Calculate Level-Profit Back and Lay Stakes

Our free online Back/Lay betting calculator calculates the stakes for backing and laying the same selection for a level profit on betting exchanges. This is commonly known as trading out, greening up or Back/Lay arbitrage.

Unlike most Back/Lay calculators, it supports both same-exchange and cross-exchange commission calculations, as well as providing a useful breakdown of the Net Profit figure into its constituent parts.

A handy popup version is available for your convenience and the calculator can also be used easily on mobile devices.


X Back Lay
Price
 
Stake
 
Commission
 
Total Stake
Same Ex Wins Total Stake Loses
 
Back Bet Profit -     -    
Lay Bet Profit -     -    
 
 
Market Profit -     -    
Commission Paid -     -    
 
 
Net Profit -     -    
 
 
Yield -     -    
 

Back/Lay Betting Calculator Instructions

  1. Select Same Exchange or Cross Exchange, depending on where you're placing both bets. Same Exchange is more lucrative because commission is only payable on the market profit from both bets, instead of on the profit from each individual bet.

  2. Enter the Price and Stake of your first bet:

    • Lay Price and Stake for trading on a price rise
    • Back Price and Stake for trading on a price fall
    • Total Stake for arbing between 2 sites subject to a fixed budget

  3. Enter your target exit Price:

    • Back Price for trading on a price rise
    • Lay Price for trading on a price fall

  4. Enter your applicable Commission value(s) and press Calculate.
The calculator will display the correct stake for the specified exit Price in order to generate the same Net Profit after commission, whether the selection wins or loses.




Same-exchange Trading

Like financial traders, you can make immediate profits by betting on the direction of price movements on betting exchanges. All you have to remember is to lay first and back later at the higher price if you expect a price rise. Likewise, if you expect a price to fall or shorten, you'd back first and then lay off later at the lower price.
  1. Select Same Exchange.
  2. Enter the Stake and Price of the bet that you've placed.
  3. Enter your target exit Price.
  4. Enter your Commission rate (default value is 5.00%) and press Calculate.
The calculator displays the stake you should use to exit the trade for an immediate level profit.

Same-exchange trading example
The example below assumes that you had originally layed at 1.10 for £150 in anticipation of a price rise. You now want to place an order to back the same selection at 1.20, but don't know what stake to use to ensure the same profit whatever the result.

Example of using the Back/Lay betting calculator to calculate the optimal stakes for trading on a price rise on the same betting exchange

The calculator shows that if you can back it with a stake of £137.50 at 1.20, you'd earn a net profit of £11.87, providing you with a healthy yield of 79.13% on your Total Stake of just £15.




Cross-exchange Arbitrage

Whereas trading profits from price movements, arbitrage exploits current price discrepancies. Arbitrage opportunities occur when you can lay a selection in one place site at a lower price than it can be backed elsewhere. If you're placing both bets on different exchanges, Commission will be deducted from their respective profits, making it difficult to calculate the correct level-profit stakes.
  1. Select Cross-Exchange.
  2. Enter the Price of both the Back and Lay bets.
  3. Enter the value of one stake constraint, caused by available liquidity, a bookmaker's maximum stake limit or just your budget for the arbitrage.
  4. Enter your Commission rates and press Calculate.
If you enter your desired Total Stake as the stake constraint, the calculator will show the correct Back Stake and Lay Stake to ensure a guaranteed level profit, subject to your specified budget.
If you enter the Back Stake or Lay Stake as the stake constraint, the calculator will display the correct level-profit stake for the other bet.

Cross-exchange arbitrage example
Let's assume that a selection that's available to back at 2.50 on Smarkets can also be layed at 2.20 on Betfair. The problem is that there's only £287 available at 2.50 on Smarkets, so you want to know what stake to use on Betfair to ensure a guaranteed level profit, based on the assumption that you'll mop up all the available Smarkets liquidity at 2.50.

Example of using the betting Back/Lay calculator to calculate the optimal stakes for arbing Back and Lay prices between different betting exchanges

The calculator shows you that you should lay £329.72 at 2.20 on Betfair to guarantee a profit of £26.23. Of course, if you're going to be backing the selection with a fixed odds bookmaker, you'd need to change the Commission for the Back Stake to 0.00%.



Enhanced Version of Arb Cruncher's Back/Lay Calculator

The Back/Lay betting calculator shown above is an enhanced version of the Back/Lay calculator included in the Arb Cruncher suite of online betting calculators for arbing, trading, dutching, lay dutching, hedging and perming. The difference is that our calculator breaks down the net profit figure into its constituent parts and shows exactly how much commission was applied and where.


Arb Cruncher's Back/Lay calculating the stake for trading on a price rise from 1.15 to 1.45.


Arb Cruncher's Multiback calculating the level-profit stakes for dutching 4 selections.


Other Recommended Sites

Of course, another way to make risk-free bets is to use free bets. Free Bets Online is one of the best sites that shows you how to do that. You can also find a regularly updated list of offers on Online Bookies Offers.