Getting started
Five minutes to read, then you know what every colour and price on the site means and how to act on it.
Every runner gets a rated price, our price for its chance. A call is a runner whose market price is far enough from ours to act on.
- Bet Back it. The market has it longer than we do.
- Prime Our strongest bet of the day.
- Way Overlay A bet at $21 or more, at a small stake.
- Lay Oppose it on the exchange. The market has it shorter than we do.
Each call carries the one price that matters.
- Back at $7.90 means take $7.90 or bigger. Shorter than that, leave it.
- Lay at $4.50 means lay at $4.50 or shorter. Longer than that, leave it.
A price box turns blue or red only when the price on offer right now is good enough. Plain means the price has moved past the line, so wait or skip. Here is what you might run into:
- 8am calls go up on the site.
- 11am the bets go out by email and in Discord.
- 30 minutes before each jump calls lock, and each lay is posted in Discord with its lay at price.
Calls can change with the market until they lock. Once a horse is called it stays a call for the day.
- Open the call. The best price and the bookmaker holding it sit on the live price, and a tap shows the whole market.
- Check the price on offer is at or above the back at price.
- Back it for your unit stake. A Way Overlay is a tenth of a unit.
Laying is betting that a horse will not win. You take the bookmaker's side: if the horse loses you keep the backer's stake, if it wins you pay out at the price you laid.
Set up
- Open a Betfair account at betfair.com.au. It is the only betting exchange in Australia.
- Deposit enough to cover your liability (below), not just your stake.
Lay the call
- Find the race and the horse in Betfair's Win market.
- Look at the pink Lay column. That is the price you can lay at now.
- If it is at or under our lay at price, tap it. If it is longer, wait, or put in your own lay at our price and let a backer take it.
- Enter your unit as the stake. Betfair shows the liability before you confirm.
Tap the pink 4.20. It is under our $4.50, so it qualifies.
Lay at $4.50 or under. Betfair's lay is $4.20, so it qualifies. Stake $10.
- Horse loses: you win $10, less Betfair's commission.
- Horse wins: you pay $32, that is $10 × ($4.20 − 1).
If Betfair's lay were $4.80, you would leave it.
Know the liability
The shorter the price, the less a lay risks: at $2 a $10 lay risks $10, at $6 it risks $50. Lays win more often than they lose, but each loss is bigger than each win, so keep your unit the same on every lay and never chase.
Some members lay a fixed liability instead, say $20 a lay whatever the price. That works too. Pick one way and stick to it.
Every result is in units. One unit is whatever you choose to stake on a normal bet, $5, $20 or $100. Pick an amount you are comfortable losing on a run of bad days, because those come.
- A winning bet pays the price less one unit. A losing bet is minus one unit.
- A lay that holds is plus one unit. A lay that loses is minus the price less one.
- An abandoned race is void. A scratched horse is no bet.
Why results don't take off commission
Betfair charges commission on your net winnings in each market, not on each bet, and the rate is different for every member: it depends on the race, your Betfair account and any discount you get. There is no one number we could take off that would be right for you, so lays are recorded before commission, the same way bets are recorded at the price with no fees. Take your own rate off a winning lay when you track your results.
Judge it over months, not days. A single day can swing ten units either way.
Stuck on something?
Email hello@theoverlay.com.au or ask in the Discord.