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Laying a horse? Trading? Ten years ago, these concepts would have been alien to the majority of individuals who take an interest in sports gambling. However, thanks to the advent and subsequent rise to prominence of betting exchanges, the avenues available for customers to bet on horse racing, have expanded vastly.

Betting exchanges are platforms which facilitate peer to peer betting and allow customers to place lay bets – betting on horses to lose, in addition to the traditional back bets.

Back, lay and trading has diversified the methods in which people can profit from betting on horses. Individuals are now able to join bookmakers in having the privilege of being able to bet on horses to lose. Consequently, there is now the option to profit from going against a horse someone does not fancy, but also, there is now the option for bettors to trade and hedge to guarantee profits and green up their betting accounts.

Trading allows an individual to operate in a different way to what was previously considered 'the norm'. If an individual thinks a horses odds are too generous in relation to its chances, then he may decide to try and trade the horse, forecasting that others will eventually see the value in the odds and will back the horse, thus forcing its price down. Therefore by backing a horse and waiting for its odds to decrease, then laying that horse at the shorter price, a guaranteed profit can be achieved. This execution is known as trading and the purpose is to lock in a profit- striking a bet at certain odds, and then placing the opposite bet at advantageous odds.

Of course, the opposite can be true. There may be a horse who a bettor believes a horse under-priced. Its odds are too short in relation to its chance of winning. By laying this selection at the short odds, waiting for others to see the inaccuracy and also bet on the horse to lose, thus pushing its odds out, the bettor can make a guaranteed profit. Laying at low odds and then backing with a smaller stake at higher odds is a strategy often employed by sports traders and can generate healthy returns. Long term profits can be generated not necessarily by picking winners, but by identifying market inaccuracies, and capitalising on them.