Placing your Qualifying bets

Now you've done the maths. Its time to place the bets. The bookies are all very different in style so we haven't included an image here, but the principle is the same at each one.

At the bookie make sure the odds format is set to "decimal" and not "fractions" or "american". The option will usually be on the front page or somewhere on whichever market pages you are viewing.

Find the market you're looking for and mark your selection. This will open a betting slip where you will see your selection, the odds and then you choose the amount you want to bet.

Before you confirm your bet, have another browser page open with the same event showing at Betfair or Betdaq. Double check the odds and the amount of liquidity on offer. If everything is ok, return to the bookie page and place your bet. In the above example you will be betting £25 on Sheffield Utd "to win" at odds of 2.4. Always place your back bet at the bookie before you place your lay bet at the exchange.

Next lets look at an example of the betting exchange screen. This one is for Bedaq but the principle is the same at Betfair.

The £0 beneath each of the 3 selections on the left, Peterborough, Sheff Utd and Draw indicate you have not bet on this market yet. The important part here, is the two columns "Back" and "Lay" in the coloured boxes which are  next to each other. Circled you will see that the odds remain on the "Lay" side at 24.1 and in fact the liquidity on offer has actually increased as indicated on the earlier screen shots, from £339 to £387. This is more than enough for our needs as the calculator has told us our lay stake is to be £25.42.

Our selection is Sheffield Utd to win, but we are not going to back bet we are going to lay bet (which means we are betting against Sheffield Utd to win - effectively Sheffield Utd to not win). Press the button 2.41 on the lay side for Sheff Utd and you will get this screen:

Note the confirmation "Lay to Lose"which is the same as saying "to not win". The Stake box circled is where you need to enter the figure that the calulator told us was the lay stake amount - £25.42

When you've done this you'll see that your liability is £35.85 - as predicted by the calculator. All that remains now is to press the submit button, confirm your bet and job done!. Regardless of the outcome your free £25 has just been bought for 85pence.

Got to step 7