Prices, stakes and liability

How Laser 247 odds work

A plain walk through the price ladder on Laser 247, from reading a decimal price to locking in a result before the match ends. The worked examples use made-up prices so you can follow the sums.

Written by the Lorvano desk. Last checked 29 Oct 2026. 16 min read.

Open any Laser247 market and you'll see facing columns of numbers, with small amounts of money printed under each one. Those numbers are prices. Once you can read them, the rest of Laser 247 gets easier to follow: the bet slip, the open bets list, and the figure that disappears from your balance when you lay.

If you haven't yet read how an exchange differs from a bookmaker, the Laser 247 explained chapter covers that background quickly. This page stays with the numbers. Where a sum helps, it sits in a labelled example box with made-up prices and stakes. Those figures show the arithmetic only. They aren't real market prices, and they aren't a hint about what you should stake.

Reading a decimal price

A decimal price tells you how much comes back for every unit you put down, if the bet wins. The returned amount includes your stake, so your profit per unit is the price minus one. That subtraction is most of the maths you'll need on an exchange.

Lower prices mean the market thinks an outcome is more likely. A price close to evens or below is a favourite and pays modest profit. A big price is an outsider, and the profit is large because most players expect it to lose. The rough chance you can read from a price is the crowd's view at that moment, and crowds get matches wrong all the time.

The ladder on Laser247 shows prices on both sides. On the back side sit the prices you can back at right now. On the lay side sit the prices you can lay at. Under each price is the amount of money waiting there, offered by other players. On the ladders we have seen, the best back price sits a little lower than the best lay price, and the space between them is called the spread.

A tight spread usually means plenty of players are active and competing to get matched. A wide one tells you the market is quiet, or that something has just happened on the field and nobody is sure where the price belongs yet. Before your first real bet, spend a little time watching a ladder move. You'll notice that prices step in fixed increments, and that the money under each price grows and shrinks as people place and cancel offers.

Before you confirm any bet, read the price you're about to take and then the amount of money sitting at it. If you want to stake more than is waiting there, only part of your bet can match at that price. The section on partially matched bets covers what happens to the rest.

Session markets in cricket use a different format, built around runs in a set part of the innings instead of a decimal return. Don't apply the sums on this page to them. The cricket markets chapter explains how those are offered and how they settle.

Backing

Backing is the familiar half of betting. You pick an outcome, choose a price and a stake, and you win if the outcome happens. Your risk is your stake and nothing more. That's the same shape as a bet with a bookmaker, which is why most new players start here.

On an exchange, though, your price comes from another player. When you click a back price on the Laser 247 ladder, you're accepting an offer someone placed as a lay. They are saying "I'll take bets that this outcome happens, at this price, up to this amount". Your back bet and their lay bet are matched against each other, and the exchange holds both sides' money until the result is in.

Because of that, you can ask for a better price than the one on screen. Place your back bet at a higher number than the best available, and it won't match straight away. It joins the queue on the other side of the ladder as an offer, and it waits until another player decides your price is acceptable and lays into it. Sometimes that takes seconds. Sometimes the market moves the other way and your bet never matches.

Before you confirm a back bet, look at the selection, the price and the stake on the slip. The slip usually shows your potential profit too. Check it against the quick sum of stake times price minus one. If the figures don't agree, something on the slip is wrong, most often the selection, or a price that changed while you were typing.

Backing at a price that later shortens is the situation everybody wants. You've taken a bigger number than the market now thinks is fair. That gap is real value, and on an exchange you can turn it into a fixed result before the match ends. The cash-out section further down shows how.

The opposite happens just as often. You back a team, it loses a wicket, and the price drifts out. Your bet is still alive, and it still pays at the price you took if the team recovers. A drifting price leaves your matched bet exactly as it was and changes only what it would cost to get out of it.

Laying and liability

Laying is betting that something won't happen. When you lay a team, you win if that team doesn't win, and you lose if it does. You're standing where a bookmaker usually stands, taking a bet from a backer at a price you've agreed to.

The stake you enter on a lay slip is the backer's stake, the amount you're willing to accept from the other side. If the outcome fails to happen, that amount is your profit. If it does happen, you pay the backer's winnings. That payout is your liability, and it's the number that matters most on a lay bet.

Liability is the backer's stake multiplied by the price minus one. At short prices it's smaller than the stake. At big prices it can be many times larger, which is why laying an outsider looks attractive on the slip and hurts badly when the outsider comes in.

