Few of you may have heard of the term greening up when it comes to horse racing and sports trading on Betfair, but allow me to enlighten you on what greening up is and how you can make it work for you going forward.
A quick basic interpretation of greening up…
Greening up is backing and laying simultaneously in the same event at different stages and using the price fluctuations to put yourself into a position where you are guaranteed a profit regardless of the outcome of the event you are betting or trading on.
Many people used to attempt this on Betfair but if you are not fully clued up on how to do it properly it won’t generally work out well.
A similar technique called “dutching” or dutch betting is explained in our what is dutching guide.
An Example of greening up…
So below is an ideal example of backing and laying on horse racing to secure a profit using the greening up method.
The 12.15 at Warwick is your chosen horse race and the time is currently 11.55.
You fancy “After The Fox” at 14/1 (15 in decimal odds) so you place your £10 bet as normal, you stand to win a £140 profit.
Now you have placed your bet we have two chances to green up either before the race or during.
We wait to see if the odds come in before the race goes off first and on this occasion they do and we can now lay the same horse at the odds of 12/1 (13 in decimal odds).
As you can see the liability if this horse now goes on to win means we will have to pay out £120, but as we already backed the horse at 14/1 if the horse wins we win £140.
Stay with me… so the original back bet wins £140, but our liability (the money we have to pay out on our lay bet) is £120, this leaves us with £20 profit if the horse wins and no loss of our original £10 if it loses.
Now it’s time to Green It up…
Now we have worked our way into a profitable position on the horse winning but no loss if it does not we can green up and lock a profit in regardless of what horse wins, here’s how.
We place another lay bet, now you could either wait again to see if the odds come in before the race goes off or during, on this occasion, let’s say we wait for the race to go in running but we set the horse to lay off at 2/1 (3 in decimal odds) for a stake of £5.
The liability on this bet is now £10, if we add that to the liability of the other lay bet this is a total liability of £130, but we stood to win £140 from the original back bet.
We now have secured a £10 profit on the race regardless of what horse wins the race, the ultimate victory in betting a no risk and guaranteed win!
Important Things To Remember
The situational example I have used above is the ideal outcome, this is not always going to occur I am afraid but it does happen more than you would think and more so in running.
The main objective should be to lay your stake off as soon as you are able for a profit preferably before the race goes off as you will feel less pressured and then to try and lock a profit in with another lay bet during the race.
Remember the minimum stake on Betfair Exchange is £2, don’t get caught out, and make sure you work out your figures before you start and not at the last minute.
Also, make sure to give yourself the maximum chance of winning by only backing and laying in longer distance flat races, we don’t want any fallers to ruin our chances before we get the chance to green up.
Also if you want to read more on sports trading be sure to check out my what is sports trading guide.
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