stake, or profit by an amount equal to (Odds - 1) * Stake
And on a Lay bet you stand to lose an amount equal to (Odds - 1) * Stake, or profit my the amount you have staked.
(they are just opposites)

'Odds' is the price on the ladder you place your bet at.

When you place a Back bet it's like walking into a bookmakers and putting your £10 on the counter.
When you place a Lay bet it's like you are the bookmaker accepting £10 from someone walking into the shop.
That's the beauty of trading, you can stand either side of the counter.

The large amounts you see on the ladder are the amounts people* are willing to trade with you at those prices.
For instance you might see £1534 available at 3.2. You can chose to bet anything from £2 to £1534 at that price and the amount available then reduces by the amount they you have traded with that person. That would be 'taking' a price. You can also 'offer' a price, which is what the people did at 3.2, somebody asked to bet £1534 at 3.2...and are waiting for someone to accept some or all of their bet.

*when I say people or someone, you can never know if the money waiting to be matched comes from 1 or several people. But that doesn't matter because BF will handle all of that, matching your money against people who have placed offers, in the order they placed their offers, first come first served. (or FIFO as it's known, first in first out)

I think some of the confusion comes from the terminology, 'Back bet' and 'Lay bet'. Out there in the world in general people just say they are placing a 'bet'. What they are actually doing is placing a 'back bet' but because the general public were never allowed to place lay bets until the arrival of exchanges, it was never necessary to distinguish between the two types of bet, so a back bet just became known as a bet. That's probably confused you even more

[DV100]

Thank you very much for all this detailed information @ShaunWhite.