When a lay bet matches, the exchange holds the full liability from your available balance. It doesn't take the backer's stake from you, because that's money you might receive. So your balance can look smaller after laying than you expected, even though nothing has been lost yet. Once the market settles, the held liability either goes to the backer or comes back to you along with your profit.

Plenty of new players read the stake box on a lay slip as their risk. The two figures only line up at evens. Read the liability line before confirming every time, and if the slip doesn't show it clearly, work it out yourself before you tap the button.

Laying also suits markets with more than a pair of outcomes. In a football result or a tennis market with several possible results, laying one of them means you win if any of the others comes in. That's a tidy way to oppose a single outcome without picking the winner yourself. The liability sum stays the same: backer's stake times price minus one.

Partially matched bets

Every price on the ladder has a limited amount of money waiting at it. If your stake is bigger than that amount, the exchange matches what it can and leaves the rest of your bet open. You end up with a matched bet that will settle with the result, plus an unmatched remainder that's still just an offer.

The open bets list is where you see this. Matched and unmatched parts appear separately, each with its own price and amount. Check that list after any bet bigger than the money you saw on the ladder. It's easy to assume the whole stake is in play when it isn't.

With an unmatched remainder, you can leave it waiting at your price and hope the market comes back to it. You can cancel it and keep the money free. Or you can cancel it and place it again at the best price now showing, accepting a slightly worse number to get matched. Any of these is fine, as long as you actually pick one.

Forgotten offers cause most of the trouble with part matches. Say you backed a team, part of the bet waited, and you moved on to another market. Later the team loses a wicket, the price drifts out to your level, and your old offer suddenly matches at a price you'd no longer want. Laying carries the same risk in reverse: a stale lay offer can match just as the outcome you were opposing becomes likely.

Markets also suspend at big moments. On cricket that usually means a wicket, a review or a break in play. When a market suspends, unmatched offers may be cancelled or kept depending on that market's rules, and the Laser247 open bets list will show which happened. If you aren't sure how a particular market treats unmatched bets during a suspension, ask the desk in the chat before you rely on it.

Bigger stakes run into part matches more often, because the money at the very best price is usually small. Some players split a large bet into smaller ones placed at different prices. Others take the best price and let the exchange fill down the ladder. Both approaches work if you keep track of what actually matched.

Why prices move during an over

Cricket markets on Laser 247 move ball by ball. Each delivery changes the picture slightly, and the players setting prices react to it. A boundary in a chase shortens the batting side's price. A wicket can push it out sharply. Even a run of dot balls in a tight finish moves the numbers, because it changes how many runs are needed from how few balls.

Nobody at the exchange sets these prices. They come from players placing back and lay offers, each with their own read on the match. When something happens, most of them adjust at the same moment. The ladder can look jumpy for a few seconds while offers are pulled and replaced, then it settles at a new level.

The biggest moves happen in predictable spots. Wickets are the obvious one, especially a set batter or the last recognised batter. A new bowler coming on matters too, as does the moment a required rate tips from comfortable to awkward. Late in a close chase, every ball can move the price noticeably.

Markets usually suspend briefly around wickets and reviews. When they reopen, the first prices you see can be some distance from where they were. That's normal, and it's also where unmatched offers left from before the suspension can catch you out. Check your open bets whenever a market comes back.

Prices also move for reasons that aren't on the field. News about the pitch, the weather or a team change shifts the market before a ball is bowled. A large amount of money arriving on one side can push a price on its own, at least for a while. In quiet markets, a single big offer can move the best price more than a boundary would.

Then there's delay. Pictures reach different viewers at slightly different times, and on the in-play markets we have seen there is a short hold on bets so nobody can act on a ball that has already been bowled. When you place a bet during play, confirmation may take a moment. If the market moves during that moment, your bet may match at your price, partly match, or not match at all.

Predicting these moves isn't required. Planning around them helps a lot. Decide your price before the over starts instead of in the middle of a big moment. If you're chasing a number while the ladder jumps, you'll usually end up with a worse price than you meant to take.

Cash-out thinking without a cash-out button

On a bookmaker, cash out is a button that offers to settle your bet early for a set amount. On an exchange you can do the same thing yourself, often at a better figure, by placing a bet on the other side of the one you hold. Back a team and later lay it, or lay a team and later back it. The bets offset each other, and you can size the second one so your result is the same whichever way the match goes.

