underlaying

Download ‘trickybet’ calculator. Works it out for you.

Say you bet £25 on an event to happen…underlaying is covering that £25 alone. So you either win or break even. The reason you divide the £25 by 0.98 is to take into account smarkets commission.

=£25/.98 = £25.51 therefore if you lay £25.51 should that bet win you will receive £25 as Smarkets keeps 2% (the .51)

Because underlay works best if the bookie odds are higher. For example Sky always do a Saturday football acca of say 5/1 boosted to 7/1 and the lay is around 7. So type in odds of 8 & 7 you will see if you do the normal matched betting method you will win £3.10 no matter what. OR you can underlay and potentially win £21.94 but get nothing if the bet doesn’t win…can’t explain it anymore for you….

@bluemoon101

The x 0.98 is just to take into account the 2% smarkets commission. Tricky very calculator or similar is the best way to calculate, some have a sliding scale to determine the amount you want to over/under lay.

It’s worth pointing out that whilst underlaying is some people’s preference, mathematically there is no real reason to. Often with the sky football acca boosts (for example) there is only a small profit in it, say £3. By underlaying you could maybe have a risk free shot at say £30. But in reality the odds of the risk free coming off are 10/1 – so there is little or no difference in expected value. I tend to cash in the small guaranteed profits and let them add up.

@bluemoon, OK!

If you want to underlay, then work out what liabilities you need to cover and multiply by 1.02 to cover commission.

Do you mean you’re placing an Acca, and not laying until last leg which you then want to underlay?
If so, you lay for £51 (for a £50acca), that way if it loses you are -£50 in the bookies and +£50 in the exchange. If it wins you get all your winnings in the bookie, and lose whatever liability it took to lay the £51.