Laying
Traditionally betting has occurred between a customer and a bookmaker where the customer 'backs' (bets that an outcome will occur) and the bookmaker 'lays' (bets that the outcome will not occur). Betting exchanges offer the opportunity for anyone to both back and lay.
For example, if someone thinks Team A will win a competition, he may wish to back that selection. A bookmaker offering the punter that bet would be laying that selection. The two parties will agree the backer's stake and the odds. If the team loses, the layer/bookmaker keeps the backer's stake. If the team wins, the layer will pay the backer the winnings based on the odds agreed.
As every bet transacted requires a backer and a layer, and the betting exchange is not a party to the bets transacted on it, any betting exchange requires both backers and layers. Of course, the distinction is moot: A layer is always simply backing that the event will not occur. Laying the home team is the same as backing the visiting team to win or draw. Laying one horse in a race is just the same as backing all of the other horses to win.
Read more about this topic: Betting Exchange
Famous quotes containing the word laying:
“Therefore the skilful leader subdues the enemy’s troops without any fighting; he captures their cities without laying siege to them; he overthrows their kingdom without lengthy operations in the field.”
—Sun Tzu (6th–5th century B.C.)
“Whenever any form of government shall become destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, & to institute new government, laying it’s foundation on such principles & organising it’s powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety & happiness.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“But men labor under a mistake. The better part of the man is soon ploughed into the soil for compost. By a seeming fate, commonly called necessity, they are employed, as it says in an old book, laying up treasures which moth and rust will corrupt and thieves break through and steal. It is a fool’s life, as they will find when they get to the end of it, if not before.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)