This workbook won't promise you a cash-out button on any particular Laser 247 market, and you can manage without one. The sum behind it is short.

When the price has moved your way, the result is a profit on both outcomes. When it has moved against you, the result is a smaller loss on both outcomes, which amounts to cutting a bad position early. The worked examples below put figures on both.

You don't have to close evenly. You can lay off part of a back bet to cover your stake and leave some profit riding on the team, or close just enough to trim a heavy liability. These partial hedges are worth practising on a demo ID first, because it's easy to get the sizes wrong under pressure.

The closing bet needs a price that actually matches, and that's where people slip. If you're laying in a fast moment and the ladder moves, your hedge may only partly match, which leaves you half covered. Check the open bets list after every hedge. Mid-over prices are also often the worst time to close, for the reasons in the previous section. A quieter moment, such as the end of an over, usually gives a steadier price.

Thinking this way changes how you place the first bet as well. Before you back, you can decide what price you'd be happy to close at, and what price would make you cut the bet. Writing both down takes seconds and saves a lot of guesswork once play starts.

If hedging starts turning into a way to chase back losses from earlier bets, stop and read the responsible gaming page before you place anything else.

Three worked examples

Each example below uses made-up prices and stakes to show the arithmetic. None of them is a real Laser247 market. Any charge on winnings is left out to keep the sums clean. If a charge applies to the market you're in, the desk confirms the current figure in the chat.

Example one: closing a back bet that went your way

Before the match, you back the chasing side at 3.00 for ₹1,000. Halfway through the chase they're well placed, and the price has shortened to 2.00. You want the same profit whatever happens next.

1. Work out the closing lay stake: ₹1,000 times 3.00, divided by 2.00, gives ₹1,500.
2. Lay the chasing side at 2.00 for ₹1,500. Your liability on this lay is ₹1,500 times 1.00, so ₹1,500.
3. If the chasing side wins, the back bet pays ₹2,000 profit and the lay costs ₹1,500. You're up ₹500.
4. If the chasing side loses, the back bet loses ₹1,000 and the lay wins ₹1,500. You're up ₹500.

Both outcomes return ₹500 profit. You've given up the bigger win you'd have had if the side won without a hedge, and in exchange you've removed the chance of losing the ₹1,000.

Example two: cutting a back bet that went against you

You back a team at 2.00 for ₹1,000. They lose two quick wickets and the price drifts to 2.50. You'd rather take a small known loss than risk the full stake.

1. Closing lay stake: ₹1,000 times 2.00, divided by 2.50, gives ₹800.
2. Lay the team at 2.50 for ₹800. Your liability is ₹800 times 1.50, so ₹1,200.
3. If the team wins, the back bet pays ₹1,000 and the lay costs ₹1,200. You're down ₹200.
4. If the team loses, the back bet loses ₹1,000 and the lay wins ₹800. You're down ₹200.

Either way the loss is ₹200 instead of a possible ₹1,000. Taking it or riding on depends on how you read the match. The sum tells you what each choice costs.

Example three: closing a lay bet with a part match on the way

You lay a team at 4.00 with a backer's stake of ₹500. Your liability is ₹500 times 3.00, so ₹1,500. The team starts badly and its price drifts to 6.00, which is good news for you as the layer.

1. Closing back stake: ₹500 times 4.00, divided by 6.00, gives about ₹333.
2. You place a back bet of ₹333 at 6.00, but only ₹200 is waiting at that price. ₹200 matches and ₹133 waits.
3. The price shortens to 5.50 before the rest matches. You cancel the ₹133 and back it again at 5.50.
4. Check the open bets list: ₹200 matched at 6.00 and ₹133 matched at 5.50.

Now the sums. If the team wins, the lay costs ₹1,500, the ₹200 back pays ₹1,000 profit and the ₹133 back pays about ₹598 profit. That leaves you up roughly ₹98. If the team loses, the lay wins ₹500 and both back stakes are lost, ₹333 in total, leaving you up ₹167. The part match at a worse price made the result uneven, but both outcomes still finish in profit.

Live hedges usually look like this, a little untidy. Noting each matched piece as it happens keeps the totals honest. When you want to put these ideas to work, the Laser 247 ID chapter explains how the desk opens an account, and the is Laser 247 safe chapter covers keeping that account secure. The about page says who writes this workbook.