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Lay bets do not always land the way you planned. Sometimes only part of your stake matches at the exchange, and sometimes you end up laying more than you meant to, or laying the wrong selection altogether. This calculator works out the exact stake that puts either situation right, and shows what your position looks like once you have placed it.
Pick the mode that matches your problem. Lay only part matched tells you how much more to lay at the price available now. Laid too much or wrong bet tells you what to back at the exchange to cancel the part you did not want.
An unwanted lay is any exchange position that does not match the bet you meant to place. It usually happens in one of three ways:
None of these are disasters. The exchange lets you trade out of a position by betting the other way on the same market, so all you need is the right stake. If laying is still new to you, our lay betting guide explains liability and how exchanges settle before you start adjusting positions.
Use this as a partial lay calculator. Enter your bookmaker bet, then every lay that has already matched, along with the stake and the price it matched at. If it filled at two or three different prices, add a row for each. Finally, enter the best lay price showing now.
The calculator returns the extra lay stake to place, the extra liability it needs, and your result in both outcomes once it is on. It handles qualifying bets, free bets where the stake is not returned, free bets where it is, and risk-free offers with a cashback value.
There is an optional field for the odds you originally wanted. Fill it in and the calculator also tells you what the part match cost you, which is useful for deciding whether to chase the remainder at a worse price or leave the position as it is.
Enter the lay stake and price that actually matched, then the stake you meant to lay. If the whole lay was a mistake, enter zero. Add the best back price showing now for the same selection and the calculator gives you the stake to back at the exchange.
Backing the same selection you laid cancels the position. Once that back bet is matched, the unwanted portion is closed and its liability is released, leaving only the bet you meant to have.
Traders call this cashing out, or trading out. Because you can enter the stake you meant to lay, it doubles as a partial cash out calculator: leave the intended stake in place and only the excess is closed, rather than the whole position.
You back £50 at odds of 4.0 as a qualifying bet and try to lay the whole thing at 4.1, but only £20 matches. By the time you notice, the best lay price is 4.4, and your exchange charges 2% commission. The calculator returns:
Had the full stake matched at 4.1, the qualifying loss would have been £1.96. So the part match cost £1.95. That is the number worth knowing: it tells you the price of the slip, rather than leaving you guessing.
You meant to lay £10 at 3.1 but placed it twice, so £20 is matched. The excess is £10 at 3.1. With the back price still 3.1, the calculator tells you to back £10.00, which releases £21.00 of liability and costs you nothing.
Prices move, though, and that is where the result changes:
Either way the figure is the same whichever way the bet finally settles, because the unwanted part is closed rather than left running.
Exchanges charge commission on your net winnings in a market, not on each bet separately. When you back a selection you have already laid, both bets sit in the same market, so the stake that closes the position is simply the lay stake multiplied by the lay odds and divided by the back odds. Commission never touches that figure.
Commission does affect the result. If closing out leaves you in profit, the exchange takes its cut of that profit. If it leaves you down, there is no commission to pay. Calculators that apply commission to each bet separately overstate the stake you need, which is why backing £10.00 to cancel a £10.00 lay at the same price looks slightly wrong on some tools.
Laying less or more than the balanced stake is not always a mistake. Underlaying deliberately leaves more profit on the bookmaker side, and overlaying shifts it to the exchange side. Plenty of matched bettors do this on purpose to weight a result the way they want it.
This page is for positions you want to correct. If you are choosing to shift your lay stake instead, use the custom stake option on our matched betting calculator, which shows the underlay and overlay break-even points alongside the balanced stake.
A lay only matches when someone is backing the other side at your price. If you ask for more than the money available at that price, the rest sits unmatched until someone takes it or you cancel it. Low liquidity markets, obscure selections, and prices a long way from the market average all make part matches more likely.
It depends how much worse. Enter the odds you originally wanted in the optional field and the calculator shows what the part match costs at the price available now. If that figure is small relative to the value of the offer, completing the lay is usually worth it. If it wipes out the offer, leaving the position part matched may be better.
You cannot delete a matched bet, but you can close the position by backing the same selection in the same market. Once the back bet matches, the two cancel out. This is the same idea as cashing out, done manually so you control the price. Use the second mode on this page to work out the exact back stake.
Enter zero as the stake you intended. The calculator then treats the whole lay as unwanted and gives you the back stake that closes all of it. After that, lay the correct selection as normal.
No. If the price has drifted out since you laid, closing the position actually returns a small profit. If it has shortened, it costs you. At the same price it is close to free, give or take commission on any gain.
Yes. Add a row for each price that matched, with the stake that filled at it. The calculator adds up the liability across every row before working out what is left to lay.
Yes. Choose the bet type that matches your offer: qualifying bet, free bet with the stake returned, free bet with the stake not returned, or a risk-free bet with a cashback value. The maths changes with the bet type, so picking the right one matters.