Winning Lay the Draw Strategy

Lay the draw is perhaps the most frequently used strategy when it comes to football trading. Its simplicity, along with the rather high winning percentages, make it one of the most popular ways to lay a bet. It's a rather straightforward strategy that can be used even by newcomers to bet exchanges, as long as they follow a clearly set plan.

Nobody is sure who invented this strategy. It appeared some years ago on betting exchange websites and immediately became massively popular. But what exactly is laying the draw and how can it be used? Does this strategy remain profitable in 2017 or is it no longer relevant? Have the bookies found a way to counter it or can you still earn some money?

What Does Lay the Draw Mean?

The procedure of laying a bet is often used among punters in betting exchanges, as they technically offer odds on a certain sporting events, similar to a bookmaker. On the “lay the draw” strategy the target is quite simply avoiding a draw.

It is used almost exclusively in football, but apart from the lay the draw football strategy it can be technically expanded to every sport that offers the draw as a match result. As the draw has a general confirmation percentage marginally surpassing 30% a punter starts with a near 70% percentage of winning.

If you pick matches fulfilling certain criteria carefully, this percentage can increase even further. That’s why there are so many punters who lay the draw for a living.

Lay the Draw Example

Suppose you’d like to lay a draw at 3.30 odds with a €100 stake. This means that expect your “initial” bet, to have an “exposure” of another €230. If the draw result is confirmed, you have to pay €330 to the punter (or punters) who backed it at these odds.

You can intervene during the match if you also follow a dropping odds strategy. If both teams fail to score for a long time, the draw prices will go down. This means you you should lay the draw with higher odds if you think a team will score soon. 

As the match goes on and the one goal lead remains, the odds for the draw will increase. In case another is scored from the same side, they usually reach double-digit odds, further increasing your "back the draw" profits.

If the match ends with a winner, you get your €100 and win the €100 that other players staked on the draw.

How to Lay the Draw for a Living

How is this achieved? The basic rule is to pick matches with clear favourites, where there are fewer possibilities for a draw. A strong team playing at home against a minor opponent won't settle for a draw and will give everything they've got up to the last second.

The draw odds might be higher, making your exposure to risk higher as well, but the percentage of a draw in some leagues stands below 25%, thus giving a theoretical 75% winning possibility. An alternate category is when the draw is an undesirable result for both teams.

Matches during the closing stages of a league, when both teams need every point they can get to achieve their goals, are highly recommended. What should you avoid? Matches were opponents have little to no difference in strength or when you know a draw suits them both. In addition, laying the draw in matches with an away favorite, are far from profitable as stats indicate.

Also Read: How to predict draws in football matches

Which is the Most Profitable Lay the Draw Strategy

Picking one system is not that easy. There are five basic lay the draw strategies in our bookmaker guides. Let's check each one before evaluating which one to choose. 

• 1
  Laying the draw pre-match. You just pick a match before it starts, put your money on laying the draw and wait for a winner at the final whistle.
• 2
  Laying the draw at halftime. It might look similar to the above, only this time you don’t lay pre-match, but pick a match that stands as a draw at half time. It’s safer, as your exposure (the money you must pay backers) is roughly half to that of a pre-match bet.
• 3
  Laying the score at halftime. An alternative strategy, where you don't lay the draw result, but a draw score (0-0, 1-1, 2-2 etc.). The exposure is much higher, as correct scores have much higher odds, but the possibilities of winning are much higher as well. In a match that stands as a goalless draw at HT the odds of 0-0 for a correct score could drop to even 4.50 from over 10.00 before the match. This can prove to be quite the bargain as both teams have a whole half time to score a single goal.
• 4
  Laying a halftime draw. Instead of waiting for the halftime to place your wager, you lay a pre-match bet on the half time draw. This has a much lower exposure, as the draw odds for the halftime usually stand around 2.00.
• 5
  Lay the 0-0 for halftime correct score. It’s worth trying this when you’re sure that at least a goal will be scored in the first half. Usually the odds of a 0-0 correct score at HT are much smaller than the FT ones (often more than half).

Lay the Draw & Bet on the Correct Score

A more advanced strategy contains both laying and backing. You just lay the draw, but you back the draw correct scores, starting from 0-0 and going to 1-1 or 2-2. If you’re sure that at least a goal will be scored, you can omit to back the 0-0 and claim more profit.

In this case, you only lose if a 3-3 or 4-4 draw appears with the total profit you can claim being around 10-20% of your stake. In order to gain more info on how to calculate the correct score in football, follow our dedicated guide.

Laying the Draw Pre-match

• Cash out when the favorite scores. If you follow this immediately after the first goal of the match, you wipe out your chances of losing (you'll only lose when a match ends as a goalless draw). In most cases you get around 30%-40% of the total profit you'd claim with the initial odds.
  
  
• Back the draw when odds reach 2.00. As minutes pass and no team manages to break the deadlock, the odds for a draw will naturally drop. To avoid losing all your stake you should have a cut loss edge, a point where you’ve agreed you must cash out and accept loss. This edge is usually set at 2.00 odds for the draw, at around 65-70 min. for an average match.

Laying Draw at Halftime

Obviously, if the ball finds the net and you’ve layed the score you instantly win your bet. The same pretty much applies for a draw when the favorite scores, as you can either cash out your bet or wait for the final whistle, if you think they won’t concede.

But what happens if no added goals are scored when you’ve layed the score and the match draws to its close? In this case it’s best to let your bet run, as the odds usually reflect this liability. Additionally, there is always the chance that one of the teams will manage to grab a late win.

Join the Best Bet Exchanges

If is true that there are not a lot of exchanges online. Since you need someone to match your wager, it requires a high volume of stakes to ensure your bet will be picked up. Below, you will find a list of betting exchanges available in your country. 

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