Calculating back stake for overlay

• Good afternoon all.

  Sorry for the newbie question, I thought that Google would give me the answer straight away. Unfortunately it didn’t and neither have any of my textbooks.

  The simple question is How do you calculate the stake for an overlay? I am aware that I am not accounting for commission in this example.

  Assume

  Lay price: 3.5
  Lay Stake 5.00
  Back Price 4.00

  The standard formula would be backStake=(layStake*layOdds)/backOdds

  Which is (5*3.5) / 4
  17.5 / 4

  Back stake £4.38 – Lay stake £5.00

  Using an online calculator set to overlay shows the optimal lay stake to be £.5.24 which gives 0.01 profit if the back bet wins and £0.87 profit should the lay bet win.

  How do I calculate the extra lay stake (£0.29 in this case)?

  Thanks in advance for any assistance received.

  Cheers

  Bd

  +0

  

  Bassdrinker

  0

  September 30, 2026 at 12:03 pm